Reviewed By-Steve Genier
Directed By-Ulli Lommel
Cast-Suzanna Love, Robert Waker Jr., Donald Pleasence, Paul Wilson, Mary Warden and Deanna Hass.
Source-Anchor Bay "Double Feature" with THE BOOGEYMAN NTSC region 1.
Runtime-82mins

Welcome to the quaint little town of Devonsville, somewhere situated in the site of New England. Already you get a sense of history when you hear that, all the witch hunts, trials etc. In this Ulli Lommel directed film, we are first taken to Devonsville 300 years ago. When three young girls are sought out and damned for what they think the towns people believe were witches. One by one they are killed in the name of the church. One catch though, the last girl to be tortured is zapped to the heavens, but not without leaving a curse on those who judged the three women. Now the most logically way to take this story is to cut to the future, 300 years to be exact. Although now presented in present day, we must remember there are those who just can't let go of the past and all those traditional values. When three new residents show up to Devonville, three young women I might add. Strange, but we know where this story is going to go, right!

A radio dj, an environmentalist and a school teacher (Suzanna Love) all begin to plant their roots. Again, like many people in small towns who are used to the daily routines, change just does go over to well. In this case, things are taken a little too far! The three young women like those before them, are treated unfairly and are look upon as witches spreading evil. One man welcomes this, our fair local doctor Warley (Donald Pleasence) who is a direct descendant of the man who lead the hunts 300 years ago. Cursed like his fore-fathers with a strange decease where maggots eat away at his body from within. Dr. Warley sees this opportunity to seek redemption from the curse. As the townspeople grow ever so weary of the three girls, they decide to take matters into their own hands and begin the hunt. Led by Aaron Pendleton (Bill Dexter) who pretty much in every scene is telling his wife to "Shut-up", gather their resources and capture and torture the three women. Only this time fate deals a different blow, one that should have happened 300 years ago.

Very slow like pace to this film often has you losing interest and making it very hard to regain. Although most of the acting isn't all that bad, it takes to long for things to get going, which really does ever happen. It's a shame to recruit a great legend like Donald Pleasence and only use him sparingly. Suzanna Love is of course a thing of beauty, much like in her previous role in another Lommel film THE BOOGEYMAN, she is very seductive in a innocent manner. She also gets credit for co-scripting THE DEVONSVILLE TERROR, hey I can see why being a heiress and producing much of her now ex-husband's films. Much of the supporting cast is average, as you really do not develop feeling for them in anyway shape or form. One character in particular, Walter Gibbs (Paul Wilson) and his whole situation with his wife and killing her. There was no explanation as to why she seemed sick, to tell you the truth no of the central characters were ever really explained, they just seemed to be there.

I viewed the Anchor Bay "DOUBLE FEATURE" dvd which also has another Ulli Lommel film THE BOOGEYMAN on it. The dvd itself is pretty much barebones, only supplying a trailer as the only extra for this particular film. The film is presented in the wide screen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is only single layered. The audio is in English Digital Dolby 1.0. This was later released on it's own by Anchor Bay in 2000.