Demoniacs: Extended Edition [Blu-ray]

considered to have been of rollin's most expressionistic pieces of work, the demoniacs is not my favorite film by far although it does bost some great surreal images. there is very little gore here but a great deal of rape & sexuality. one would think rollin was merely making a film which depicts the inumanities we inflict on each other everyday & that itself is a hideous notion. throughout the course of 80 some odd minutes, we see pirates rape & terrorize two beautiful yet innocent shipwrecked girls only to leave them to their horrible fate. after the girls are supposedly killed or have drifted to the next realm, we see them walking towards some ruins & an old chapel. they are enticed by a orange-haired clown who leads them to what we'll conceive to be an evil influence who will extract from them their purity & give them his ultimate powers of darkness. ok, so maybe this is just my interpretation. the images here are somewhat dreamy & erotic as we see two females engaged in sexual activity with this dak-haired demonic man. unfortunately, we never truly see the young girls get their true revenge but everyone dies in the end much like a shakespearian tragedy. depressing, huh? in the end, one of the pirates admits that the girls are innocent & his only hope is to save them but it's too late. this film would serve well as a statement of morality but it will suffer because the story takes entirely too long to unravel. most viewers aren't patient enough to sit through this slow-paced film & won't care to read too deeply into this film. having said all this, i love jean rollin so i can appreciate the demoniacs although it is far from being his best work in my opinion. for a better introduction to rollin, you may wish to try night of the hunted or the living dead girl which seem to be classic rollin favs.

This movie ...[is] brutal, misogynistic, and while I don't mind a few naked babes from time to time, that annoying pirate who constantly bares her breasts is THE most annoying actress of all time.

I also hate the fact that the two dolts (shipwrecked girls) never even GET their revenge but scream helplessly and actually PUT themselves in danger by running INTO danger.

Stupid. Just stupid.

I have just discovered Jean Rollin and so far have been very impressed. Demoniacs is visually stunning thanks to a great transfer. The movie does move at a slow pace and there really isn't much gore, but the patient horror fan should be pleased. There is a very original approach to the subject matter and interesting settings and visuals. It is almost hard to decribe why I like Rollin's pictures. They just sorta speak for themselves. I recommend this as well as Living Dead Girl, and Night of the Hunted. Try to avoid Zombie Lake.