BY ALEX DAVIS Dir. Jonathan Lewis, USA, 73 mins So, on to the second of our movie reviews ahead of the Paracinema all-night at Derby Film Festival, where on the 5th May Film Gutter have helped to curate a great evening of cult, extreme and trash cinema. There was an initial confusion in my part with this one in not quite realising that Black Devil Doll was something entirely different from the previously-reviewed Black Devil Doll From Hell (http://gingernutsofhorror.com/film-gutter/film-gutter-reviews-black-devil-doll-from-hell-1984), which was probably one of the most laughably bad but somehow likeable movies I've ever had the fortune to watch. But no, Black Devil Doll is a much newer production, although I think it's fair to say there's a dose of inspiration taken from Chester Novell Turner's previous cult feature. The story here – and I use the term story liberally – follows a convicted rapist and murderer, Mubia, who at the moment of his execution manages to leap out of his own body and into the body of a puppet owned by young Heather. As you can imagine, Heather is pretty startled to see her puppet come to life, and even more so to find a supposedly dead criminal inside it. Still, what barrier should any of that provided to true love blossoming? Yes, it's not long before Mubia in his doll form and Heather are enjoying romantic picnics, meals and indeed plenty of sexy times if the montage is anything to go by. This heartily upsets Heather's obsessed ex, White-T, who seethes as he develops a plan for revenge. But Mubia – being the convicted sex attacker that he is – isn't satisfied purely with Heather, so he somehow persuades her to get some of her friends round and get them drunk so that he can have sex with them too. Why Heather agrees to this I'm still not quite sure on, but it is what it is and it's not long before Heather's voluptuous crew are swinging by for a party, much to the delight of Mubia himself (one of my favourite scenes is the Doll gawping as the four girls gratuitously wash the car they arrived in). Heather welcomes the girls and makes her excuses, heading for McDonalds (and it is quite specifically McDonalds in a weird bit of product placement) while leaving the girls to Mubia's twisted desires. What follows is a veritable orgy of blood, gore and puppet sex that takes up a huge chunk of the runtime, and admittedly is kind of fun its own sleazy, absurd way. I'm willing to predict right now that after I've served up two slices of utter darkness with Song of Solomon and Your Flesh, Your Curse, this one will absolutely go down a treat. It's ideally watched as a late night movie, potentially while more than a little drunk. There are not great pretensions here, and it doesn't really matter – this is flat out for fans of gore, nudity and puppet naughtiness, and if you like any of those things there's plenty to keep you going throughout here. It's a difficult movie to rate, because although it is entertaining it's also complete and utter fluff that is unlikely to live very long in the memory. I suspect in time I'll be able to tell people: 'Oh yeah, Black Devil Doll was fun,' without really being able to pinpoint much more than that about it. The short runtime probably even feels a bit long for what is such a slim storyline, and is padded out with some weird business about fried chicken that pads out the credits. The effects are OK for purpose but certainly don't look all that realistic, and there are a number of scenes that feel as thought they run longer than they should have. With all of the above said, this is a perfectly satisfactory piece of exploitative trash cinema, and if that's your bag then your liable to get some sort of kick out of it. And while it's no classic, it certainly whiled away a Saturday evening perfectly fine, and I suspect will be an ideal 'switch the brain off' movie in the wee hours to boot. So I'm giving this one a rating of 6.5/10. The Paracinema All-Night Takeover offers five extreme horror movies – including Black Devil Doll – as well as a host of 80s action movies, all for one great ticket price! For more information, visit https://www.derbyquad.co.uk/idfest/dff/dff-pc--the-all-night-paracinema-takeover--18-.aspx You can also get a ticket to see Song of Solomon individually, which is the first movie in the all-nighter, at https://www.derbyquad.co.uk/idfest/dff/dff-pc--song-of-solomon--adv-18-.aspx  BOOK REVIEW: ALL THE FABULOUS BEASTS BY PRIYA SHARMA |
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