How such an interesting premise for a movie could have gotten so poorly executed is the most compelling thing about "The Devil's Rock". Supposedly, Hitler was looking into the occult for ways and means of winning WW2. This is fascinating. TDR is not. It's a snooze fest that reminded me of a bad episode of the long-gone TV series "Night Gallery".
Good things first: For a low budget film TDR is well-filmed. It looks good. The atmosphere is suitably gloomy. The premise that two saboteurs have been sent to a remote Nazi outpost in order to distract the Germany army from the Normandy invasion is clearly spelled out. The bunker in which the majority of the movie occurs is also suitably gloomy and owes a lot of its Bauhausian dread to the first appearance of the castle of the Wicked Witch in 1939's "Wizard of Oz". Once inside the bunker, the labyrinth of tunnels is also suitably gloomy. That's the end of the good things.
Bad things last: Why did the soldiers not follow orders on such an important mission? On nothing more than a whim, the Captain decides to go into the looming structure in case whoever's screaming inside might be "one of ours". This, after a puking Nazi soldier comes out of the bunker only to have our brave Captain stick a knife in his neck. This terrible decision to enter costs his friend's life. The Captain is overtaken by a mumbling Nazi who gets the best of him. Their initial encounter drags on for nearly half the movie as they take turns getting the jump on one another. Something is screaming it's head off upstairs. The Captain finds out that the Nazi has a demon chained to a wall. Uncle Hitler has used a grimoire to call up what might be a weapon.
The demon is a sort of succubus, using sex to lure the Captain into thinking it's his dead wife. This makes no sense since the soldier has already had a long exposition explaining the death of his Mrs. to the marble-mouthed Nazi who's been feeding guts to the creature. Speaking of guts, how did the demon who's chained to a wall tear apart all the other Nazis who are in different parts of the bunker? Was she/it loose at one point? How did she get chained up again instead of blowing the Third Reich popstand? This is successfully ignored by the writer/director. Anyway, an attempt is made to send Tim Curry's daughter back to hell. She/it looks like a female version of Darkness from Ridley Scott's "Legend".
Mushmouth Fritz gets dead, the Captain capitulates and lets Little Miss Darkness go and the Allies win D-Day.
An hour and a half of three talking heads, some exposed breasts, and many prop corpses, one of which has a machine gun shoved down his throat. TDR produces snores instead of the scares you hoped you'd get. If you want really scary female Nazi thrills, get "Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS" (1975). Although some thought was put into this flick, it still requires too many lapses in logic. Pass this Rock by, there's nothing to see here.
Good things first: For a low budget film TDR is well-filmed. It looks good. The atmosphere is suitably gloomy. The premise that two saboteurs have been sent to a remote Nazi outpost in order to distract the Germany army from the Normandy invasion is clearly spelled out. The bunker in which the majority of the movie occurs is also suitably gloomy and owes a lot of its Bauhausian dread to the first appearance of the castle of the Wicked Witch in 1939's "Wizard of Oz". Once inside the bunker, the labyrinth of tunnels is also suitably gloomy. That's the end of the good things.
Bad things last: Why did the soldiers not follow orders on such an important mission? On nothing more than a whim, the Captain decides to go into the looming structure in case whoever's screaming inside might be "one of ours". This, after a puking Nazi soldier comes out of the bunker only to have our brave Captain stick a knife in his neck. This terrible decision to enter costs his friend's life. The Captain is overtaken by a mumbling Nazi who gets the best of him. Their initial encounter drags on for nearly half the movie as they take turns getting the jump on one another. Something is screaming it's head off upstairs. The Captain finds out that the Nazi has a demon chained to a wall. Uncle Hitler has used a grimoire to call up what might be a weapon.
The demon is a sort of succubus, using sex to lure the Captain into thinking it's his dead wife. This makes no sense since the soldier has already had a long exposition explaining the death of his Mrs. to the marble-mouthed Nazi who's been feeding guts to the creature. Speaking of guts, how did the demon who's chained to a wall tear apart all the other Nazis who are in different parts of the bunker? Was she/it loose at one point? How did she get chained up again instead of blowing the Third Reich popstand? This is successfully ignored by the writer/director. Anyway, an attempt is made to send Tim Curry's daughter back to hell. She/it looks like a female version of Darkness from Ridley Scott's "Legend".
Mushmouth Fritz gets dead, the Captain capitulates and lets Little Miss Darkness go and the Allies win D-Day.
An hour and a half of three talking heads, some exposed breasts, and many prop corpses, one of which has a machine gun shoved down his throat. TDR produces snores instead of the scares you hoped you'd get. If you want really scary female Nazi thrills, get "Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS" (1975). Although some thought was put into this flick, it still requires too many lapses in logic. Pass this Rock by, there's nothing to see here.