The Devil's Men

source: The Devil's Men

Trailer—The Devil's Men

The Devil's Men

The rest of this occult horror film is not so colorful though, a dull battle of good and evil between Donald Pleasance (good) and Peter Cushing (evil). Two years before starting the popular "Halloween" film franchise, Pleasance played a priest here desperately trying to find three young people kidnapped and held for possible sacrifice by the occult for the devilish minotaur and facing off with red satin cloaked Cushing and his blue cloaked followers. While this starts off by revealing who is good and who is evil and what is up, it takes a long time for the film to really gain ground as far as the hor is concerned, and until the Minotaur is seen in the last half-hour of the film, there's not many frights to be found. The strange sound effects are indeed eerie and the two stars excellent in their parts, but other than the "Indiana Jones" like finale, nothing really memorable occurs.

Donald Pleasance is exceptionally good as the concerned Irish priest Father Roche, and Peter Cushing as always is good, this time playing the villian, the evil Baron Corofax. I fail to understand the low ratings and criticism of Pleasance and Cushing. Actually, I found the entire movie to be wickedly good and genuinely scary fun. I suspected I would like it from the opening credits, and I did. There are some great lines in this movie, and some little things you can catch if you watch closely. 70's classic campy horror. loved it

Enjoyable horror from 1976 thanks to the pairing of Donald Pleasance and Costas Skouras as the two leads on the side of good. Add Cushing as the baddie and nice location footage in Greece and this is a welcome addition to unlikely Horror winners from the seventies.

An ancient stone fortification in the land of Minotaur hides the lair of satanists led by creepy local Baron(Peter Cushing).Three young amateur archaeologists Ian,Beth and Tom find a small golden talisman and suddenly disappear.Aging priest(Donald Pleasence)living on the island of Minos must stop evil Baron and his sect of satanists.He enlists New York detective Milo Kaye to help him.Satanic bloody sacrifices in the hidden chamber of Minotaur must end...Pretty tame and surprisingly bloodless satanic horror with fine performances of Cushing and Pleasence.It's kind of similar to "Blind Dead" series but without gore and nudity.Still it's worth checking out for anyone interested in cult 70's horror.7 Minotaurs out of 10.

Donald Pleasance plays a priest on a Greek Island who calls an old friend and student to help investigate the disappearance of tourists. The Tourists are being kidnapped and sacrificed by a religious cult headed by Peter Cushing. Well acted this film has a nice sense that the actors actually cared about the film they were making. I like the visual flair that the film has in the small moments adds a great deal to good but unremarkable script (for example shots of Pleasance praying generate a great deal of weight and of place). If the film has any real weakness its in the cult sequences with flowing robes and a sacrificial chamber which are too perfect in an otherwise run down village. I like the film a great deal. Its not the greatest thing to come down the pike but it is a solid one. I think it would be perfect for part of a multi feature film night with films all set in the Greek Isles.

The presence of Donald Pleasance and Peter Cushing two players well schooled in the horror film make Land Of The Minotaur an endurable feast. Speaking of feasting these two guys digested well a complete diet of ham to get through this film. Pleasance plays a priest and Cushing a local nobleman by day, but by night he's the leader of a cult of devil worshipers. The object of their veneration is the ancient Greek monster the Minotaur who according to this film is really just another name for the Christian Satan. The cult has captured some visiting young tourists and are using them of course for their own nefarious purposes. So if you can't figure out where this is going you haven't been exposed to too much the work of the two British players. Location photography in Greece helps also, but mostly watch it for these two thespian legends.

The Devil's Men. A Satanic cult led by horror legend Peter Cushing are committing human sacrifice to a Minotaur figure in rural Greece and it's down to priest Donald Pleasence (another horror legend) and his friend from New York to put an end to it. I've read mainly negatives about this movie and it certainly has flaws. For a start Cushing looked to me like he was merely going through the motions. Pleasence played an Irish man but his accent kept slipping. Having an interest in the occult I felt that there was a lack of information about the cult, it's beliefs, origins, etc. And the finale was rather sill, but entertaining. However, on the positive side it is visually very good, plenty of colour and great use of Greek locations. The musical score, by Brian Eno, is effectively menacing. Some reviewers found it boring but I did not. Being a 1970's Euro horror movie we get some nudity, plus a fair amount of blood and gore. It's really not too bad.