Weirdhouse Cinema: The Devil’s Men

Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb.

And this is Joe McCormick. And today's movie on Weird House is the nineteen seventy six Greek or greek Ish horror film The Devil's Men, also known as Land of the Minotaur. And I'm going to say right at the top, this is definitely not one of the best or most riveting films we have watched for Weird House Cinema, though I think it will still make for a fun episode. I almost feel like we were kind of tricked into it because there are a lot of names here that

I think that was the kicker, that was the what really drew us in. We're like, oh, oh, Brian Eno scored this film. Well, of course we want to take a closer look as we'll discuss it's I mean, this is exceedingly noteworthy, and ultimately I think this is the factor that makes this such an interesting hidden gym there are a few other production notes that I think make it stand out. Again, you mentioned it is a Greek

The score is really good. I feel like it is deserving of a much better movie. It's a modest score, Like, there's not a whole lot of it in the film. There are like I think maybe like two or three main musical motifs that are used multiple times throughout the movie, but they're good and they're deserving of a more thought full set of images to accompany the sounds.

Yeah, my only critique on the score is that I wish there was more of it, because there are plenty of scenes where there's no Brian eno. And then also I wish it was louder because it is it's so subtle that it also actually, at least in my viewing, and who knows, you know, stereo settings and so forth. I felt like the score wasn't loud enough. The score could have been a little louder.

I agree, and that a lot of the scenes with music were just using the same music over and over. But did you notice the script had a similar quality. There's a very copy paste quality to Land of the Minotaur, where characters would have whole scenes where they were only saying lines that they had already said in earlier scenes.

Yeah, this is not a film where anybody gets any good lines. Nobody, whether you're the star top Build, Donald Pleasants, whether you're the evil cult leader Peter Cushing, even if you're one of the various other smaller players in the picture, you don't really to get any cool lines. Nobody has anything really cool to say in this movie. Most people don't really have anything cool to do in this movie.

Rob, I'm gonna have to disagree with you about the lines, because you were forgetting the part where the character Milo says where the devil did the whole village get to? And Donald Pleasant answers him You've answered your own question to the devil.

Yeah, I guess we should hit on. An important fact concerning this movie at this point is that it is essentially a Satanic cult movie of the nineteen seventies, except instead of it being outright Satan, there's like some slap dash minotaur cult stuff added in instead. But they don't even really commit to that, Like they don't even go all in on some sort of like ancient religion or mythology of crete or some sort of imagined minotar religion.

It's all all the same stuff, same thing. There's a whole speech about it. Is like the Force with a thousand faces and no face at all. It's been around since before humankind. Some have called it Mephistopheles, the Devil, the Mino Taar. It's all the same.

Yeah. So just one of the many ways in which this film, you know, is competent and has a lot of talented people in it and people doing a very professional job, but it doesn't go for it in any of the ways that you might expect one of these other films to do, both in a positive way in a negative way, Like it doesn't even really go for any of the really exploitive stuff you might expect. I mean, the worst we get is like maybe a little bit

No, there are scenes where characters just stand around and take phone calls naked for no reason.

Yes, yeah, and they are very naked in those scenes, and I guess the actors involved can be commended for that. But that's about the extent now.

I think, as is often the case with lackluster films, a lot of the blame here goes to the script. It's just like, not the most engaging story of all time. But on the other side, like what is working pretty well here? It does have a pretty good cast, though most of them are not giving I think, the best performances of their careers. It does have that nice Brian Nino score, and we'll talk more about that as we

Yes, solid cave locations, some very gorgeous scenes of the Greek countryside. And also I thought they have a pretty nice like cult layer set that they built some sort of like, you know, sort of gothic dungeon cult kind of a set that that's pretty good.

Now, may we compare and contrast with the other cult of Human sacrifice movies that we featured on the show, And I guess in order to do that we need to remember what all of those are. There is, of course, The Devil Rides Out from nineteen sixty eight. That is the one that is based on the novel by Dennis Wheatly.

Is that his name correct? Yeah? And I think one of the things about The Devil Rides Out, because it's based on that Wheatly novel, is that it aspires to a sort of and we discussed this in that in Our Weird House on this it aspires to a sort of almost documentary feel like Wheatley and or this movie is trying to warn you about the real threat of the cult, and this movie is just making it all up.

I mean, they're both, yes, But in The Devil Rides Out there, I don't know, there are more interesting dynamics about good and evil and all that in this one. It's just kind of like the moral of the story is that, well, there is a devil, and the devil's real and you got to defeat him.

Oh yeah, there are all sorts of interesting rules that are employed in the Devil rides out, like magic has has rules and laws to it, and there are all these different examples that were that weakly clearly took out of like old witchcraft, grimours and so forth. And again you just don't have that in this movie.

Oh there's another interesting thing, and the Devil rides out about how some people have the power, have the fortitude to explore the occult without being seduced and destroyed by it, and others don't. If they start learning about the occult, it's just going to suck him in and they will be overpowered. Like Christopher Lee, he can read all the occult tons, but simon, you better not read them.

Yes, well, there is one classification of human that is safe in this movie, as we find out, it is of course the children.

So the children here can read the occult tomes unharmed. But if you're Peter Cushing and you read them, you will not only end up leading a minotar cult, you will literally explode at the end of the film. That brings me to the second point of comparison. Another movie we've talked about on Weird House is The Devil's Rain from nineteen seventy five, which is only one year before this movie came out. I can't help but notice that

Probably so yeah, because The Devil's Men is the US released title which came after The Minotaur or Mino tar Oh release of the UK, is.

That it I thought it was the other one around. I thought it was The Devil's Men in the UK and Land of the Menotaur in the US.

Hmmm, you could be right. Now, now you have me flipped I'm Lost in the Labyrinth. Now it's one of the two.

Now those are the two main satanic cult movies we've covered that I can think of others. Oh well, treasurer of the Four Crowns had a cult. I don't know if that was satanic. It was instead based around that guy. What was his name, like, like Johnny the cult leader. He had a name.

Yeah, I don't even remember the name of that guy. I can picture him though. This is an interesting dynamic to point out because I think the Devil Rides out in The Devil's Reign are both a lot more entertaining compared to The Devil's Men. Yeah, and I think those are ultimately perhaps better movies. You know, this is all subjective.

It doesn't have the wall to wall mad cap three D effects of Treasure of the Four Crowns.

Oh yeah, imagine if this said three D would have worked in a few scenes.

Oh yeah, yeah, I wonder if I can know which ones your thinking of three D nostrils blasting fire in your face?

Oh yeah.

Now beyond that, did the Blind Dead movie we did have a cult? I don't remember if that had a blood cult or not.

Well, the Templars are depicted as a blood cult in that, and of course the whole setup is they were a blood cult, then they're all dead, and then like the lone troublesome occultist in town helps them return from the dead. Way we talked about return to the Blind Dead. So I can't really speak to Tomb of the Blind Dead the first one because I haven't seen it forever. But yeah,

Now there's one thing I think some of the better satanic cult movies do that most of the movies we've talked about don't really do. I guess the Devil rides Out sort of did is show the advantages one gets from worshiping the devil. So that's, you know, classically there in like Rosemary's Baby, it's like, you know, you make

Yeah, I mean, I guess sometimes it's in the performance, like you know, borgnine looks like he's having a good time, and of course that when to be fair, there is the whole plot line that's established that they have been alive for over one hundred years because maybe centuries I don't recall, but they have vastly extended their lives because of their pact with the devil. In this, I guess we sort of assume wealth has something to do with it, but otherwise we don't see any real results.

I don't know, a lot of these cultists don't seem all that wealthy, Like Peter Cushing's character is wealthy, but most of them are like, oh the town, the innkeeper and the guy who works in the grocery store, they're in the cult. What are they are they doing all that hot?

I guess it's a pyramid scheme, you know, That's all it is.

Gotten the cult too late. They're trying to get some more recruits into their downline.

Mm hm.

Can you imagine the pyramid scheme pitch? But it's in the minotaur voice from the movie, like the statues talking saying bring me three to five of your Facebook friends.

Yeah, I can very well imagine that. In the accoumpning booklet for the Blu Ray that we'll mention here in a minute, Andrew Graves mentions some other influences. He mentions the Devil rides Out, He mentions the Devils. Also mentions the Wickerman from seventy three, which I thought is another great comparison, because the wicker Man, of course, is like

Well, yeah, again, because it has so little interaction with any actual Greek mythology or any of the particulars or the feel of the minotaur itself. As we said, it is just sort of like, oh the minotaur, that's just another kind of devil. That's you know, there's a devil in one of his forms is it's a bullhead horns, and there's not much else to it.

Yeah, So a lot of missed opportunities here with this film, but there's there's still some fun stuff to talk about here. My elevator pitch, I don't have a great one here, but I just went with ambient six sixty six. Music for satanic minotar cults.

Yeah, music for blood gutters.

Yeah. The actual tagline, or one of the taglines for the film I thought was extremely deceptive. Half man, half beast trapped in a world forgotten by time. Huh. Great, not this movie, but it sounds great.

I feel like it would be equally appropriate if that were the tagline for Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

Yeah, all right, let's go ahead and listen to the trailer audio. It is a pretty fun trailer. I don't actually recommend watching the trailer if you intend to see the film in full, because it does that thing where they take whatever action they can find in this movie and they cobble all of it together into this trailer, like you see stuff from the finale in there as well. But still it's a fun one. So let's have a listen.

Madden, come with us. If you dare on a terrifying journey through cells of madness, haunts of horror and fear, Come with us to this forsaken monument of crumbling stones, which echoes the desolate cries of the Descend with us to the forbidden chambers of the ancient pagan gods of wrath, where the Devil's Men perform the secret ritless of the Land of the Mento. Those who enter the forbidden chamber of the Minotaur must die. The Land of the Minotaur.

Come out of.

Peter Cushing as the red Prince of Evil who lures young lovers into the deadly embrace of the Devil's Men. The old customs remain, and the ancient gods live off. The bullets cannot stop them, No really power can stop them. The Land of a Minotaur the most terrifying film of nineteen seventy seven. Coming to this theater soon. Don't miss it.

All right. I want to take issue with this trailer's claim that this is quote the most terrifying film of

Now when it comes to ways of watching The Devil's Men or the Land of the Minotaur. This is actually a movie I became aware of a while back. It might have been when we did our core episodes on the Minotaur myth, I'm not sure. Sometime in the past few years I found out about this and the streaming version I found of it online. At the time, I wanted to watch, but the quality was like so bad it looked unwatchable. But there's actually a very nice blu ray or DVD whichever it is that we watched it.

Yeah, this is a terrific Blu ray release from Indicator. I don't think they put out a lot of copies of this is one of these, like limited to however many thousand in the US, but it, you know, reasonably priced. Includes a new two K restoration from the original negative, two different cuts of the film, lots of other extras, so you know, whatever faults you might have with the movie itself, like this is a This is a great

Yeah, I agree, I think I mean, for one thing, I think we have something of a problem that, like the the main monster in this film is actually just a statue, and it's not that scary looking of a statue. It's sort of more on the funny looking side. And so that's the main monster. And then we've got some cult members who where you know, anytime you put somebody in creepy cult robes with hoods, that looks creepy, but

Yeah, I mean yeah, because there are shots where the cult members are scary and you see those eyes behind the mask and all, but yeah, other times not so much. Sometimes they're bulletproof, and that's never explained either.

Dumble Pleasance makes reference to that almost as if it's like a known thing about cult members. He's like, they can't be destroyed by At one point, I think he says, the force of an automobile is not enough to destroy them because they hit a cult member with the car. But he's fine.

I guess that's the this is the benefit. This is the fringe benefit for worshiping the Minota. Now Cagan is here. His other big films for the Greek market included nineteen seventy three's Tango of Perversion, nineteen seventy four's Death Kiss, in nineteen seventy seven's Dangerous Cargo. Again, this was partially a Greek production, but you had outside money coming in. Interestingly enough, I think some Getty money was involved in funding this particular picture.

Huh.

They were involved in the film production for a while there. Huh. All right. The rider here is Arthur Rowe, who lived nineteen twenty three through nineteen ninety eight, an American rider with TV writing credits going back into the early nineteen fifties, eventually including episodes of such shows as Kuljak, The Knight Stalker, The Bionic Woman, and Fantasy Island. Those last two he was also a producer on those. He wrote three other screenplays that made it to that made it to film.

Was there supernatural stuff in Coljak Yeah? Yeah, Oh okay, I didn't know that.

Yeah. Yeah, that was a fun show back back back in the day. I I mean, I didn't watch it back in the day, but I watched it at some point, like on sci Fi Channel in nineties.

Oh okay, I've never seen it. I assumed it was an earthy, realistic cop thriller.

Yeah what Darren McGavin, I believe played the lead in that. All right, let's get down into the cast of this film, though, top billing goes to Donald Pleasants, who plays Father Roach in this lived nineteen nineteen through nineteen ninety five. This is our first Donald Pleasants film, famous British actor of stage, screen and TV. He was reportedly offered the villain role for this picture but said nope, he would only do it if you got to play the hero, as he

It's blow Fell, Drob. I know you're not a Bond fan, but it's Blowfeld. He Blowfel, not Blowfield. Blowfeld hu Bofield.

Sounds like more of an actual name. I don't know.

Blowfeld is Springfield exactly. He has a secret volcano layer and you Only Live twice. And you only live twice is the one where Blowfeld feeds his victims to piranhas. So he has like a bridge leading to his office, and when you're walking over the bridge, if he's unhappy with you, he presses a button, the bridge collapses and you fall into the Piranha pit.

Hmm. I remember enjoying this one as a child, watching it on Turner channels and stuff. I think there's what a airplane that folds into a suitcase. There are ninjas, and then there's a lot of a lot of racial stuff that probably hasn't aged well.

Yeah, there is a really unfortunate whole sequence where they attempt to turn James Bond Japanese and yeah, it's it's weird, but the villain stuff in it is pretty good.

Now I think you can see the impact of that role on subsequent Donald Pleasant's villain rolls. You know that sort of detched, gray eyed mastermind sort of performance, which, again Pleasants is a solid professional, So it's solid stuff even in some really lackluster films. But the thing about Pleasance is he did a lot more than just those villain roles. We see in this film, a kind of hint of what was to come with his Doctor Loomis

Oh I didn't know that.

Yeah. So he has a pretty interesting filmography, but just considering horror and sci fi, his credits include a nineteen fifty six TV adaptation of nineteen eighty four nineteen sixties The Flesh and the Fimes with Peter Cushing, Circus of Horrors, and the Hands of Orlock in nineteen sixty nineteen sixty six is Fantastic Voyage, THHX eleven thirty eight and nineteen seventy one one Tales that witness Madness in seventy three, From Beyond the Grave and Mutations in seventy four, an

I'm trying to remember whether the villain role I'm thinking of him in is the one from Puma Man or the one from Warrior of the Lost World.

That's right, because that's another one where he does the same thing, is asked to do the same That's eighty three Sandwich. In between these two, You've got to Escape from New York. In eighty one, that's a rather different role for him.

He plays the President of the United States of America.

I remember reading about him talking about that role where he's like, yeah, Carpenter asked me to play this role, and so I had to work out why a British person would become President of the United States and had all this background material, and then he asked if Carpenter wanted to read it, and Carpenter is like, now, I'm good, but I like that commitment. The professionalism.

You know, the part when he's getting into the egg shaped escape pod from Air Force one and he says like, man, God being with you all.

It's a I mean, it's a pretty good performance in Escape from New York. You know he especially later on in the film where he's he's a little it's more of a raw performance, you know.

Yeah.

Other filmsles see eighty twos Alone in the Dark Phenomena in nineteen eighty five. This is the Dario Argento film, right.

That's right with him and Jennifer Connelly and one of the craziest giallo plots of all time.

Let's see To Kill a Stranger in eighty six, Warrior Queen in eighty seven, Specters and Prince of Darkness in eighty seven. And in nineteen eighty eight, he's in that nos Faratu in Venice movie. This is the one where Klaskinski was asked to reprise his role as nos Faratu, asked to shave his head and report to set, and he was like, I'm not shaved my head this time. And obviously there were a lot of problems with that movie, but not pleasants. You can count unpleasants. He's a rock.

You know, if we ever wanted to do a John Carpenter movie, I feel like we could do Prints of Darkness.

Yeah, I think that one would be a good selection. Yeah, let's put a pin in that one. Consider coming back to it. Great cast, weird film. Yeah, now real quick. A few other things on Pleasants. I'm not going to touch on everything he was in because again, all sorts of different genres, but I will say he has a very fun and very spirited role as a blue collar

Oh never heard of it?

Yeah.

Another thing, did you mention that he appears not only in the first Halloween movie but in many Halloween sequels, including sequels after he was killed in the previous film.

Oh no, no, I'm not as familiar with the various Halloween sequels past two. I think.

Okay, so you remember at the end of Halloween two, he's definitely dead, right, just explodes, huge ball of fire.

He's dead. Yeah.

Part three, no doll. Pleasants, totally story, we know.

I kind of forget that it's part of the Halloween franchise because it's Yeah, obviously I'm familiar with three.

Right, Four he's just back. He's back, just some I think, some scars on his face, and then I don't remember what happens to him at the end of four, but he's back again in five.

Oh wow. Also, just real quick, I'll note that he also did a lot of TV. He was on the original Twilight Zone, the original Outer Limits, and then much later at the Bradbury Theater. Pretty good, pretty good. I believe four of his daughters went into acting as well, with the most notable being Angela Pleasants, who did quite well for herself on stage, screen and TV. She's been in a load of things.

One last thing you didn't mention, Donald Pleasance was the spirit of dark and lonely water.

Yes, of course this was a like a public service TV bit right that was warning children to stay away from the dark and lonely water, stay away from those green pools, lest dark fate fall upon you.

I think we talked about this in our episodes on Jinny Green Teeth.

But yes, yeah, stuff to blow your mind.

Episode Yeah, narrated by Donald Pleasance.

All right, again, Peter Cushing is in this playing Barren CHLOROPHYX. We're not gonna spend a lot of time talking about Cushing here in this part because we've covered Cushing before. He lived nineteen thirteen through nineteen ninety four, kind of a weird, weird house cinema standard at this point. I think the first time we discussed him was in our episode on shock Waves, which came out the same year as this. You know, this is what can you say?

I want to say he seemed especially angular in this film. Like Cushing always has a striking face with very sharp features, but in this movie, it's just ridiculous his head. I was trying to think what it reminded me of, and I realized he looks like a Boss from the original Star Fox video game, where it's just polygons, the angles, the corners. It's crazy.

Yeah, I can see the comparison. It is a very stark face. I mean, when he was a younger man, he still had a very stark face, and here he's you know, he's leaner, he's older. You know. I think at this point he'd been through some you know, some intense personal loss. His wife of many years had died earlier in the seventies, and I think that kind of cast a shadow on him personally for a good decade there,

Peter Cushing plays a kind of witch finder inquisitor sort of character in that he's the very stern church like uncle of the twins of the titular Twins of Evil.

Ah are the twins themselves evil? Or are they just aw of evil?

Only one of them is evil? One becomes the sort of vampire bride of Count Carnstein.

Is that what he is?

He's the guy in the So there's like an evil count in the movie who is a Satan worshiper. He has dinner parties where he lifts his goblet and says to Satan, and he seduces one of the two twins, and that and she becomes evil, but the other one is good.

Oh okay, all right. Her other Lun Peter's other horror credits include the Flesh and Blood Show from seventy two, Vampira from nineteen seventy four, but I have to stress not the seemingly lost German TV movie Vampira, directed by George Morse, starring Grisha Huber and with an early score by Tangerine Dream. I'd love to get my hands on this. If you have a copy of this, email us. But no Peters was in the Vampira movie that is also known as Old Dracula.

I don't know that one.

It's not supposed to be very good. Her TV credits include two episodes of Doctor Who and a memorable gag on Faulty Towers. I included a screenshot from this for You Hear Joe, as well as one of her album covers. So yeah, she was quite a fairly successful back in the day.

Love Countdown is the Leun Peters album.

Yeah, she's wearing like gold pants.

Gold pants, yellow top, blonde hair, sort of gold background with gold lettering it.

Yeah, all right. We also have a character named Milo that's going to be important, played by Kostas Kara Georgis, who lived nineteen thirty eight through nineteen eighty nine. So his character in this is an American playboy who spends the first couple of scenes naked in New York, not on the streets, like in a like a penthouse apartment. But the actor is a Greek leading man.

He looks like he's in a room at the playboy mansion, but in all of his scenes in his room there's like church organ music playing in the background. Did you notice that?

I didn't notice that.

What's going on?

Yeah? So this may be his best known international film, but his other works include nineteen sixty two Sky, nineteen seventy three's Love on a Horse, and nineteen seventy seven's Dangerous Cargo, which we referenced earlier. He's kind of a young, prematurely gray or white haired fella, and I think he's ultimately he's good in this, but again it's this is a hard film to gauge anyone's talent on.

Yeah, I don't think the actor is bad. I think it's a very poorly written part. His character is very flat, like he just has basically one type of line, which is I'm a detective. I need facts, stop with your day dreaming.

Yeah, he's like a private detective that I this film. I'm really floored by what the actual connections between any given character is to another. Like, yes, we have this basic idea that Donald pleasants, this kind of Catholic priest has like this, this long standing relationship with these these young folk that have gone out all over the world. But I don't know what that was like he was he a teacher, did he raise them? I don't. I just don't know.

They don't make it seem like that. So yeah, but it's very perplexing. He he's father Roach. Father Roche sorry for Roche, is an Irish priest living in Greece who constantly has American archaeology students coming to live at his house while they do archaeology.

Yeah, in his main finding characteristics are, you know, likes the young people, he's hip with the young people, loves God of course, hates minotar.

Cults, hates the devil. He's really not into the devil. But yeah, also, like you said, it would be one thing if he was like, oh, yeah, I run a hostel for traveling students or something, but it's not like that. It's like he knows all of these students from long before. He's like, oh, I remember you when you were just a child. So does he Where does he know him from?

Was there another movie we were supposed to have watched or something?

You know, I think they're trying to set up a sequel to this movie at the very.

He did do that at the end, yeah, where they're like, well the evil is defeated for today.

But he turns to Milo and he's like, I may need your help in films yet to come.

Yeah, if the Getty money continues to pour in, we may have another adventure.

But also so that those are our three main characters when we've got father, Father, Roche, Milo and Laurie that they're they're the three main casts starting at like a third of the way in. But also, this movie has too many characters.

Yeah, there are a whole bunch of other characters who really don't do much other than behave in a sexist manner and then get kidnapped by minotar cults. So we have Bob Belling playing Tom Belling lived I believe nineteen forty four through nineteen seventy seven. These dates are not listed on the major databases, but I spoken around. I

I noticed in this movie when I was first watching it, I saw an actor. I was like, wait a minute, Brad Douriff's in this. It wasn't Brad Dourif, but at certain angles, this actor looks a lot like Brad Douraf, except more with a kind of football player physique.

Yeah, I think he has a great look, you know, like clearly he's he's like a cut leading man type with this kind of like rugged seventies hair and face. Again, he doesn't really get to do much in this and once he's kidnapped by the Minotaur cult, like that's it. You're tied up for the remainder of scenes.

I guess you wouldn't think that brad Dorof could so easily with a few tweaks go into like total hunk mode. But yeah, he's pretty close already. Sorry, we just got sidetracked with a significant off mic conversation about which guy was which, whether which Tom was witch character and Ian was which character. But I think all the stuff you just said we are talking about the same guy.

Yeah. There, the secondary young people are easily confused in this film, all right. We also have an actor named Jane Lyle who plays Milo's girlfriend dates unknown British model. I think she plays the wife in Island of the Dead opposite Belling. These are her only film credits, though there is also sometimes a third credit nineteen seventy eight's

Haven't seen those, and please don't tell me we're going to start doing trauma films.

I you know, off the top of my head, I don't know that I've ever watched one in its entirety. I remember seeing parts of them on TV back in the nineties. But yeah, so listener recommendations, let us let's happen.

I mean, they're you know, they embrace the cheese, and I feel like they're the kind of film that, on paper would be something that we should enjoy, but I just don't like them.

All right, Well, let's talk about the music. What do you want to talk about first? You want to talk about eno or do you want to talk about the theme song that we get at the credits?

Oh? Man, how about that rockin theme song?

Yeah? This is It's titled The Devil's Men, with music by Carl Jenkins, who I think, unless I'm confused here, I believe as a Welsh composer born nineteen forty four, lyrics by Carol Ann Barrett. And then the singer is Paul Williams, though not that Paul Williams, a different Paul. This is the English blues and rock singer Paul Williams who was in the band Zoot Money and Juicy Lucy. Juicy Lucy apparently also featured future Whitesnake guitarist Nick Moody.

Juicy Lucy's album titles sound like spinal tap albums. One of them is pretty much called Smell the Glove. It's I don't really I'm not familiar with this band much, but this track was rockin it felt like, you know, it had a little bit of I was trying to think what reminded me of Black Sabbath about it, and I think maybe it was the drums. It had some kind of more interesting, kind of jazzy drum fills like

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can see that comparison. It's kind of catchy.

I kind of like it Devil Devil's Mayh.

But of course, the main attraction here is this terrific score by Brian Eno born nineteen forty eight. Eno is, of course, the legendary British musician, composer, record producer and visual artists. I got it. I'm tempted to say bet perhaps best known for his ambient work, but I mean it's really too limiting to say that, because he's I mean, his work encompasses pop, rock, funk, electronica, all sorts of stuff.

I was just trying to remember when I first became aware of who Brian Eno was and I think I discovered him through his collaborations with David Bowie. So I think like when I was in high school, I first heard some of those three Berlin albums. I heard like low and I was like, oh wow, what is all this real? Like spooky, haunting synthesizer, And I found out Brian Eno had been a collaborator on these albums and was partially responsible for the sound and direction of them.

Yeah, yeah, I mean he he played synth and roxy music from seventy through seventy three. He's still active today, still producing, still writing, you know, still building up that legacy. When now I guess it's in a way it's easier to just sort of like hone in on his work with film over the years, because when it comes to film, his tracks and tracks that he's produced have been featured

I agree, and you know, I was thinking about this. I can't say for sure because I knew about ENO's involvement before I started watching the movie, but I feel like the music here is so distinctively Eno that I might have identified it even if I hadn't known. Like, the first track we hear in the movie is actually

Yeah, I mean really in the opening scene there's about to be a Satanic sacrifice, but the music does kind of imbue you with that feeling of like, yeah, I'm feeling kind of chill about this. Then you kind of reflect on that and compare that feeling to what's actually happening on the screen. A dreamlike quality sets in.

So there's not a ton of it, but I think it's a very very good score.

Yeah, so, you know, I would like to hear it in isolation, but I dotter maybe Brian, you know, has different thoughts in the manner, and you know you can't argue with you know.

All right, we're going to talk about the plot a bit.

Yeah, let's get into the plot.

As I've mentioned before, I love a film that begins by showing you its papers. The disc release here debuts with a certificate showing that The Devil's Been has been reviewed by the British Board of Film Sensors and has been rated X. And I was thinking, really, it doesn't seem that off the charts to me.

Yeah, Like I say, this film does not really have any exploitive elements to it. I mean, there's a little bit of a full nudity, but it's even so it's very tame compared to other like naked films of the seventies.

Yeah, I don't know, so the rated X. But who are we to question right X? So saith the right Honorable the Lord Harleck KCMG, president of the British Board of Film Sensors, and so I briefly got interested. I was like, wait a minute, his name's on this movie.

So he's like, what's this one here? Minotaz rated X, no menotas on my watch.

I don't know if he actually watched the films. He may have just been president of the organization. I like to think he watched every film personally anyway. The movie proper opens with a deep blue night sky, a full moon, and dark tree branches looming in the foreground, and there is ambient music. There are owls and insects chirping in the dark, and then we see figures walking through the night around a Greek city on a hill, or maybe not a city, more like a Greek village on a hill.

Yeah, like we said earlier, these various shots of like the Greek countryside and Greek cities and so forth, Greek ruins, they look good. I mean, it's attractive looking. I mean, even though some of the footage I looked at from Island of Death like nothing else you can say like this looks looks like a cool place to visit.

Agreed, I like the rocky crags. And here's where we get that eno track I was describing a minute ago. But your classic cult sacrifice scene starts to unfold. There is an ancient stone temple with columns and archways and menacing statues of bullheads and double bladed axes, and then somebody cranks a wheel and the giant statue of a minotaur emerges from beneath the floor. And this isn't just

That's right. It's a magical, technological marvel. I think it also has genitalia, which I think was also pointed out on the the IMDb parental notes for this film.

That's what got it an X rating. The full frontal mintar statue.

Nut a Minita penis rated X.

You know one thing about the minotar statue on its nose. Rachel and I were watching this, and she pointed out that she could see the texture of the paper mache on the on the nose. They're like, you can see sort of strips of cloth and paper.

That's a good note. I was noticing the texture, but I didn't, like instantly identify what it was. But I was thinking about the fact that I guess most of the people that originally saw this film would not have seen that texture. You know, there's so much that's lost in the prior projection of these films.

I guess I imagine this primarily playing on television, but I don't know, maybe.

Not not without X rating.

Oh that's a good point. Okay. So acolytes in red and green satin robes. They light fires in a semicircular trench on the floor. It's surrounding not an altar, but three stone reclining chairs.

Okay, all right.

Some cultists bring in a man and a woman who are dressed not like the rest of the cult. They're wearing just seventies straight clothes and looks like we've got some victims. So they're placed on these stone recliners. Peter Cushing appears and he is the head cult member. He stands in the middle of the room in a red robe with a big gold minotaur chain around his neck, and he says, we cover our faces in sight of

Yeah yeah again, Minotaur statue looks good, strong atmospheric opening. I feel like I love the set. I like the multi colored robes that seemingly hint at different ranks in the colt. So this is not just a black robes in the darkness kind of a cult. You know, they put a little color into it. I looking back in these sequences, though, they are revealing that all the villagers are members of the cult. I don't think I necessarily got that the first way through, But there's not like this.

Yeah, they're all pretty much there. And then you know what, not just the adults, the kids too, because there is a young girl in a cult robe. She comes up to the two people in street clothes on the stone recliners and she stabs them in the heart with a knife. And I think I saw a comment somewhere online and asking is that the director's daughter in that role? And I have no idea, but I want to believe that.

Well. Either way, it's just super creepy. I love it.

So the human sacrifice is done, the people are dead. I guess that was for the minotaur. Did he like it?

There's no way to know. It doesn't. Again, there's nothing you can even compare to in the like the classic more or less canonical minotar myth, Like what does this do for relations between you know, the the an ancient crete and the rest of the of of the ancient world, Like there's none of that, Like nobody's been thrown into a labyrinth. We have nothing to go on here.

Oh but there's a hilarious choice here.

Oh yes, the opening titles. The letters for the opening title blast out of the freeze frame minotaur's nostrils, just an absolutely excellent choice.

Right, so it snorts out the I don't know, snort's the right word that implies the air is going in it like uh sneezes out the letters that formed the Devil's men, and then freeze frame on the fire. It's like duh. And then there were some legitimate chortles at that moment on our couch, but because it sounds like the kind of idea like a seven year old would have, you know. And then the words come out of the

Yeah. It immediately pulls you back in and you're like, oh no, he knows being real serious here, so I'm gonna serious too.

But okay, on to more action. Now we're in the daytime, children running through the streets kicking a soccer ball.

Yeah yeah, I see these kids come running through the streets though in a dusty European town, and I immediately assume they're going to start pelting the local hunchback with rocks or cabbages or something. That probably says more about my viewing habits than anything. Yep.

So there's a local police inspector. He's receiving a phone call. It's from a man named Father Roche, and that's Donald Pleasance again playing an Irish priest living in Greece. Father Roach is like, hey, how come so many people keep disappearing in your village? He mailed this cop a letter and a photo of two students who had been there and went missing recently, And what do you know, it's the two people from those Stone Recliners that we saw

I want to point out, and this is something I didn't get at first. But the police inspector is clearly one of the cultists, Like this actor was clearly one of the cultists, pulling a hood over his face for the for the sacrifice. So there's no there's no you know, suspicion or mystery here. Like he's clearly in with the cult.

Everybody's in the cult, everybody. So we see Father Roche in his humble office and he's pondering a gold trinket on his desk, which is a little bull head hmmm. And then we see him going about his business. So he walks on the hillside and he talks to the locals. We see him kneeling alone in a tiny rustic chapel and praying, and then we see him writing a letter. By the way, there are a lot of letters, handwritten letters in this movie. He's writing it to Milo Kea

Yeah, so far this movie set itself up again kind of like a full car movie. But no, it's more of a globe trotter apparently.

I guess. So when we first meet Milo, he is lying naked on a bed with pink sheets and pillows, smoking a cigarette. His chest hair is catching a shaft of sunlight. Milo, he creates the impression of kind of shaggy cad. He's got puffy gray hair. Though he's a young guy. He's one of those young guys with gray hair, dark eyebrows, and a very sarcastic, almost mean kind of edge. He's hanging out with his lady friend in this bedroom. That's just crammed with candles and liquor bottles and stuff.

Yeah, And when we check in with him again in New York, it seems to be the same room, the same setting, still naked. So it implies that whatever his job is supposed to be, the only thing he does in New York is sex pretty much.

Yeah, so he's hanging out here. He gets the letter from father Roche like his lady friend is like, oh, there's mail for you, and so he opens it up and he's reading it. She sees him reading the letter and is jealous. When she sees him reading, she's like, who is she? And she takes the letter and then she reads it and she's like, oh, it's just that unwell irish priest that you are constantly exchanging letters with.

Oh, no additional detail on that, really, but he seems sincere.

How do they know each other? Well? She says these things? He he keeps writing you about students disappearing, being swallowed up by some ancient magic or something. It's crazy, it's medieval. And Milo says, yeah, I don't really believe him, but you know, he's a good guy. Even though and even though Father Roche is a good guy, and he's asking Milo to come out to Greece to help him investigate

Right, Yeah, very little to suggest he wears clothes in America at all.

I think he's supposed to be a private detective.

I guess that makes as much sense as anything.

Sure, so there's more globe trotting. A group of three archaeology students show up at Father Roche's house to stay there while they're doing some kind of field work.

Oh this is where they drive up in the Australia van, right, the super confusing van that says Australia on the front. And at this point in the film, I was like, are we in Australia. I don't know, we were just in New York. Maybe this is truly an international picture going on? Here. But I think the idea is that this is like the hippie fun bus that has brahas driven to Australia.

I think it has the names of other countries on different parts of the van as well. I think it just says Australia on the front. But okay, we got the three archaeology students here, we got Tom. Well, actually, no, I think maybe I'm getting the names mixed up. I was gonna say Tom is the one with the dark hair and the beard who looks like a member of Still Water. But if you're correct, you're saying that was actually Ian.

Yeah. Ian is played by Nico's Verlicus, who is an actor and I think a director as well. He's still I think he's still around and had a pretty big career. But yeah, just a very handsome, like Greek Jesus or Hercules type of a figure here.

Okay, that you're saying that's Ian, So that would make Tom the one who looks like football Brad Doriff, Yes, okay. And then you've got Beth who has long hair, big radiant smile, very short short So we were joking at Rachel and I were noticing that, like there's a scene where she's standing next to one of these guys who's wearing such huge jeans that they're basically jincos, and there's like enough material in his pants to make a whole second pair of pants for her. Yeah, but so anyway,

Well, you know it's served with love, though, so you don't you don't question it. But it could just as easily have been a meal served up by like a harsh witch in another movement than just as fitting.

Yeah, this is baba, ye got let's eat it. So the main point of their meeting here is that Father Roche tries to talk them out of going to the village where they're headed. They want to go do archaeology, but he's like, no, students keep disappearing there, and so he thinks he's talked to them out of it. Everybody goes to bed, and then the students, of course, they sneak out and they go to the village anyway, They go to the Village of Death and camp their intents. They know no fear.

Yeah, you know, we know how this is going to turn out for them, though, there's no question.

And then meanwhile we see Father Roche almost it's like he's playing with minis or something. He's got a parchment map and all these shapes and lines on it, and he's arranging the minotaur trinkets on it.

Mm yeah, yeah, I guess they are kind of like mini's. This would have really been more Peter Cushing's thing, who was a famously, you know, a a miniature soldier enthusiast and painted them and so forth. A man after my own heart.

So while they're camping, either Tom or Ian, whichever one it is, writes a letter to somebody named Laurie, another blonde woman, telling her this is gonna be the third similar looking blonde woman of the movie, telling her about his quest for knowledge of the past and asking her to come join them in Greece. And the next morning he gives the letter to Beth, asking her to mail it when she goes into town to buy groceries.

You know, in this film, we will later find out that the only thing that really works against the cultest is God's stuff. So it is kind of weird in retrospect that he's reaching out to all of these archaeologists and non church people when really he should have just brought in one or two other priests and they could have knocked this cult out in an afternoon.

But he doesn't even know it's a cult yet. He doesn't know that he's just looking to find the secrets of ancient Greece. Oh okay, oh waiter, are you talking about Father? Are you talking about Father Roche bringing people in?

Yeah?

Yeah, Oh, I'm sorry, I was confused. I thought you were talking about either Ian or Tom the guy riding No.

No, no, they're basically I mean, they're just they're just ponds in this whole scale but right, right, right, But yeah, I think Father Roach should have brought in like one or two other priests and he could have handled everything in just like an hour or two.

I apologize I was confused, Yes, exactly right. He should have known better. He even says it later when when Milo, So he's the guy who summons Milo. Milo just wants to shoot a gun at everything, and he's like, you fool, you fool, that will not work, called us a bulletproof.

M yes, and this'll find out as Peter Cushing's driver.

So, while Beth goes into town, Tom and Ian explore the ruins of an ancient temple, and while wandering around among the weathered stones and the columns, they find a secret doorway covered with the double axe symbol and then they open it up. Passageway leads down into a cave full of stalactites and stalagmites, interesting rock formations. It actually

Yeah, kind of perplexed.

I mean, I guess that would be just con fusing.

Yeah, in this bright, bright cave, which just so brightly lit.

It is quite you're right, I didn't even think about that.

Yeah, but it's a beautiful cave. So it's like you want to show everything. It's kind of like the reverse. If your your cave set is barely cutting it, you're gonna turn those lights way down. But when it's this beautiful, actual cave environment, yeah, light it up.

So we see Beth shopping in town. She gets a kind of icy reception from this lady she meets. There's like a lady with redhair pushing a baby carriage, and the lady buys some meat and then puts it in the carriage with the baby, and Beth is like, cute baby, and the woman just gives her dagger eyes. And then outside the market, Beth meets Peter Cushing and he is a very polite, courteous, genteel man. He's wearing a wool

Doesn't she call it like, oh, my product or something like that.

Yeah, I think she says, my package, my package, Yes, my package, but it's a bag of cheeseballs.

Yeah. I mean, you know, I guess if you're in the in the presence of Peter Cushing, you know, you may scramble your words. And afterwards she's like, oh, why did I call my cheese puffs, my package, Oh my god, so embarrassed.

Well, she explains that she's an archaeology student. She's here to do archaeology, and he says, well, I am baron Corrafax. This castle is my castle and you're on my land. And it's like, oops, oh, I guess we didn't clear that with him ahead of time. But he says, don't worry if you're genuinely interested. This is one of the oldest pagan sights in the country. Her answer to this is,

Well, European royal families. It's complicated, right, yes.

Yes, you see it is because I am my own cousin. Well, anyway, so he's friendly. He offers to help her and her friends, and then she drives away. She asks for her package and he gives her the cheese doodles and then she drives away, and then the Mummy starts sighing in the Eno score and he gives a devilish look, so we know, oh, he's up to no good. And when she gets back to her campsite, Tom and Ian are nowhere to be found and the tents are gone, so she goes to

Yeah, she's genuinely worried there because like Tom and Ian don't seem to know how food works, and they're out there alone without cheese doodles, and it's just gone from from from bad to worse here.

They do genuinely seem like they're like, oh, no, we need Beth to cook for us and otherwise we will starve. Yeah, so we transitioned to a plane landing, and let's get a good look at that plane. Oh it's it's on the runway now, Okay, now it's turning around. Did you see the engines? Here are the jet engines.

Yeah, get some good globe trotting stock footage.

And we meet another blond lady. This is Laurie, who either Tom or Ian wrote the letter to and she goes to stay at Father Roche's house. She's like, Hey, what happened to my boyfriend? Why didn't he meet me at the airport? And Father Roche is like, I have had enough of students disappearing. We've got you know, we've got to put a stop to this. So he finally commits to doing the charges of a long distance call to call Milo at his house on the phone and

Yeah. It's like, Milo, I need you to put pants on. I need you to find your passport, and he does.

Milo doesn't own pants, so I'm sure he has to send out for some. So then we get the three of them driving in a car on a country road and Milo is driving fast and recklessly, and Donald Pleasantce is like, I'd have taken the bus if I'd known you were such a speed demon. And this is a dynamic. I said earlier that this is a movie where the same conversations just happen over and over again, and this

Yeah, yeah, because we come back to this later where he's like, yeah, way, they're just talking about the same thing again, more driving, more moving from point A to point B.

Another conversation that repeats many times is Milo saying I'm just a simple private detective, ideal in facts, not demons and devils, And of course Father Roache is like, well, you know, you'll learn soon enough. So they're driving around I guess they're trying to start their investigation, and they stumble across a funeral where there is a sudden, weird, psychic mind meld between Laurie and the local girl. Wait a minute, was that the girl wielding the knife in the cave earlier?

Oh yeah, yeah, another nice scene of this girl staring blank expression at the camera. I think eno music kicking in, making it nice and creepy and dream like. I like it.

So they stay at the local inn, and then later this night there is a scene that's really funny where Laurie is like in the bath and then the cult members I guess are trying to come get her. They're like one's coming in the door and another one's coming in the window, and she sees them. And then when they see that she sees them, they like run away, so they like retract their heads through the doors and the windows and like slam them shut. And we see

He deals in facts, that's.

Right, But yeah, nothing she says is even supernatural or anything. She's just like, guys attacked me while I was in the bathroom. Is like, that is a perfectly factual seeming statement. So the next day they explore the temple ruins. They find the passageway, they go down into the caverns, they

Yeah, this is a great set in this The chandelier trap is one of the few action sequences in the whole picture, so of course it's in that trailer, but I do love the set.

Let's see so skipping over a few things here, Roche and Milo. Oh, there's one point where they go and speak to the baron at his house. He like sends a car for them, and not a lot comes out

And again Milo's supposed to be a detective, but the tech detective work in this film is pretty shoddy. We don't feel I don't really never felt like we really have a detective story. It's the investigation portion of the film is just just feels kind of sloppy and with lacking in direction.

So they come back to the end that night. Oh and by the way, there's a recurring theme with like this woman from the village who wants to talk to them, but every time she wants to talk to them, one of the like the police inspector, will pop up from behind a bush and kind of grunted her menacingly, and then she'll get scared and run away. So that happens a few times, and then they find her dead at the end.

Yeah, I think this is Jessica Dublin, by the.

Way, Okay, missus Zagros, Yeah all right. And then also this night we see Laurie getting chased through the woods by people in cult robes, like they're chasing her. And then Milo goes and he hears her screaming, so he goes and finds her in the woods and she's like, there were men chasing me and Milo's like, no nonsense, probably just a cow got loose in the woods.

Geez. Yeah, the film is there. Again, it doesn't get into like really big sexism, but there's just like a pervasive film of sexism over the entire thing, you know, Like again, doesn't really get into exploitation territory, but it's like nobody listens to the female characters at all.

All of the young men at least do not listen to any of the women. Yeah, yes, I guess Donald Pleasants is sort of he's listening.

He's listening to everybody. He's hip, he's hip with the young folk here.

So when the three of them get reunited, they let's see, they learn, Oh, the whole village is deserted because Roach had been going out trying to find somebody to help them. I guess I think maybe because they heard Laurie screaming, but he can't find anybody, so all deserted. There's no power. The houses are dark and empty, so they go up to their rooms at the end with candles. But then Milo goes back down to the bar because he says he's gonna have a drink I guess in the dark,

Yeah again it's devils, minotaurs and yeah, all the same thing. Doesn't matter. I'm opposed to it. Let's go stop it.

So he goes back downstairs, so there's a lot of just kind of going up and downstairs. Here he goes back down to Milo, and this is where they have the exchange about where the devil. Did the whole get too, and he's like, you said it yourself, the devil.

Oh.

But then it finally reveals where the three archaeology students from thirty minutes ago were they are in a cave, still alive, being held prisoner by Peter Cushing, and he stands in front of them without saying anything, but the minotaur talks to them. The statue says, only one thing can save you now, or I guess it does a creepy voice. Only one thing can save you now. Father

Yeah, it's like a creepy sequence, but nothing's really done with it, and like nothing really evolves out of this moment.

There actually a lot of scenes in this movie where nothing changes plot wiseing nothing new has happened.

But you keep watching because you know there's going to be a showdown. You know that there's going to be some sort of payoff of the end, right, so we.

Start getting there, so Roche and Milo. They see more cult figures moving around or I guess maybe Milo season for the first time, and then they chase after them. They chase the cult members, then the cult members chase them, and there's a lot of chasing around. They get the two non cult members get locked into some kind of walled garden and we see a ceremony beginning where Cushing is saying the old customs remain and the ancient gods live on, which isn't much of a catechism, I don't know,

I think I think it is, yes.

And he smiles. He's like aha, and he gets up and he runs away, and Roche says, yes, he was at the edge of death, but it takes more than the force of an automobile to destroy them. And I was thinking, where did he get this info? He's like Van Helsing, but instead of knowledge on vampires, he has knowledge on Minotaur cult members.

Yeah, and they're sort of bland powers, bland but impressive, like, yes, you can survive a gunshot, but it feels like the kind of thing that would have been impressive in like a an action adventure serial from the thirties. You know, that's like the level of threat in magic we're dealing with with these cult members.

So the next day in the village, everybody is going about their business, but now Roche and Milo are walking amongst these people in the streets and they realize all of these people are members of the Minotaur Cult.

By night, finally putting Linen two together here.

Oh wow, how who would have thought? Also, they realize, whoops, Laurie has been cult napped in the night, so now she is she's been taken by them, and they know

Yeah, so many squibs in this movie where yeah, it doesn't there's not really any kind of payoff. It's unclear exactly like why we were here, But you keep watching because you know you're gonna get to that big showdown. There's gonna be a show There's got to be a showdown.

Oh, we're basically there. So Roche and Milo drive away. Milo pulls a gun out of the glove in the car, and Donald Pleasance is like, haven't you learned anything? Do you really think you can stop this with bullets? There's only one force that can fight them, And so Donald Pleasance and Milo stop at a roadside chapel to get weapons, so they get a crucifix and holy water and all this for the final showdown.

I did like that we got to see the sourcing of the holy water. I feel like this is one thing the film does well. More often than not, you see the holy water in a vampire movie or what have you, it's you know, it's already been collected. It's just in a little bottle as if you get it that way and you store it that way. But I kind of like that we saw the collection of the holy water in a way. It it's one of the few moments in the film where they successfully build towards something else.

I agree. I like this scene also also we see Peter Cushing go to the temple to speak to the minotaur, and the minotaur, unsurprisingly wants him to kill the priest. He's like, bring me Father Roach. I don't know why he's so interested in Father Roach. I think it's because he entered his forbidden chamber and is still alive. But that's also true of Milo and of Laurie, who I guess the cult has now in custody.

You know, time was a minotaur would take care of this problem itself. You know, that was kind of the classic situation.

Yeah, yeah, but now he's got to get Peter Cushing to do his work for him.

I don't know.

So there's a final showdown. Milo and Roach go back to Stop. You know, there's a ceremony going on. You can imagine exactly what it is. There are no real surprises at all at the end of this movie. There's a big ceremony and they've got Laurie there, and then they've got whichever one of the archaeology students it was that's still alive, either Tom or Ian. Those two are still alive and they're going to be sacrificed.

You know.

The girl with the knife is there ceremonies going on. Milo busts in into the ceremony with a gun, but the cult is basically don't care. They just sort of ignore him while he's like blam blaming at them, and they just grab him, you know, because they're in vulnerable to bullets. Of course, only a greater power can stop them, so they tie him up to the third recliner at the front of the temple, and I guess they're going

Any? Is there?

Like a big twist? What is it he's gonna do? He holds up a crucifix and he says some Latin he's like in nomine patrees, and then the minotaur and all of the cult members explode like just shrapnel everywhere.

The least little bit of religion down here, least little bit of Christianity down in the Minotaur's layer, just explodes. Everyone except for the coldest children. So anybody in I think the children are all wearing white robes. Yeah, so if you have any other color of robe, you just completely explode.

The green, the purple, the red, they're all exploded.

Yeah, just completely blasted. You know. It's kind of like a low rent version of the Devil's Rain. Instead of having them like slowly painstakingly melting for you know, a good fifteen minutes or what have you, it's just a few quick explosions and they're done.

But I think this is kind of funny because the creepy cult girl was the one who actually physically did all the murders, like she put the knife in the people.

But she's okay, an innocent She's an innocent Joe.

That's right. So she and the other kids they wander out, and you know, Milo's like, how come they didn't explode? And Father Roche explains. He says, they are young, their souls are incorruptible, but the fight against evil goes on. One day, Milo, I may need your help again. They are setting up a sequel, and then it cuts straight to the rock track. You know, let's get a sample of that, Jja.

So groovy. What kind of globe trotting adventures are these two going to get into? In the next film that they didn't make.

Oh, maybe they'll go back to Roche's home of Ireland and there will be a banshee and we'll learn about how banshee is just the same thing as the Devil.

Yeah, like I think that would be the template Satanic cult that's worshiping the Banshee. And then they do a film where they go to somewhere in the US and it's like a Satanic cult that's worshiping Bigfoot, just whatever, just which as yes, yes, I mean in all cases it's obviously the Devil. And then they go to one and it's like it's a Satanic cult and they're worshiping Oh Jesus, oh this is just a church. Then they're like, okay, cancel this, this is just another church.

Okay, Well, I think this is definitely not one of the best films we have covered, But you know what, I had a great time on today's episode.

Yeah, this is a fun one. I also want to drive those explosions when the cult members explode, it's not gory, it's just kind of they just kind of explode. It's like they're like drift foot. They're yeah, so yeah, this is a this is a fun one. It's a hard it's hard to recommend this one too, folks, unless you were, you know, the completest on any of the talents involved here. I think if you're if you're a big Brian Eno fan,

It's I think this is a good This is a good movie to put on while you're doing something else. That's something I like to do sometimes if I'm like hanging out with people, I put on a silly movie on low volume that's not too visually arresting. This is a good.

One, Yeah, I think. I think. In fact, I have a neighbor who had these years and years ago. I think he was playing this in his backyard. So yeah, it's it's it's it's pretty good to play in such a setting, and you know, the Greek connection is pretty cool. I like getting to check Greek cinema off to some degree on the Weird House Cinema International checklist.

This was the one.

Well, we're not doing Island to Death, that's for sure, but we always, you know, we invite a recommendation from listeners. So if there is another example of weird Greek cinema that we should consider, write in and let us know. Yes, of course, all right, well we're gonna go ahead and

Huge thanks to our excellent audio producer Jjposway. If you would like to get in touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other, do suggest a topic for the future, or just to say hello, you can email us at contact that Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.