Studies in Misanthropology:
Exploiting & Questioning Ignorance, Stupidity, Mediocrity & Human Folly. Encouraging Aesthetics & Great Works Throughout the World's History to Enlighten the Self.
Horror films concerning children behaving badly, either under supernatural or psychological circumstances, have always been fascinating and sometimes controversial in nature. Unsung and rather overlooked by the masses, DEVIL TIMES FIVE (also known as THE HORRIBLE HOUSE ON THE HILL, the title seen here) is one of those films that could only have been made during the glorious grindhouse days of the 1970s, complete with catfights, nudity a colorful cast of characters and assorted killings carried out by an unlikely bunch of pint-sized assailants. With a troubled production history that can now be told, Code Red gives this neglected gem the DVD release it deserves.
A small bus passing through some snow-filled mountains overturns, injuring the driver. The five passengers on the bus – all children en route to a mental institution – escape unharmed, and proceed to take off on foot. The kids consist of David (Leif Garrett) who fancies himself a child actor, military-obsessed Brian (Tierre Turner), pyromaniac Susan (Tia Thompson), albino nun wannabe “Sister” Hannah (Gail Smale) and little Moe (Dawn Lyn) who tugs around a plush fish. They eventually make their way to a large cabin house owned by wealthy industrialist Papa Doc (Gene Evans), there for a weekend gathering with his sex-starved wife Lovely (Carolyn Stellar) his daughter and her boyfriend (Joan McCall and Taylor Lacher), a boneless doctor and his inebriated wife (Sorrell Booke and Shelley Morrison), and Lenny-like mentally retarded handyman Ralph (John Durren, who also wrote the original screenplay). The adults have no choice but to take the innocent-seeming kids in for the night, but when bodies are found dead in inexplicable, gruesome circumstances, they question the innocence of their strange little visitors.
Originally filmed as “People Toys,” DEVIL TIMES FIVE takes the “killer kids” genre to a chilling, disturbing level without having to resort to the paranormal to explain their psychotic, sporadic behavior. The film’s low budget is evident (you’ll notice more than a few continuity flubs), but adds to the effective minimalism that 1970s drive-horror often thrives on. On first view, the film appears to take a while to really connect and convey the appropriate mounting tension, but the latter half explodes into a rewarding experience. The childrens' initial attack on a victim in a dark cellar is shown in brown tinted black and white and is unspooled in slow mo, dragged out to six minutes! Whether it was meant to pad the running time or not, it certainly sets up the dark mood of things to come. The subsequent inventive death scenes (including piranhas being tossed on a naked woman in a bathtub!) lead to a twisted, unpredictable ending which was probably meant to set up a sequel.
Tough guy character actor Gene Evans (as the humorless, constantly grumpy Papa Doc) heads a decent cast of characters. TV veteran Sorrell Booke, proving he was more than just a hickish slob on “The Dukes of Hazzard,” stands out as a cowardly little man who has to finally confront and stand up to his boss, and Shelley Morrison (a busy TV actress who in recent years landed it big as a regular on “Will and Grace”) is also memorable as his lushy, unaffectionate wife. The child actors all perform their parts unflinching and believable. Most of them had vast experience before this outing: Future teen idol Leif Garrett around the same time was playing Felix’s son on “The Odd Couple”, and sibling Dawn Lyn had just been on the final few seasons of “My Three Sons” (it must have been pretty shocking for theatergoers of the time to see them in an R-rated feature of this sort). Keeping it in the family, actress Carolyn Stellar is their real-life mother.
Transferred from original 35mm elements, Code Red presents DEVIL TIMES FIVE anamorphic in an appropriate 1.78:1 ratio. The image looks quite clean and good, with very bright colors, vivid detail and very few blemishes. The mono audio has some hissy parts, but is still a strong enough track.
Supplements include an audio commentary with producer Michael Blowitz, co-director David Sheldon, actors Joan McCall (GRIZZLY) and Dawn Lyn. According to Blowitz, the original director’s cut only ran 38 minutes, and director Sean MacGregor was more than a disappointment. Months later, the cast was brought back to shoot new footage, mostly directed by Sheldon (this explains why Garrett is seen wearing and removing a very bad wig in several scenes). All this is addressed in the commentary, as well as just about everything else about the production, and moderator Darren Gross does a fine job, throwing out all the right questions to keep things interesting. The participants from the commentary are joined by actor Tierre Turner for an anecdote-filled featurette, and three Easter Eggs will lead you to even more candid interview footage! Other extras include a poster/video cover gallery, alternative opening credits, the original trailer, and trailers for other Code Red DVD titles (BEYOND THE DOOR, SWEET SIXTEEN, WELCOME TO SWEET SIXTEEN, SCHOOLGIRLS IN CHAINS, DON’T GO IN THE WOODS and LOVE ME DEADLY).
Thinker, Doer, Misanthrope, Troubleshooter, Disciplinarian, The Satan, Atheist, Skeptic, Lovecraftian Outsider, Music/Movie Freak, Reader, Antichrist/politics/sports, Epicurean, Diabolically Indignated, Apocalypse Fiend. Verily! A Contained & Contented Man. THINK AND JUDGE FOR YOURSELF "I Have Never Wished to Cater to the Crowd; For What I Know They do not Approve, and What They Approve I do not Know." Epicurus +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
MISANTHROPIA is a (b)logbook which demonstrates a misanthropic view of humanity.
Nobody's perfect, but nobody seems to even try to better their condition as they keep following their herd mentality right off the cliff. (The proof of this are in these posts and are only a fragment of what goes on in the entire world.)
--THE WEAK ARE EMBRACED AT THE EXPENSE OF THE STRONG
--THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS JUSTICE
--THE END IS NOWHERE IN SIGHT
Fac Quid Vis
"With hoofs of steel I race on the rocks Through solstice stubborn to equinox.
And I rave; and I rape and I rip and I rend Everlasting, world without end."
"The Baphometic head is a beautiful alegory which attributes to thought alone the first and creative cause..."
ELIPHAS LEVI
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Frog Jesus
"I am not the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a bandage for their wounds, I am not a sacrifice on their altars."
"The world you desire can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours."
"Many words have been granted me, and some are wise, and some are false, but only three are holy: "I will it!"
AYN RAND
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Robert Johnson - Me and the Devil Blues
"He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches."
"In the arts of life man invents nothing; but in the arts of death he outdoes Nature herself, and produces by chemistry and machinery all the slaughter of plague, pestilence, and famine."
"Titles distinguish the mediocre, embarrass the superior, and are disgraced by the inferior."
"Those who do not know how to live must make a merit of dying."
"Martyrdom ... is the only way in which a man can become famous without ability."
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
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Hymn to Lucifer
Ware, nor of good nor ill, what aim hath act?
Without its climax, death, what savour hath
Life? an impeccable machine, exact
He paces an inane and pointless path
To glut brute appetites, his sole content
How tedious were he fit to comprehend
Himself! More, this our noble element
Of fire in nature, love in spirit, unkenned
Life hath no spring, no axle, and no end.
His body a bloody-ruby radiant
With noble passion, sun-souled Lucifer
Swept through the dawn colossal, swift aslant
On Eden's imbecile perimeter.
He blessed nonentity with every curse
And spiced with sorrow the dull soul of sense,
Breathed life into the sterile universe,
With Love and Knowledge drove out innocence
The Key of Joy is disobedience.
ALEISTER CROWLEY
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Alone
From childhood's hour I have not been As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not take My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone; And all I loved, I loved alone.
Then- in my childhood, in the dawn Of a most stormy life- was drawn
From every depth of good and ill The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain, From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm, And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue) Of a demon in my view.
EDGAR ALLEN POE
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Religion = Boredom
Equilibrium
"Being is substance and life; life manifests by movement; movement is perpetuated by equilibrium; equilibrium is therefore the law of immortality.
Conscience is the awareness of equilibrium, which is equity and justice. All excess when it is not mortal, is corrected by an opposite excess; It is the eternal law of reaction.
But if excess subverts all equilibrium, it is lost in the outer darkness and becomes Eternal Death."
ELIPHAS LEVI
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"Every man is his own hell."
"Man is the yokel par excellence, the booby unmatchable, the king dupe of the cosmos. He is chronically and unescapably deceived, not only by the other animals and by the delusive face of nature herself—by his incomparable talent for searching out and embracing what is false, and for overlooking and denying what is true."
"God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the miserable. They find not only sanctuary in His arms, but also a kind of superiority, soothing to their macerated egos: He will set them above their betters."
"Every failure teaches a man something, to wit, that he will probably fail again next time."
"To sum up:
1. The cosmos is a gigantic fly-wheel making 10,000 revolutions a minute.
2. Man is a sick fly taking a dizzy ride on it.
3. Religion is the theory that the wheel was designed and set spinning to give him the ride."
H. L. MENCKEN
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Every night and every morn, Some to misery are born.
Every morn and every night, Some are born to sweet delight.
Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night.
WILLIAM BLAKE
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"The doctrine of equality!... But there exists no more poisonous poison: for it seems to be preached by justice itself, while it is the end of justice.... "Equality for equals, inequality for unequals" that would be the true voice of justice: and, what follows from it, "Never make equal what is unequal."
"Do you want to have an easy life? Then always stay with the herd and lose yourself in the herd."
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
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Litanies of Satan
Wisest of Angels, whom your fate betrays,
And, fairest of them all, deprives of praise,
Satan have pity on my long despair!
O Prince of exiles, who have suffered wrong,
Yet, vanquished, rise from every fall more strong,
Satan have pity on my long despair!
All-knowing lord of subterranean things,
Who remedy our human sufferings,
Satan have pity on my long despair!
To lepers and lost beggars full of lice,
You teach, through love, the taste of Paradise.
Satan have pity on my long despair!
You who on Death, your old and sturdy wife,
Engendered Hope — sweet folly of this life —
Satan have pity on my long despair!
You give to the doomed man that calm, unbaffled
Gaze that rebukes the mob around the scaffold,
Satan have pity on my long despair!
You know in what closed corners of the earth
A jealous God has hidden gems of worth.
Satan have pity on my long despair!
You know the deepest arsenals, where slumber
The breeds of buried metals without number.
Satan have pity on my long despair!
You whose huge hand has hidden the abyss
From sleepwalkers that skirt the precipice,
Satan have pity on my long despair!
You who give suppleness to drunkards' bones
When trampled down by horses on the stones,
Satan have pity on my long despair!
You who, to make his sufferings the lighter,
Taught man to mix the sulphur with the nitre,
Satan have pity on my long despair!
You fix your mask, accomplice full of guile,
On rich men's foreheads, pitiless and vile.
Satan have pity on my long despair!
You who fill the hearts and eyes of whores
With love of trifles and the cult of sores,
Satan have pity on my long despair!
The exile's staff, inventor's lamp, caresser
Of hanged men, and of plotters the confessor,
Satan have pity on my long despair!
Step-father of all those who, robbed of pardon,
God drove in anger out of Eden's garden
Satan have pity on my long despair!
Prayer
Praise to you, Satan! in the heights you lit,
And also in the deeps where now you sit,
Vanquished, in Hell, and dream in hushed defiance
O that my soul, beneath the Tree of Science
Might rest near you, while shadowing your brows,
It spreads a second Temple with its boughs.
It shines upon the cradle of the babe,
and sheds its radiance upon the quiet tomb.
It is the mother of Art,
inspirer of poet, patriot, and philosopher.
It is the air and light of every heart, builder of every home,
kindler of every fire on every hearth.
It was the first to dream of immortality.
It fills the world with melody,
for Music is the voice of Love.
Love is the magician, the enchanter,
that changes worthless things to joy,
and makes right royal kings and queens of common clay.
It is the perfume of the wondrous flower — the heart
and without that sacred passion, that divine swoon,
we are less than beasts;
but with it, earth is heaven
and we are gods.
ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
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Quoth the Doctor...
"You can't erase millions of years of human response, simply by knowing why you do the things you do.
Not if they concern the rules of the chase.
Religions and ideologies will come and go and the games will begin and end, but man's basic nature will remain the same.
Yet only through understanding himself will he be able to embrace and cherish the demon within him.
Then he can revel in his nature and feeling glad, move on to the Final Solution."
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