NekoHomey
Purely Joyful Movie!
Kien Navarro
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
Blake Rivera
If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.
Quiet Muffin
This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
classicsoncall
Yes, Lon Chaney does look old and worn out in this picture, but he's one of my all time favorites so I'm willing to cut him some slack. I've almost completed watching all the stories in my Twilight Zone Definitive Edition, and it struck me that the ones presented here could all have been reworked as part of the Serling legacy. They have just the right amount of irony with classic twist endings to justify consideration as TZ appropriate stories. My favorite was probably the ice block girl and the professor - come on, you just knew she was going to open her eyes at some point, didn't you? But gee, since when does an iceberg melt from the inside out? Good concept, but it just doesn't hold water.Nor does the idea that the picture of the house in the first episode was the World Magazine guy's favorite, one of the best he's ever seen! What??!! IT WAS A PICTURE OF A HOUSE!!! I'm no expert, but I bet I've seen a dozen pictures today that looked better, and I'm not even trying hard.OK, since I'm at it, I might as well mention the final story, probably the most Twilight Zonish if you will. Guy sees a fortune teller and her crystal ball and becomes convinced he's doomed. He would have been a lot better off if he hadn't stabbed the gypsy. Things like that never end well.Well you don't expect much from these bargain bin flicks, but I have to say, this was better than what I was expecting. Chaney as Satan was the bonus no doubt, looking for a way to annex Earth for his domain to make room for more souls. On that note I'll finish up, I think it's starting to get hot in here.
MartinHafer
This feature film is taken from three episodes of a Swedish TV series "13 Demon Street". Oddly, the show was made in the US in English and was then subtitled for Sweden! An odd pedigree, to say the least! While I have never seen the actual show (there's not a whole lot of Swedish television being shown here at the present time), it appears to have been a rather low-budget horror series. Whether or not it was all connected together by a demon (played by Lon Chaney, Jr.) in the show or just this movie is anyone's guess.The show begins with Chaney on his throne in Hell--enjoying his job immensely! He summons a young suicide victim and gives her some assignments back on Earth. These assignments are the three segments taken from three separate TV episodes.The first involves a sex pervert photographer. At first, he just seems really creepy but later when he commits a meaningless murder, you realize what sort of sick, twisted freak he really is. The woman, then, is the means of passing judgment on the guy--making him see visions in one of his photographs that literally ends up scaring him to death. Afterwords, the woman regrets her involvement in this, but considering how sick the man was, the viewer is left celebrating the death--and thinking perhaps this demon isn't such a bad fellow after all! Next is a tale about the discovery of a prehistoric woman who is discovered frozen in ice. Naturally, this woman is the agent sent by old Mr. Diabolical himself and it is imbued with strange powers. Despite being in suspended animation, when men see her naked and encased in ice, there is a strange reaction within them--they are transfixed by her beauty and must possess her. As one of the workers talks to her and imagines a weird past-life relationship with her, you realize just how strange this particular segment is! And, by the end, the guy is a raving nut! The third segment has this female agent of evil bringing a crystal ball to a fortune teller. It begins with a guy talking to a psychiatrist about some recurring dreams. The doctor gives a rather tenuous interpretation that the guy is dying to know the future--though the guy says he has no desire at all to know! But, following the doctor's advice, he seeks out a fortune teller. Looking into this evil crystal, she tells him he's about to die! And, it seems, she is fated to kill him! She says she has nothing against him and has no desire to kill him, but it WILL happen because the crystal ball says it must!Despite the high 'cheese-factor' and low budget, I did enjoy the film. One reason in particular was due to Chaney. While he certainly was no thespian, here he is quite enjoyable because he gets into the part--laughing and playing it up quite a bit. He was very entertaining and it's among his better work. Plus, the stories were pretty good--and quite different from the stuff you'd see on "The Twilight Zone" or "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". I'd sure like to be able to see the rest of the series to find out if they're all as good as these selected episodes.
kai ringler
I don't know why some people just don't like this film, i thought Lon Chaney Jr. was great in it; as the Devil, he sends a woman, Satanya to Earth to deliver objects to people he wants to see in hell, This movie was very creepy and entertaining, as well as engrossing. some people say they didn't like Chaney's face all bloated, so what, the acting was good, and he was very conniving as the Devil, I really didn't find too much wrong with the film except a couple of noticeable scenery that was obviously fake, but hey if that's all that's wrong with it then i have no problem with it. as far as taking the 3 installments from 13 demon st. i couldn't really tell. if they did it , then it was done very seamlessly. the movie reminds me of the old TV shows. Alfred Hitcock Presents. and Rod Sterling's .. The Twilight Zone.
sol1218
****SPOILERS**** The dynamic Mister "D", Lon Cheney Jr. is having serious problems in his underground domain with the population increasing and his real estate holding staying the same a major housing shortage has developed. Mr "D" could have come to the point right away in the movie about how to alleviate this nuisance but for the sake of the movie audience he padded the film with three episodes that really have nothing to do with his attempt to increase his land holdings. Getting a new tenant to his apartment complex, Satanya, who killed herself after her lover left her Mr. "D" gives her a chance to redeem herself by going upstairs and getting people to do things that would land them as new tenants down here with Mister "D". The first story is about a sex-crazed photographer, Don, who's burning out from chasing the ladies. Don is advised by his friend Charlie to take a trip up north to New England to cool off his inflamed libido. Taking pictures Don noticed a women coming out of a house that he photographed and as if he were possessed he runs after her in the snow and ends up attacking and killing her. Back home one of the photos that he took of the house where the women came from begins to take on a life of it's own. The woman appearing in it seems to takes up all the space in the picture. Slowly going insane Don starts drinking and when he sees his friend Charlie at a local bar he goes nuts and belts Charlie when he tries to help him by having him get medical attention. Running back to his home he tears up the photo of the woman but she becomes alive and appears in the flesh which gives Don a heart attack and kills him. The next story has to do with the discovery of a 50,000 year old block of ice with a woman in it. Dr. Sistrum who's examining it becomes obsessed with the Ice Queen and convinces himself that he and she were lovers from another time. Dr. Sistrum wants to continue that affair after he thaws her out. The doc is then overruled by Professor Olsen who's in charge of the ice cube and tells Dr. Sistrum that he's going to dissect the frozen mummy to see what made her tick. Prof. Olsen catching Dr. Sistrum in the ice box with the frozen cadaver one night tells Dr. Sistrum to get out of there. Sistrum enraged attacks Olsen and after knocking him out freezes him to death by pouring water on him and then hiding his body. Now free to do what he wants Dr. Sistrum turns on the heat to free his long lost lover from her icy internment but what happens is that she drowns from the melting ice and turns to snow! The third and last story has to do with Satanya's boyfriend who drove her to suicide, John, who's having nightmares about him going into a house and everything goes blank. Seeing the house that he saw in his nightmare one night John goes in and finds that it belongs to a Madame Germaine a local fortune teller.Having his future told to him John finds out that he'll die at midnight and it would be Madame Germaine who kills him. John at first laughing it off begins to realize that what Madame Germaine told him about himself is coming true. She predicted that he'll go on a trip to Egypt and later he wins a free ticket to go there and that he'll meet a man with a deep scar just before he dies Later John sees a man with a scar on his hand, banging on the phone booth, as he's trying to get help by calling his doctor as well as the police to prevent him being murdered. With nobody coming to his aid John then goes back to see Madame Germaine and plans to kill her before she kills him. After stabbing Madame Germaine and then pushing her down a railing John goes to see if she's alive but as he looks up he sees a statue of Madame Germaine, that was loosen when the railing broke, fall on him and crushes him to death. When the police find John's body they find that only he was killed and there was no Madame Germaine and the house that he was killed in was empty and condemned. All three people in these episodes ended up downstairs with a little help from Satanya by planting items for them to help them get there, Mister "D"'s housing complex, somewhat faster. Back to the pit of fire John and Satanya together again are told by Mr. "D" that he has something for them to bring to the surface and give to the world powers to play with: The formula to build a 500 megaton nuclear bomb! With that we see the world explode in a mushroom cloud and with it getting as hot up there as it's down here with Mr. "D". With that Mr. "D" gets to control both upstairs and downstairs of the earth and his pressing housing problems are finally over. Those three interesting but totally unrelated stories were in all probability put into the movie to make "Devil's Messenger" a full-length motion picture. Without them the film would have been about as long as a Pespi commercial.