Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

GazerRise Fantastic!

Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

NonSequiturL It would be reasonable to assume "Death Times Five" might attempt to explain why creepy horror movie children feel the need to murder, maim, and generally be little terrors that keep us "adults" second guessing the true intents of kids everywhere. Unfortunately, it never really does - it doesn't explain a lot of anything really - but what it does do is deliver a group of five psychologically disturbed children participating in a range of creative homicides that might please fans of this specific sub-genre, depending on their standards of quality.Like the classic "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" which was made in the same year, "Devil Times Five" revolves around a group of unsuspecting characters falling prey to a bunch of crazy people out in the sticks. Those crazy people just happen to be a little younger and a little less redneck, but the parallels are definitely apparent. Both films are low budget, genuinely disturbing, and managed to push the limit of their subject matter for their time. Where the comparison ends is that TCM was beautifully shot and tightly edited. This film is the complete opposite.Reportedly a troubled production, "Devil Times Five" is incompetent in just about every single way. Huge continuity errors abound, and every single shot seems to be framed just a little too low, leaving bizarre dead space above all the actor's heads. What are we supposed to be focusing on up there? The ceiling? It's not very interesting. That wall is lovely, but pan down, would you? The cinematographer seems to have been in a drug haze - it was the 70s after all. In fact, the original director (who had to be replaced half-way through production) turned in a final cut that only ran for 38 minutes. He is said to have been placed in a rehab or psychiatric facility shortly after. All hearsay, but the film is definitely the product of a damaged brain.The cast is strange mix to say the least. Boss Hogg from "The Dukes of Hazzard" makes an appearance, along with Shelley Morrison who went on to star in "Will and Grace". Future teen heartthrob Leif Garret plays one of the children, his hair giving one of the film's best performances, metamorphosing wildly from scene to scene as a result of re-shoots due to the departure of the film's director. His real life mother and sister round out the cast. It's a real family affair.Fans of 70's horror will find a few things to enjoy here. Beyond the distinct atmosphere of the era, there's a bizarre psychedelic murder scene (that goes on for a little too long) where the children take turns beating a man to death. There's a random cat fight that obviously results in exposed breasts. There's a psychotic albino who dresses like a nun. Also, there's death by piranha. But even with that, it's impossible to recommend the film to anyone but enthusiasts. It's just too sloppy and strange for anyone but the most hardened horror buffs to enjoy.

acidburn-10 I've always enjoyed killer kids movies through the years such as (Children Of The Corn, The Bad Seed, Blood Birthday and even The Children), and when I came across this I was even more intrigued, especially given it's back story of how the original director was fired and that only 40 minutes of his footage was deemed useable, and a new director was hired to finish the film a few weeks later and gathering (almost) all of the cast members back for re-shoots.But despite all that this was movie was actually pretty decent, the only really noticeable difference was the bus driver being played by 3 different actors, which did get rather confusing at first, but honestly this didn't affect my enjoyment of this what so ever.The movie starts off rather interestingly where a bus crashes and five kids makes it out alive, then we learn that they were on their way to a mental hospital. Then we meet the six adult characters who are all staying at a secluded ski lodge for the weekend, when eventually the children turn up to wreck havoc on their lives. The pacing may be a little slow at first, but that didn't make things boring as we are introduced to each of the main cast, but sadly I would have liked a back story on the kids themselves, on what they did to end up in an asylum and maybe why they did what they did, nothing is explained, just instead they plan their attack on the adults with various traps, which is quite refreshing than the usual stalk and slash method.Some things worked in this and some things didn't, while the cast did quite well with their parts, other aspects just didn't quite work, for starters to infamous 4 minute death scene where the children murder the bus driver in slow motion, was just tedious and lacked any sort of tension, for starters you couldn't see what was going on and plus there was absolutely no blood. Another thing that doesn't work is the realism of the situation, like when the kids arrive when didn't adults just drive them into town straight away instead of waiting till the next day when by that time they tampered with the cars, and also when the first couple of murders happen, when one of the kids was asked about it, the kid mentions somebody called George, I mean who is that and why wasn't it fetched up again.But what I did like about this movie is that it was very fun and sleazy, the camp catfight between the two girls was fun and most of the death scenes were quite creative like the piranhas in the bath tub, the giant swing from the ceiling, spear thrown through window and hitting someone in the neck, also the final kill was quite tense. I also liked the fact that these kids didn't do what psycho kids do normally like when they act like adults in other films, here they act like kids which does add a nice touch to this movie.The cast like I said were very good, special nod goes to the kids who clearly stole the show Leif Garrett was good as the cross dressing youngster, while Tierre Turner who played the army black kid was fun and the nun played by Gail Smale was very creepy. The adults were also a load of fun Gene Evans as Papa Doc played the grumpy old man who hated everything was realistically played. Taylor Lacher was okay as the hero type, but did make some stupid decisions and that moustache just should have been shaved off. Shelly Morrison was a load of fun as the drunk and was just all over the place. Sorrell Booke was also likable as the put upon Harvey and I just cheered when he finally stood up for himself. Carolyn Stellar as Lovely was funny as hell and Joan McCall was okay as the nice girl Julie.All in all "Devil Times Five" is a pretty good movie, and may not be perfect and does flaws, but it's still a load of fun and definitely worth watching.

Bezenby This is one of them seventies horror films your grandfather would tell you about while settling you down to sleep when you were a toddler. Five crazy kids escape from a mental institution and play the scared kid card at the house of Papa Doc, who is currently playing host to all sorts of unlikeable adults, so, basically, you can tell where this is heading. What got me about the Devil Times Five is the way that the first hour passes almost lightheartedly, before heading for Grimsville. When the kids start wasting the cast, a kind of darkness settles on the film and never let's up. I don't know if it's just the playful way the kids massacre people (hence the title: Peopletoys), but I was left with a bizarre bad taste in my mouth after watching this. I guess that's the whole point though. You don't really get that from watching modern splatterfests. This is seventies horror in a nutshell, this film.Plus, for UK viewers, check the name of one of the producers of this film (the IMDb won't let me use his second name here). I bet he's glad he didn't go to school in Glasgow!

tomgillespie2002 In the 1970's, Conservative America was afraid of the young. The counter culture, the civil rights/anti-Vietnam protesters, all added to this underlying fear, perpetuated like the communist '"threat" in the 1950's. "kids" weren't towing the line. They were "sticking it to the man". Or in the infamous case of the Charles Manson lead "family", they were killing the rich - "The Man", so to speak. They were also giving it a little closer to home, and this of course meant the family. In the cinema this was reflected in the horror genre. From the time in 1968, - when the little girl kills her parents with a trowel and eats them in George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead, and Mia Farrow quite literally gives birth to the Devil in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby - the movies began to depict children and adolescents as quite evil, untrustworthy 'elephant's in the room'. In the '70's, this trend was reflected in two large budget, Hollywood 'blockbusters', William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973), and Richard Donner's fun but flawed The Omen (1976). Sat somewhere between these two studio efforts is Sean MacGregor's Devil Times Five (also known as Peopletoys).A group consisting of work colleagues and family, headed by self-evident pack-patriarch, Papa Doc (Gene Evans), have congregated in an isolated house. The snow is falling heavy and thick. A group of kids escape a van that has crashed in the wilderness, that was transporting them from a state mental facility. The kids make their way through the forests until they come across the vacation home. They infiltrate with the image of innocence, but one by one, the occupants are murdered. After trapping one victim in animal 'Conibear' traps, the kids skip around him, mocking his death, with the xylophonic music of 'Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush' on the soundtrack.The film is no missing gem. It is however, quite a well-made movie. The 'devil' kids are not too bad. The nature of the adults in the film, - arrogant, pessimistic, and odious - only make you happy that these calculated (and clearly more hauntingly intelligent) kids will kill the lot of them. Whether this was intentional is not clear. I never really enjoyed the company of the adults. The kids are playful, spiteful, and a little fun. And they act better. It's no masterpiece, but it has charm, and is more sophisticated than many of the same sub-genre of exploitation films of the time. It does have a slightly chilling end, (not exceptionally so, but on thought, it could be perpetually cyclical) the kids stand round all the dead adults sitting round tables, and on sofas, they complain of the loss; the game is over; but they are comforted by their leader, Sister Hannah (dressed as a nun), when she advises that they will soon have some new 'toys' to play with.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com