Welp, gots a weird one for you today, it's a TV movie directed by Curtis Harrington with a big cast of stars. The story's about a devil cult that forces a female dog to give birth to ten pups fathered by the devil, if you can process that...
Tons of stars including Richard (WAIT UNTIL DARK) Crenna, Yvette (THE TIME MACHINE) Mimieux, Kim (RETURN TO WITCH MOUNTAIN) Richards, Ike (ESCAPE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN) Eisenmann, Lou (THE OTHER) Frizzell, Ken (THE SEVEN UPS) Kercheval, Martine (DR, JEKYLL & SISTER HYDE) Beswick and more. Curtis Harrington directed six shorts between 1942 and 1956 and got his break in 1961 when he directed his first feature film, NIGHT TIDE.
The Barry's are a happy well to do family in LA. Daughter Bonnie wants a dog for her birthday or something, so, she picks up a pup from a weird dude out in the country...
The dog's name is Lucky, here he is after a year or so, he watches Mike, the dad, as he works on the lawnmower. The dog hypnotically tries to force Mike to stick his hand into the turning blade! Hmmm, wonder if there's a problem here...
This scene shocked me, mom's snooping around in one of the kids' rooms, they have both been acting strangely lately. She sees a drawing that creeps her out, when, Bonnie and Charlie show up with Lucky. They say things like "I said, what are you doing sneaking around in here?!" and "Leave my things alone. Get out of my room and forget all about this. I mean it!" Lucky licks Charlie's hand and the kids turn all nicey-nice, oh, we're sorry, we had just sat on a tack and were all angry and the such... We love you!
Yvette's still hot 19 years after The Time Machine, but, she plays a royal bitch after the Devil Dog gets control over her. The stuff she says to Mike, wow.
Then, the kid's principal is a target because he's concerned they have turned into sadistic bullies at school. The Devil Dog pays him a visit one night, the man runs into the street trying to get away, he's hit and killed by a passing car...
Dad decides to do some snooping of his own in the attic and is baffled by what he finds.
He also finds a drawing in blood, he turns around to see what had once been his adoring family. They all have some choice words for him...
Mike goes to see a lady that know a lot about the occult, she fills him in on a bunch of stuff, like, how to tell if a person is possessed by the devil. Bonnie is definitely possessed!!
So, Mike heads to Ecuador by himself to find some answers to his problem.
This dude just wanders into the scene, and for some reason, he knows why Mike is there in Ecuador. Mike gets the same tattoo on his palm that the old man has, but whyever for?..
Back home now, Mike gets access to an industrial facility (obviously for effect, I mean, you could fight a freakin' Devil Dog in a vacant lot!). Cool damn place though!
Once inside, it's not long before the Hound of Hell shows up to dispose of measly lil' Mike!
But remember that ding-danged tattoo, he holds up his hand and creates a counter force to the monster's ominous power.
He touches the thing and it starts burning the Hell out of itself until it evaporates... The spell is broken and the family's normal again, but Charlie asks dad, what about those other nine pups?!.. Okay then, here we go with another month of thrills, here at The Dungeon!!..
Oh Em Gee...y'know, I really LIKE most of Curtis Harrington's work, but these creepy-as-crap horror films he made are just...I'm sorry...CRAP!
ReplyDeleteNIGHT TIDE is a big favorite in this house though, as is QUEEN OF BLOOD, but...
Well, this one has good old Victor Jory playing the old man, anyhoo! :D
PS: That industrial facility looks like a place a couple miles north of me.
Never saw this film, but what a concept -- it's like a hybrid of "Rosemary's Baby" crossed with "The Omen," except with dogs! Ha ha. And Luke McCoy, er, Richard Crenna -- I always predicted bigger things for him, but if you want a super nice guy to defeat The Hound of Hell, then, I say: Go, Richard, go! You rock!
ReplyDeleteHeck okay, I need to take another look at this film. Anything by Harrington is worth another look-see. I remember a few TV movies he directed in the '70s. And hey, those kids (Kim Richards and Ike Eisenman) were a team in the old Disney WITCH MOUNTAIN films, too, and Ike played Scotty's nephew in STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN.
ReplyDeleteIn spite of liking Curtis Harrington, I've always managed to miss this one. Because of that, I thought the old man might be Ralph Manza, who played a whole lot of them. Who knows how young he was when he started playing them (like a lot of character actors).
ReplyDeleteHi Grant: I never realized how much Victor Jory and Ralph Manza looked like one another! According to the ever not-so-reliable IMDb, it's Jory, but...it really COULD be Manza! they sure do resemble each other (at different ages)
ReplyDeleteJory pics:
http://www.aveleyman.com/ActorCredit.aspx?ActorID=8974
Manza pics:
http://www.aveleyman.com/ActorCredit.aspx?ActorID=11039
DEVIL DOG: HOUND OF HELL Cast Listing:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077429/fullcredits