Land of the Minotaur
Director: Kostas Karagiannis
Year: 1976
Rating: 5.0
AKA - The Devil's Men
It is always a pleasure to see Peter Cushing on the screen and to a lesser
but still some extent Donald Pleasence - two horror icons from the good old
days - and I am always happy to see them pick up a paycheck but they must
have been just a tad bit embarrassed to do so in this Greek horror. It is
one of those horror films in which every one of the characters act so stupidly
that you wonder how they get their pants on in the morning. Still how many
horror films are there out there in which there is a Pagan religion worshipping
a Minotaur? Can't be that many. A fire breathing minotaur statue that talks
in a deep masculine voice? So give this some credit for being original as
far as I know. I will probably find out someday that Minotaur movies are
a genre in Greece. And throw in a smattering of female nudity whenever the
opportunity presents itself - but fortunately neither Cushing or Pleasence
are involved - instead a few unknown nubile blonde actresses.
On the isle of Minos young tourist couples are going missing. Not necessarily
a bad thing. But they are being kidnapped and sacrificed to the Pagan God.
In a bit of a switch - Pleasence plays the good priest and Cushing the evil
head of this cult. The priest notices this and tries to get the police to
help but they ignore him so he sends for a friend who has eyebrows so thick
that they must be searched whenever he goes through airport security. The
priest keeps telling him in his best Irish accent that they are dealing with
the devil but of course he just puts that down to craziness and in fact the
priest does seem a little over the top, especially when he is kissed. Not
the kind of guy you would want to watch a ballgame with. The devil made him
drop the ball! The devil. The final ten or so minutes of the film isn't bad
- quite fun actually - what a little holy water can do - but this is a film
that got by on the names of its two stars on the marquee. And to my amazement
the score is from Brian Eno. How the hell did that happen?
