Director: Eugenie Joseph (Thomas Doran and Brandon Faulkner credited on 'Twisted Souls' footage)
Year: 1986
Country: USA/Netherlands
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Witchcraft; Zombie; Creature Feature
Plot:
Arriving at an abandoned cemetery, a group of friends intending to have a night of fun instead fall prey to a series of attacks by vicious creatures sent by a malevolent wizard who needs human sacrifices in order to keep his bride eternally youthful and must find a way to get away alive.
Review:
This was a fun if somewhat exasperating effort. One of the main positives on display here is the over-the-top nature of how this one wraps so many seemingly disparate ideas into one location. There's so many rather obscure areas on display here that could've sold this one on it's own, yet managing to include ouija boards, werewolves, demonic possession, zombies and human sacrifice in a story about a warlock's quest to give his wife eternal beauty makes this feel genuinely engaging at times with the inability to guess what's going to happen next. That ability also drives the film forward by creating a wildly chaotic tone that offers plenty of good cheesy fun when it's detailing the activities of the warlock trying to trap them for his plans.
That, in turn, gives this one some utterly engaging action scenes throughout here. The sequence with the group playing with the ouija board offers some nice jumps and the fun possession sequence, the chaos that erupts from their trip into the graveyard as they try to escape is a lot of fun as they find themselves trapped inside and the unrelenting series of attacks by the creatures here is somewhat enjoyable. From a roomful of zombies rampaging in a wine-cellar to a horde of diminutive lizard-like creatures attacking survivors to a special lizard-like creature and a spider-woman that transforms into the creature on-screen, there's plenty of bizarre and demented fun with the creatures here as they not only give this one plenty of gore but also provide the chance to showcase incredible practical effects work on these creatures. These here hold it up over it's flaws.
Among the few flaws here is the incredibly disjointed and somewhat chaotic narrative that really doesn't make any sense at all. Granted, that's not really the film's fault at all, but it's still somewhat problematic when this one tends to skip around to it's various subplots or alternate scenes without much explanation. The scenes of the kid wandering around outside dealing with the werewolf or talking with the bully were not necessary at all and could've been completely eliminated, the numerous times we get three-to-four-second insert shots of the wizard reacting and commentating on the groups' own remarks about the situation are not in the slightest bit funny or creepy and the continuing shots of the warlock and his bride are just excruciating to sit through.
The other problem here is the just overall cheapness on display, which not only comes from that series of disjointed plotlines but also the seemingly random actions that occur here. There's an obvious bent here towards the silly, but it's only enhanced by the cheap-jack work due to the inclusion of so many random and disjointed elements. Being forced to make these monsters and different props for so many creatures, including the transformation of the spider-woman from human into a spider creature, the little lizard-like puppets that crawl around on the floor being obviously controlled by strings or the slap-dash zombies causes every one of those to look that ba when it could've streamlined efforts in the story to not make that mistake. These here are what really hold this one back.
Overview: ***/5
Despite being a mess in many ways, when this one works it's rather glorious as to how good it is with all sorts of fun 80s cheese, creatures and zombies on display. Give the film a chance if you're into these kinds of cheap, cheesy 80s-style horror efforts only, while those without any kind of tolerance for these cheesy efforts will not enjoy this one in the slightest.
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