Demon Rage

I saw this at a drive-in (shock!), but it was called "Fury of the Succubus". Its only real redeeming value, to me, is nostalgic: it's among the last of the drive-in second features ever put into wide release. From the late 40s, until they were effectively replaced by the direct to video market in the early 80s, countless of these gems at once horrified and amused the teenage clientèle after the families had pulled out of the lot to get the kiddies to bed. This was also the perfect example of the movies you stayed to NOT watch when you were there on a date. If not for "films" like this, a lot of us guys would have graduated high school as virgins!

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Dark Eyes; before launching into my critique, here's a breakdown of my ratings:

Story - 0.75 Direction - 0.75 Pace - 0.50 Acting - 1.00 Enjoyment - 0.75

TOTAL - 3.75 out of 10

Oh dear me, this film doesn't have a lot going for it so I'll try to keep it short - if not sweet.

Evidently, being lonely and depressed opens you up to occult experiences. That means at least half the world's population must have had a demonic visitation. Mine must be way overdue, and if dear ol' Luci's reading this, please make mine blonde and shapely, cheers you ol' devil you.

The story is the first problem with the film. It starts as your run-of-the-mill sexual haunting, which The Entity accomplished much better. Though, by the end, it's transformed into a twisted love story. Unfortunately, the writers didn't have the skill to complete the conversion believably or smoothly. In all honesty, the story is as jagged as a werewolf's fangs. Every element from the dysfunctional family and their separate emotions to their over-sharing friends to the demonic love needed better explanation and structure. Due to it being a mess, it becomes implausible, which makes it tedious.

Regrettably, the direction is as sloppy. The director opts for a point and shoot approach with a single meandering tempo. So added to the tedium of the tale comes the lethargy of the filmmaking. The special effects are not special enough - only the decapitation is notable, and it's not that great either. Though, the worst is the double exposure. I'm still not sure what the globular shape represented - but what is important is that I didn't and still don't care.

I felt sorry for Britt Ekland and Don Galloway: Their talent is wasted in the film. At least Galloway gave his all, and I hope he had fun doing it - he is, by and far, the best of the bunch. Ekland's name was top of the bill to get the bums on seats. I think she realised this because her performance wasn't the best. As for the leads, well, they were so wooden the writers should have changed the family name to the Redwoods.

If you've not guessed it yet, I do not recommend Dark Eyes, or any other names it hides under, for your viewing pleasure. I don't know you, and I'm not giving you a reason to hunt me down, so steer well clear of this piccy.

Please feel free to visit my Absolute Horror list to see where I ranked Dark Eyes, or better yet, to find something more enjoyable to watch.

Take Care & Stay Well.

It's funny how they just gloss over how verbally abusive and aggressive the main character's husband is, as though his abusiveness and neglect aren't what's negatively affecting the relationship. This is a couple that I don't want things to work out for because it's established early on that he "gets" that way whenever he's focused on his work, meaning he'll keep ignoring her, getting angry when she gently tries to get his attention, and calling her curse words. THEN he gets angry when she rightfully separates herself and wants to focus on painting, slamming what she's working on to the floor. He also rejects her sexual advances, but when he comes home and hears her in the throes of passion "alone," he gets jealous. Like, wow, he can be neglectful, abusive, but she'd better not dare respond to it, even passively. He's AWFUL! But the movie treats it like SHE'S the problem! I just kept thinking it's not good for her daughter to grow up seeing that her mother endured that treatment as normal because it often does affect a child's adult choices.

Also, they start the story out already in the house, focusing on the nonsensical family drama and just making vague references to the house being evil or whatever. It's an awful setup. I think they were more focused on getting the wife's kit off and having her in bed, fake moaning with a distressed look on her face. The other characters are used weirdly, with the husband of the main character's best friend coming across as a creep, as he keeps making lustful comments about the main character and burying the attractiveness of his own pretty wife right to her face. The daughter is used in what should be a significant way, but the execution is so poor that she still comes across as a loose end.

Conclusion: Poorly written and paced, bland, unlikable characters, plays like a TV movie with nudity; 1 star.

S/N: Also, the misogynistic comments about her breasts in these reviews are far worse than the movie!

A lonely and neglected housewife (Lana Wood) living in a deserted house on the beach takes a lover. Unfortunately, that lover turns out to be Satan! Her husband and teenage daughter are naturally upset by this turn of events and enlist a family friend (Britt Ekland) who is a spiritual medium and the latter's obnoxious husband to help them out, with disastrous results for everyone involved.

This movie kind of resembles both the mainstream film "The Entity" and the X-rated classic "Through the Looking Glass", but it is not as good as either. It is surprisingly low-budget and obscure movie considering that it features two former Bond girls--Lana "Plenty O'Toole" Wood and Britt "Holly Goodnight" Ekland. (okay, not two of the most talented former Bond girls, but still--). A cadaverous John Carradine also makes an appearance (but then he showed up pretty much every time he sensed the distant whir of a film camera). Ekland, very uncharacteristically, keeps her clothes on for the whole movie, but the busty Woods more than makes up for this as she repeatedly scromps naked with the horny demon, moaning ecstatically. The film is not bad, at least before the completely confounding ending, but there are few too many supposedly meaningful shots of the waves crashing onto the beach.

Not a good film perhaps, but not deserving of its current obscurity either.

Plenty O'Toole... I mean Lana Wood, younger, bustier sister of the late Natalie Wood, plays a woman in an unhappy marriage who starts having a perverse love affair with a tall, dark, handsome stranger who happens to be a minion of hell. Well, at first the Hell-bound minion rapes her, but she later decides she likes it and they start getting it on regularly. After that, some occasionally stylish touches show up in this low budget sexploitation horror film.

Film is really nothing more than excuse to show Lana's breasts (probably to distract from the sight of her horribly big hair).

What's really disturbing is that this might have actually been based on a true story.

Another Bond girl, Britt Eckland, also appears.