The Devonsville Terror (1983) and The Boogeyman (1980)

While these two films are together on one DVD, The Devonsville Terror is the better part of the package. It’s a tale about witches, featuring what Ralphus has called “one of the best stakeburning scenes ever”. It starts 300 years ago with the town of Devonsville in the midst of a witch-hunting frenzy. Three young women are suspected of witchcraft, and each is executed separately.

The first is cast fully-clothed into a mud pit and set upon by ravenous pigs (not wild boars, pigs) who presumably eat her, although the scene is ineptly staged. The second woman is clad in a long nightshirt, bound hands and feet to the top edge of a large wagon wheel so that she is face up and bent back along the arc of the wheel. The wheel is set afire and sent hurtling down a slope in the darkness as the flames engulf the woman and the wheel. Quite a spectacle, one that I have never seen before.

The third execution scene, also at night, is the winner. The accused woman is tied to a large wooden post, wrists behind, rope around her legs, waist, shoulders and mouth (like a gag). She’s clad in a two-piece, ragged remnant of her clothing. There is a bonfire set on the ground in front of her, and the light and shadows highlight her assets nicely. While the charges against her are read, one of the pilgrim-capped executioners cuts open her top. For good measure, he spits in her face. The fire is stoked, the flames engulf the woman, and her burned body topples to the ground. A storm gathers, lightning strikes the scorched naked body, and the woman suddenly vanishes. The spirit of the woman puts a curse on her tormentors. Oops…guess she really was a witch.

Nothing else in the rest of the movie compares with the opening ten minutes. We fast-forward 300 years. Three young women become new residents of Devonsville: Jennifer (Suzanna Love), the new schoolteacher; an environmental scientist; and Monica, a radio talk-show host. The closed-minded, superstitious denizens of Devonsville, particularly the men, suspect the three women are reincarnations of the three accused witches of centuries ago. Jennifer herself has a nightmare in which she is tied to a tree (loosely, I might add), clad in a petticoat, accused of witchcraft, spit upon (she spits back) and has a knife put to her throat. Her dream unfolds in reality, as a group of townspeople decide to round up the three women and put them to death.

The environmentalist is bound hand and foot and bloodthirsty hounds are unleashed upon her, while flashbacks of the pig-munching scene from 300 years ago appear. The radio host is tied to the back of a car and dragged along the ground, to the accompaniment of flashbacks from the wheel torture. These scenes are darkly lit and not so great, GIMP-wise. Finally, Jennifer herself is tied to a stake to be burned, wearing a petticoat as in her dream. I won’t spoil it for you, but this scenario ends up quite differently from its 300-year-old counterpart.

Without the GIMP scenes, this would be a very average horror film. Suzanna Love gives a solid performance here IMO. Some critics have complained that her short, red-dyed shag haircut is unflattering, but I thought she looked okay. Some of the special effects are a bit cheesy. There is a strong feminist undertone and the men come off as narrow-minded buffoons. On the strength of the BATS scene, I give it an overall grade of C+. The BATS scene makes the DVD worth a rental.

Unfortunately, almost everything about The Boogeyman is awful. Acting, script, effects, continuity, direction, plot – just plain bad. Suzanna Love doesn’t help; she’s a big part of the problem, although she was obviously less experienced here. GIMPwise, the main problem is that there is no visible villain. The spirit of a murdered man either possesses inanimate, sharp objects and impales the victims, or the spirit possesses the victims, who then do themselves in with the sharp objects. Case in point is a scene in which a buxom teenager is in the bathroom trimming her hair with some scissors. Her hand suddenly turns the scissors against her, cuts open her top to reveal luscious breasts, and then she stabs herself. Now imagine that same scene if the scissors were in the hands of a burglar or serial killer.

But Suzanna Love delivers GIMPage in a nightmare sequence that saves the movie from being a total disaster. In her dream, she is dragged across the floor with her robe open and clad only in white panties and a bra. We get a glimpse of an unseen villain tying each wrist tightly to two bedposts. A close-up shows her very moist face with her mouth gagged, and a terrific look of dread in her eyes. We also get a very hot full-body camera shot from above. Finally, a long gleaming knife is raised above her by a hand in the darkness. Her eyes widen and she mmmphs in fear just as the knife is thrust downward, and she wakes up screaming. It’s a very effective scene that prevents this movie from being totally unwatchable.

My grade: D+