"The Doctor and the Devils" is a slow and very underwhelming horror drama.
**SPOILERS**
Needing corpses for his anatomy class, teacher Dr. Thomas Rock, (Timothy Dalton) asks grave-robbers Robert Fallon, (Jonathan Pryce) and Timothy Broom, (Stephen Rea) to supply him with fresh corpses for his class. Complaining about the lack of bodies for him to teach with, his demands for fresher bodies gives Fallon and Broom a license to commit murder, and sell the bodies back to Dr. Rock as simply dead bodies. As the bodies in the class pile up and the controversy over the validity of his experiments continue, Dr. Rock is forced to make a drastic choice regarding the subjects of his class.
The Good News: There are several things in here that are quite nice. This could have been a film of the old Hammer school. The presentation of Edinburgh as a grim and grimily realistic Victorian ghetto. The time frame of the film is expertly captured, with the right Gothic feel in the streets, the general feel from the surroundings, and the overall mood fit right in with the old films of before.
The Bad News: There are several noticeable things off about this one. The pace of the film is the biggest culprit, going off at times on useless tangents. There are so many scenes in here that are inserted for no reason make the film so slow and padded out that it's mostly a bore to sit through. There's no reason why the film needed to include so many scenes with the two men parting as much as it does. They drag the film out very much and doesn't serve much purpose. They don't make is emphasize with them since they're so tedious. The forced romance between one of the robbers and a potential victim is the main one, wildly out of place and sticking out quite obviously. At one point the action stops altogether to allow a character to sing a song and it really slows it down even more. The fact that nothing happens at all isn't much either, and the film plays like a very boring and drawn out film. That hampers the film incredibly.
The Final Verdict: A very slow and boring film with only a couple nice ideas and a few moments of watch-ability to make it worthwhile. If fans of the Hammer films could stay awake, this would be right up their alley, but only those who like these slower build-ups to horror films would enjoy this one. All others are advised to seek caution with this one.
Rated R: Violence, Brief Nudity, several clothed sex scenes and brief aftermath of dead animals
**SPOILERS**
Needing corpses for his anatomy class, teacher Dr. Thomas Rock, (Timothy Dalton) asks grave-robbers Robert Fallon, (Jonathan Pryce) and Timothy Broom, (Stephen Rea) to supply him with fresh corpses for his class. Complaining about the lack of bodies for him to teach with, his demands for fresher bodies gives Fallon and Broom a license to commit murder, and sell the bodies back to Dr. Rock as simply dead bodies. As the bodies in the class pile up and the controversy over the validity of his experiments continue, Dr. Rock is forced to make a drastic choice regarding the subjects of his class.
The Good News: There are several things in here that are quite nice. This could have been a film of the old Hammer school. The presentation of Edinburgh as a grim and grimily realistic Victorian ghetto. The time frame of the film is expertly captured, with the right Gothic feel in the streets, the general feel from the surroundings, and the overall mood fit right in with the old films of before.
The Bad News: There are several noticeable things off about this one. The pace of the film is the biggest culprit, going off at times on useless tangents. There are so many scenes in here that are inserted for no reason make the film so slow and padded out that it's mostly a bore to sit through. There's no reason why the film needed to include so many scenes with the two men parting as much as it does. They drag the film out very much and doesn't serve much purpose. They don't make is emphasize with them since they're so tedious. The forced romance between one of the robbers and a potential victim is the main one, wildly out of place and sticking out quite obviously. At one point the action stops altogether to allow a character to sing a song and it really slows it down even more. The fact that nothing happens at all isn't much either, and the film plays like a very boring and drawn out film. That hampers the film incredibly.
The Final Verdict: A very slow and boring film with only a couple nice ideas and a few moments of watch-ability to make it worthwhile. If fans of the Hammer films could stay awake, this would be right up their alley, but only those who like these slower build-ups to horror films would enjoy this one. All others are advised to seek caution with this one.
Rated R: Violence, Brief Nudity, several clothed sex scenes and brief aftermath of dead animals