Devil Inside Her, The (1977)

... aka: Devil Within Her, The
... aka: Metamorphoses

Directed by:
Zebedy Colt

Planning a Zebedy Colt double feature, I'd just finished SEX WISH (1976) and was going to top that off with a viewing of UNWILLING LOVERS (1977), since it's supposed to feature another great nutso performance from Colt, but sadly I couldn't get my Lovers disc to work. Thankfully, I also happened to have a copy of Devil on hand, so I just watched it instead and still got my double feature after all. Like many Roger Corman movies from the 60s, the opening credits are over swirls of different colored paint and it has a period setting; 1826, in this case. Redhead Jody Maxwell and brunette Terri Hall star as repressed, virginal sisters Hope and Faith, who live on a farm somewhere in New England with their abusive religious fanatic father (Colt) and weak, passive mother Rebecca (Nancy Dare). Faith has fallen in love with a young man named Joseph (Dean Tait), but her father doesn't approve of the union because he claims he's not a good enough Christian. When Pa catches the two lovebirds kissing, he chases Joseph off and then punishes Faith by making her strip ("Stand naked in the eyes of God!") before whipping her with a switch.

Not one to let a few lashings get in the way of true love, Faith immediately runs off to be with Joseph, whom she wants to marry. Hope, who is jealous of her sister and the relationship, prays to whoever out there is listening and offers up her soul in exchange for Joseph's love. Satan (Rod Dumont), basically a guy with a painted face and spiked collar and wrist bands, immediately materializes in the woods buck naked. He takes on the appearance of Joseph and then sets out to corrupt both of the sisters. He first crosses paths with the innocent and chaste Faith, whom he bends over and rapes while wagging his tongue. She says she never wants to see him again but he informs her she has no choice: she now belongs to him. Meanwhile, Hope runs into a cackling backwoods witch (Renee Sanz), who offers to make a love potion for her. Want one of your own? Just gather up some bat's eyes, a lizard's tongue, sweat from a goat, blood from a toad, pulverized bones, "puss from a dying virgin," "the menstral fluid from a Persian halot" and a little demon semen and you're good to go. You might actually have to get your hand's dirty to maintain the latter if this movie is any indication.

Thanks to a contribution from the flamboyant Nicodemus (Chad Lambert), who appears in the trees in a cloud of blue smoke and disappears just as quickly, the potion is complete. Hope drinks it and then has sex with Satan (whom she thinks is Joseph). Not content with just that, she then writhes on the ground with a collection of vegetables. And no, she's doesn't eat them. Satan then transforms himself into Faith to seduce and have sex with Joseph. Taking this further into the realm of distasteful, Satan also passes himself off as both parents for a little father-daughter and mother-daughter incest. Eventually, both girls disappear to attend a Witch's Sabbath where a devil cult plots to sacrifice Faith. Pa must put his irrational hatred of Joseph aside to find and rescue his girls. The Sabbath is a strange event that looks like the crew invaded John Waters' wardrobe department and have all manner of kinky sex, including some pretty 'extreme' stuff like Annie Sprinkle being pissed on and Ms. Maxwell taking on what appears to be three guys at the same time. Amazingly enough, it all ends on a happy note for the farm family, with lessons learned and Faith and Joseph finally getting the father's wedding blessing. Well actually now that I think about it, it didn't end quite so well for Hope, but she's the one who started the mess to begin with, so I guess that's fitting.

Saddled with some pretty bad acting (though the entire cast at least seems to be trying) and rough around the edges, this is still several notches above your usual porn fare. Hell, it's actually more interesting than many R-rated Satanism themed features from this time. I'm still not sure they had some of the clothing shown here back in 1826 and I didn't really understand why it kept changing from night to day back to night again throughout the whole finale, but at least some attention is paid to the photography, score and plot. Yes, this sometimes-sick flick does indeed have a plot. It even has a point apart from all the sex (of which there's a lot - and it's safe to say many out there aren't going to find much of it the least bit erotic). "A God can not be so oppressive that one forgets pure love and honest desire."

In recent years, this and several other Colt titles have been rediscovered by fans of the odd. This one has been released on DVD no less that four times, including as recently as 2008 on the After Hours label. Alpha Blue Archives includes it in their box set "Satanic Sickies Vol. 2" along with 11 other rare titles.

★★1/2

Sex Wish (1976)

... aka: Love Wish
... aka: Night Walker, The
... aka: Wish

Directed by:
"Tim McCoy" (Victor Milt)

Lawyer Kenneth Bradshaw (Harry Reems) has just returned from vacation in Japan. He goes to visit his fiancee Faye (C.J. Laing) and after a ten minute romp in the bathtub and on bed, he leaves early in the morning to work on some briefs. On his way out, he bumps into a strange man carrying a briefcase and cane, who seems in a hurry. Ken goes to work. The stranger (Zebedy Colt) goes to visit his girlfriend. With pantyhose over his face, he busts into her apartment and demands she play doctor with him. He makes her strip off her robe, puts tape over her mouth and hogties her while talking in a childish voice and singing "Ring Around the Rosie." Then he decides to take her temperature but forgot his thermometer. I'm sure you can use your imagination with that one. After he's finished with that, he throws her on the floor, starts speaking in his mother's mannered voice, alternates between whipping her ("Naughty girl!") and whipping himself ("Bad boy!"), smacks her, beats her head off the floor and tells her she deserves it. Finally, he puts her out of her misery by cutting her throat (the blade is located inside his cane).

Forgetting his briefcase, Ken has to return early and when he does he finds Faye dead. Thankfully the killer had dropped a matchbook outside that says "21 Club. 'Artie' After 9!" on it, which at least gives him his first clue. After being questioned by Inspector Allen (an uncredited Robert Kerman), Ken goes to a bar to drown his sorrows. Two girls there offer up their, uh, services, to help him get his mind off things. Afterward one of the girls tells Ken if she were him that she'd go buy a guy and hunt down the fucker who killed his girl... and that's exactly what Ken does. He keeps tabs on what's going on via news broadcasts and learns that Club 21 is a gay bar but there's no one named Artie there. Still not over his girlfriend, he goes to visit Faye's compassionate neighbor Alice ("Sue Franklin" / Nancy Dare), who cooks him dinner and then, uh, comforts him. Hell, his fiance's not even two days dead yet and he's already nailed three chicks. I guess her getting offed might not be such a bad thing after all.

Meanwhile, the psycho does poppers, puts on lipstick and a jock strap and then busts into a black couple's apartment with a gun. He tells them "I want to see your naked bodies playing nice games!" The girl throws her panties at him and yells "Smell it, baby! I know you wish you could have this!" At gunpoint he forces them to have sex while barking out various orders in his childish voice. The girl (who is a great little actress by the way) asks, "Is that what you want to see you dirty mother fucker?" He then forces the guy to flip her over and "bite her little assy." When he refuses to bite off her nipple, he's slashed to death. The killer and the girl get in a struggle on the couch. Her wig falls off and then he slashes her throat and then castrates the dead guy for good measure. Ken then decides to hit the streets to hunt down who the press has dubbed "The Sword Killer." Mid-chase, the psycho yanks a woman off the street (Terri Hall) into an abandoned building. Can Ken get to them before he claims his next victim?

Clearly taking its cue from the hit DEATH WISH (1974) in more than just title, this very unpleasant hard X film has built up a reputation over the years as a sick classic. So does it actually live up to its reputation? For the mosst part, I'd say yes. At least if you're like me and not well versed on this kind of stuff. The attack scenes are very twisted, effective and made even nastier by the inclusion of hardcore sex. Still, they wouldn't have near the impact they do if not for the effectively deranged performance from Zebedy Colt as the psycho. Colt - a New York stage actor and gay cabaret singer who moonlit in straight porn because the parts were better - goes all out in this role: crying, screaming, laughing and even changing up his voice whenever necessary. If this same performance was in an R-rated film, it would probably be lauded. On the down side, all of the actual death scenes are ineptly staged, with the weapon clearly not making contact with the body. Reems' straight sex scenes are a bore, too, but that's why they invented a fast forward button. Still, the film would have obviously been better with more Colt and less Reems.

As you can tell from my screen caps (taken from Alpha Blue Archives' release), I didn't have a decent copy at my disposal and I'm not even sure if one is even available at this point. Yet somehow, how terrible this thing looked was completely fitting. Director "Tim McCoy" (Victor Milt) also made THE EROTIC DR. JEKYLL (1975), which featured much of the same cast seen here, including Reems and Colt.

★★