THE DEVIL’S MEN (1976)
aka Land of the Minotaur
Article 2773 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 12-10-2008
Posting Date: 3-17-2009
Directed by Kostas Karagiannis
Featuring Donald Pleasence, Peter Cushing, Luan Peters
Country: UK/USA/Greece
Pagans are sacrificing people to a statue of the minotaur. A priest sets out to stop them.
It’s got Peter Cushing. It’s got Donald Pleasence. It’s got some lovely Greek scenery. It’s got a score by rock/ambient music star Brian Eno (though I suspect he’s in no way responsible for the horrible song at the end of the movie). But, thanks to lifeless direction and a ludicrous script infected with cliches, it doesn’t help. But then, what do you expect of a movie whose title emerges from the nose of a minotaur? Pleasence uses a crucifix to defeat the evil Minoan pagans after having made a comment that these methods must have been used to prevent them from taking over the world in ancient days, but given that Minoan civilization predates the crucifixion (and presumably the sacredness of the crucifix)… but let’s not go on, as I suspect that logic wasn’t on anybody’s mind when they made this one. Both the stars are wasted in tired roles that give them nothing good to work with. The movie is also padded with gratuitous nudity.
