devil times five movie reviews

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Devil Times Five Reviews

It’s what one might expect if somebody poured the early 1970s into a blender and then threw the resulting mixture at a screen.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Jul 22, 2024

This is a mean film for a mean world, happy to introduce Chekhov's tank of piranha knowing that anticipation is a perfectly fine engine.

Full Review | Sep 10, 2021

It's not especially well-constructed, but "Devil Times Five" isn't hard to digest, which is something of a cinematic miracle when considering the production era and the unsavory details of the story.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Sep 6, 2021

I mean, when's the last time you saw a horror victim get dispatched by way of piranha in the bathtub?

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 25, 2006

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Eye For Film >> Movies >> Devil Times Five (1974) Film Review

Devil times five.

Reviewed by: Jennie Kermode

A comparatively early entry in the sub-genre of films which use children as villains, compromising adults’ ability to recognise or counter the threat, Devil Times Five is a period curiosity with ropy acting, worse dialogue and some frankly ridiculous characters, yet it’s still somehow fascinating. Also known as The Horrible House On The Hill and People Toys, it’s what one might expect if somebody poured the early 1970s into a blender and then threw the resulting mixture at a screen. With a 50th anniversary screening at the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival , it’s ready to reach a new audience.

There are strains of pan pipe music – what else? – as a car drives along a snowy mountain road, its inhabitants looking forward to a break from the rat race in a remote location where they imagine they can find peace. Not long afterwards, a yellow minibus takes the same route, only to veer off and crash in a comedically long rolling sequence. Children drag out the bodies of those who didn’t make it, going through their pockets before having them blessed by a young nun. We will soon learn that these kids come from a psychiatric institution, which – this being the Seventies – immediately labels them as homicidal. Naturally they will seek refuge in the same labyrinthine house as our adult protagonists.

Those adults are not, as a rule, very easy to like. One might sympathise with mentally disabled caretaker Ralph (John Durren), but there’s an uncomfortable scene early on in which one of the guests, a woman with the bizarre name of Lovely (Carolyn Stellar) attempts to seduce him into something he clearly doesn’t want, creating a jarring tone that never quite goes away, despite the intervention of another guest, Julie (Joan McCall). The two women then engage in one of those bizarre fights popular in the soft porn of the era which involve a lot of rolling about and squealing at feeble little slaps, and it’s a wonder they don’t choke on one another’s hairspray.

Sexual neuroses preoccupy the adults throughout. After announcing that she’s previously slept with Julie’s husband, Rick, Lovely becomes the target of her ongoing jealousy, which Rick finds hilarious, mocking his wife and demeaning Lovely on the basis that she has (supposedly) slept with everyone. Naturally, she meets a sexualised fate, in a scene which also involves animal suffering (not intentional but a consequence of inadequate consideration on the crew’s part). The married women have husbands who are considerably older and uglier than they are, yet one of them complains perpetually about his wife rejecting his amorous advances; he also accuses her of irresponsible drinking, which, in the circumstances, is a sympathetic life choice.

If one were generous, one might suggest that it’s this age gap which leads the men to refer to the women as ‘girls’ and hide the details of the various deaths from them, rather than this being simply another product of Seventies sexism and lazy plotting. The early deaths don’t deliver much in terms of excitement or gore, with one of them taking so long – due in part to a slowed-down frame rate – that you’ll wish you’d brought a book. This little hint of artistic ambition heralds more successful flourishes later on, but the way the camera is used is unfortunately let down by most of what the camera has to look at.

When it comes to performances, the day is unexpectedly saved by the kids. Much of what they do is quite natural. One suspects that it’s because they’re getting no direction at all. This is somewhat worrying, however, in light of scenes in which one of them flirts with an adult, apparently trying to expose his paedophilic tendencies – one hopes that they got proper support on what was by all accounts a chaotic set, on which the director and producer violently attacked one another on at least one occasion. One of the young actors has since said that he enjoyed this atmosphere, however.

The acting by the adult cast is generally terrible, but all in the same way, which suggests that at least some of the blame should fall on the director. In its way, it’s a style that suits the general scuzziness of the characters and the despair embedded in the drama, which gives us no reason to root for them. Viewers might find satisfaction in the idea of a corrupt older generation being moved out of the way – the irony of course being that the emotionally underdeveloped, homicidal newcomers responsible, who hint that they plan to move on, reshaping the world on their terms, will grow up to be known as the Boomers.

Director: Sean MacGregor , David Sheldon

Writer: John Durren, Dylan Jones, Sandra Lee Blowitz

Starring: Sorrell Booke, Gene Evans, Taylor Lacher, Shelley Morrison, Joan McCall, Carolyn Stellar, John Durren

Runtime: 88 minutes

Country: US

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Devil times five.

Directed by Sean MacGregor

What Wendy just saw them do will make you sick to your stomach...if it doesn't make you faint first!

Five extremely disturbed, sociopathic children escape from their psychiatric transport and are taken in unwittingly by a group of adult villagers on winter vacation.

Sorrell Booke Gene Evans Taylor Lacher Joan McCall Shelley Morrison Carolyn Stellar John Durren Leif Garrett Gail Smale Dawn Lyn Tierre Turner Tia Thompson Henry Beckman

Director Director

Sean MacGregor

Producers Producers

Dylan Jones Michael Blowitz Albert Cole

Writers Writers

Sandra Lee Blowitz John Durren

Story Story

Dylan Jones

Editor Editor

Byron 'Buzz' Brandt

Cinematography Cinematography

Paul Hipp Michael Shea

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Hap Weyman Walter Dominguez

Executive Producer Exec. Producer

Jordan M. Wank

Lighting Lighting

Robert McVay

Additional Photography Add. Photography

Mike Petrich

Art Direction Art Direction

Jac McAnelly

Stunts Stunts

Paul Nuckles

Composer Composer

William Loose

Sound Sound

Barrister Productions Inc.

Releases by Date

31 may 1974, 31 oct 1986, releases by country.

Theatrical R

88 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Dyrnott ★★½

OMG what a train wreck! From a woman trying to molest a intellectual disabled man to a very young Leif Garret in drag. The acting is bad. It is watchable for being weird and that it is bad but kinda interesting. Piranhas in the bathtub is kinda cool and kids dragging a dead naked woman through the snow would never be boring! lol If you are in a mood for a train wreck type of a movie check it out on Shudder.

Review by Hexagore ★★½ 1

I watched the Vinegar Syndrome UHD 4K Blu-ray of "Devil Times Five", originally released under the more fitting title "Peopletoys". Later, it was rebranded as "The Horrible House on the Hill" to capitalize on the success of "The Last House on the Left (1972)". Despite the multiple titles, it's mostly known today as "Devil Times Five", which has been used for physical media releases ever since.

This film is quite a chaotic entry in the "killer kids" subgenre of horror, first introduced by classics like "The Bad Seed (1956)". Even when compared to "Children of the Corn (1984)", this movie is an offbeat jumble, plagued by strange creative choices and glaring continuity errors.

The story revolves around five people on…

Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★

One of those movies where I remember someone reviewing it here, but didn't even remember what it was about. This helped a lot since many of the twists and turns were quite surprising. I don't know how much of a spoiler this is, but I was not expecting this to turn into an evil child movie.

If you think about what makes a good movie, then the movie is bad. As a whole and in terms of the performances, I would describe that film as "shlocky". Not to mention one of the deaths has one of the most horrible uses of slow motion I've ever seen. The reason I give this film such a relative high rating all things considered…

Review by WraithApe ★★½ 4

The font for the opening credits couldn't be more of its time: bold, curlicued yellow lettering. Together with the wintry vibes emanating from the snowbound vistas of the San Bernardino National Forest area, it puts you in the mood for a cosy 70s slasher. The start is benign enough - a couple jovially preparing to go on a business vacation to a remote lodge - but you're immediately thrown for a loop by the fact these scenes are intercut with a mini-bus careening off the road and tumbling down a hillside onto its side. A group of kids slowly emerge from the wreckage and as they begin trekking through the snow it becomes clear their destination will coincide with the…

Review by Jesse Snoddon

" I didn't even finish high school!"

Five dangerous, mentally unwell children escape from the facility they are being kept in when their bus crashes. Along with their equally unwell nun overseer they begin torturing some weirdo adults vacationing in a snowy resort.

I watched this in a group setting and someone there talked through the whole thing, so it's not fair to give this a rating (even though I'm pretty sure it sucks). Credit where credit is due though, Gene Evans showing up as a weirdo named Papa Doc is bad movie gold. Other than that it poorly uses slow motion and does it a lot for no discernible reason other than to stretch the run time, looks cheap and the kids are completely unconvincing as a threat.

Review by Blake Bergman "Various Spaghetti" ★★★

"Devil Times Five" is a 1974 slasher horror film directed by Sean MacGregor. Its original title was that of "People Toys" but then was released a few years later under the name "Devil Times Five". Additionally, it also went by the titles of "The Horrible House on the Hill" and "Tantrums" in some markets. The film's story focuses on a grouping of homicidal children who escape due to van crash that was apparently transporting them to a facility. Out in the middle of the winter mountain wilderness, they traverse to a cabin and terrorize the lodgers who are staying. As they appear as harmless children at first glance, they easily take advantage of the situation as their victims don't see…

Review by gregs1999 ★★½

Not worth wading through the boring mess to get to the enjoyable ending. I understand the whole film can’t be kids killing off adults, but at least make the setup remotely interesting. I couldn’t care less about any of them.

Review by aurora 𖦹 ★★½

this movie can also be used as your birth control

Review by Jon Peters ★★★

While he was writing his Nightmare USA: The Untold Story of the Exploitation Independents , Stephen Thrower who was able to track down almost all these regional independent filmmakers, said that tracking everything down about Sean MacGregor was impossible. Until recently, in a new interview with Thrower on the Vinegar Syndrome release of DEVIL TIMES FIVE (or PEOPLE TOYS, or even THE HORRIBLE HOUSE ON THE HILL, 1974), he sheds light on the mysterious director, who was somewhat of a B.S. artist claiming the film was based on his novel, that for all intent and purposes, Thrower couldn't find any info about. MacGregor would be replaced by the producers after a few weeks of troubled production with an uncredited David Sheldon.…

Review by Digital Press ★★★

This movie finally hits its stride at the halfway point, and then it is completely bonkers (in a good way). Pre-dates the big slasher wave that would come along a few years later so considering THAT in context plus the fact that our slashers are kids (including a pre-“Teen Beat” Leif Garrett!) it’s a good film overall with a bit of gore and some truly creepy victory scenes from the kids. I almost gave up on it a half an hour in though, it’s worth being patient with this one!

Review by SpOoky Lukey Video 👻📼🎃 ★★★★½ 4

A cozy winter wonderland but completely devoid of any glimmer of hope. ❄️

A significantly bleak mix of killer kid antics, cabin trip nightmare, twisted religious undertones and insidious home invasion for being so snowy and cozy. ☃️

Honestly the amount of snow in this movie contributes at least one full star to my rating.

I’m not historically the hugest fan of killer kid flicks, but Devil Times Five breaks the mold.

Would go perfect in a snow day marathon with The Thing, The Shining, Misery and Frozen. And some soup. 🍲

Review by AbandonChimp ★★★

No, seriously...fuck them kids.

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Movie Review: DEVIL TIMES FIVE (1974)

July 29, 2015 April 23, 2018
NonSequitur

Synopsis of Devil Times Five via IMDb:

Five extremely disturbed, sociopathic children escape from their psychiatric transport and are taken in unwittingly by a group of adult villagers on winter vacation.

NonSequitur’s review:

It would be reasonable to assume “Death Times Five” might attempt to explain why creepy horror movie children feel the need to murder, maim, and generally be little terrors that keep us “adults” second guessing the true intents of kids everywhere. Unfortunately, it never really does – it doesn’t explain a lot of anything really – but what it does do is deliver a group of five psychologically disturbed children participating in a range of creative homicides that might please fans of this specific sub-genre, depending on their standards of quality.

Like the classic “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” which was made in the same year, “Devil Times Five” revolves around a group of unsuspecting characters falling prey to a bunch of crazy people out in the sticks. Those crazy people just happen to be a little younger and a little less redneck, but the parallels are definitely apparent. Both films are low budget, genuinely disturbing, and managed to push the limit of their subject matter for their time. Where the comparison ends is that TCM was beautifully shot and tightly edited. This film is the complete opposite.

Reportedly a troubled production, “Devil Times Five” is incompetent in just about every single way. Huge continuity errors abound, and every single shot seems to be framed just a little too low, leaving bizarre dead space above all the actor’s heads. What are we supposed to be focusing on up there? The ceiling? It’s not very interesting. That wall is lovely, but pan down, would you? The cinematographer seems to have been in a drug haze – it was the 70s after all. In fact, the original director (who had to be replaced half-way through production) turned in a final cut that only ran for 38 minutes. He is said to have been placed in a rehab or psychiatric facility shortly after. All hearsay, but the film is definitely the product of a damaged brain.

The cast is strange mix to say the least. Boss Hogg from “The Dukes of Hazzard” makes an appearance, along with Shelley Morrison who went on to star in “Will and Grace”. Future teen heartthrob Leif Garret plays one of the children, his hair giving one of the film’s best performances, metamorphosing wildly from scene to scene as a result of reshoots due to the departure of the film’s director. His real life mother and sister round out the cast. It’s a real family affair.

Fans of 70’s horror will find a few things to enjoy here. Beyond the distinct atmosphere of the era, there’s a bizarre psychedelic murder scene (that goes on for a little too long) where the children take turns beating a man to death. There’s a random catfight that obviously results in exposed breasts. There’s a psychotic albino who dresses like a nun. Also, there’s death by piranha. But even with that, it’s impossible to recommend the film to anyone but enthusiasts. It’s just too sloppy and strange for anyone but the most hardened horror buffs to enjoy.