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16 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
Not bad, actually! [Probable Spoilers], 21 June 2004

Author: Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic) from New York, USA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I finally got a chance to watch an old rental tape of this we found the other night and was actually quite pleased with the results. A bus on it's way to a state mental hospital for children crashes, the driver killed and the five insane kids inside escape to take refuge in a nearby resort hotel, closed for the season and occupied by a sort of local crime boss called Papa Doc [played by country/western singer Gene Evans, who I still remember doing something like football commentary for one of the networks as a kid] and his entourage of hangers on, gophers and Sorrel Brooke [later Boss Hogg of DUKES OF HAZZARD fame] as his pathetic, balding son. The women are all oversexed or drunken harlots, and there is some sort of macho powerplay going on amongst the men, until all of a sudden these five kids appear in the living room after beating the doctor who was with them to death in an extended slow-motion sequence was actually pretty darn creepy.

The kids are an interesting lot; One of them is convinced she is a nun, Leif Garrett thinks he is a big time child movie star [possible in-joke or gifted foresight?], and the leader appears to be the little African American kid who dresses, acts and talks in military lingo, just like a soldier -- He even has a little plastic M-16, which will later be traded for one of the hunting rifles from the walls of the lodge.

Then there is the caretaker, Ralph, who talks to the bunny rabbits he raises, and apparently thinks he is one as well. Ralph is a bit slow on the fastball as it were, and serves as the butt of a series of rather cruel jokes about his size, strength and sexuality, including a scene that sort of left me feeling uncomfortable as he and the little maniac who thinks she is a nun wash dishes and share a "secret". Ahem.

All of this takes place in an utterly drab and unsensational setting, shot in an almost documentary manner and with almost zero character development. The fun sort of doesn't really pick up speed until it is revealed that Evans' Papa Doc actually has an aquarium with live pirhana fish in it [about four, actually] and I had decided that unless we got to see one of the women fed to the pirhana fish whilst stark naked, I was going to ask for my money back.

I'm glad to say that we will be keeping the video, though just how the deadly pirhana fish are used I will keep a secret. The kids start in on the adults slowly, playing mind games and seeming to have nothing better in mind than to mentally and eventually physically torture & kill them one by one -- There are hangings, stabbings, shootings, death by killer pirhana fish, and all of it meted out by the hands of 10 to 14 year olds, to whom it is all just a whopping great time. The film ends with a very chilling shot of the life-sized play set that the kids have fashioned for themselves up in Ralph's apartment room where the alternate title of "People Toys" is fully realized.

DEVIL TIMES FIVE is not without it's problems, most notably these kids ... They don't seem to be affected by the winter climate at all, never seem to get hungry or sleepy or have cold feet in the snow, and are in fact caricatures rather than characters -- as opposed to say the inmates of the asylum from S.F. Brownrigg's DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT, which this film seems in part to have been inspired by [right down to the child-like bohemouth character and the character who acts & talks just like a soldier]. DEVIL TIMES FIVE is an interesting twist on the Asylum Horror genre that can be so much fun, removing the insane inmates from their loony bin and setting them loose in an isolated setting from which the adults have no escape -- The question isn't who will survive, but how will each adult meet their demise, and on that plane this is a doubly chilling exercise in the form, with no hope of any kind of a "happy" ending, unless your sympathies lie with the kids.

All in all I found it to be grand fun on a very sick level that films just can't seem to descend to these days, though there wasn't as much gore and sleaze as I had been hoping for, and several slow motion violence sequences suggested that this may have been a "cut" version, though there was ample nudity and profanity to justify the MPAA R Rating. DEVIL TIMES FIVE is currently Out of Print as a commercial retail home video release, though Incredibly Strange Film Works [www.isfilm.net] has a nice codfree DVD release, and Sinister Cinema has had the film available on both VHS & DVD-R for a few years. VERY interesting ultra low budget 70's Novelty Shocker worth seeking out, though be forewarned that there is no hope in this film, evil triumphs over good, and yes, Leif Garrett eventually went on to release albums of garbage that sold millions of units to 12 - 16 year old girls the world over, which is indeed more horrifying than anything depicted on screen.

*** [out of a possible ****]

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14 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Creepy Kids in the Hall!, 12 July 2006

Author: Coventry from the Draconian Swamp of Unholy Souls

Over the years, many writers as well as filmmakers discovered that seemly innocent and cherubic looking children make extra-creepy horror villains! Demonic kids almost form an entire sub genre of horror by themselves! There usually is an explanation for their abnormal and murderous behavior, though. Either it's the influence of a satanic cult ("Children of the Corn"), a nuclear meltdown ("The Children of Ravensbeck"), a temporary blackout caused by a comet ("Village of the Damned") or even an ordinary solar eclipse on the day of their birth ("Bloody Birthday"). The youthful maniacs in this film have no real excuse for what they do. They were just born evil. And when their bus to the mental institute crashes down atop some snowy mountains, they become youthful maniacs AT LARGE! They make it to a holiday resort where some wannabe godfather Corleone runs his crime syndicate and they start killing all the residents. "Devil Times Five" is not a very good movie, but that's mainly due to a lack of budget and a shortage of talented cast & crew members. There's very little going on in the first hour, apart from a spectacular bus crash and THE longest murder of an institute employee (filmed in slow-motion). When approaching the last third of the film, the creepy moments and gory murders begin to follow each other at fast pace and the atmosphere really gets morbid. The adults are all pitiful and uninteresting characters but the five kids have quite interesting backgrounds. The oldest girl pretends to be a young convent sister, another girl is obsessed with fire and the funny black kid constantly acts like he's in the army. Their incontrollable urge to slaughter unknown people is a bit difficult to believe at times, but overall these young actors do a terrific job. "Devil Times Five" is recommended 70's exploitation, with a fairly high cult-value and several unforgettable murder scenes (piranhas in the bathtub!!)

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16 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
Disturbing., 16 July 2001
Author: luvtiger from Joplin, MO

I found this movie disturbing. Young girl putting a piranha in a woman's bathtub, while the others hold her down. The sheer frustration of the triumph of evil over good. The hopelessness of fighting an evil that outsmarts you every turn, with no weapons either. I had to stay up a while after seeing this movie. I just found it disturbing.

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14 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
I just finished watching this movie and I'm not sleeping right now., 16 April 2006
Author: leehome1 from United States

This movie is messed up. If you can get past the first 1/2 hour of cheap gratuitous sex and horrid seventies music this movie will really do a number on your fragile sensibilities. I really had to make sure the front door was securely locked about five minutes ago. Oh my God, it's just wrong. A movie like this would never be made today with all the codes that are in place. It's about as unwatchable as Faces of Death which is not entertainment at all but exploitation at humankind's worst. These kids never crack a smile except when they are bickering with each other over futile nonsense. Whoever said there was a hopeless feeling to this movie is right. This is some creepy stuff.

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8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
A nicely twisted 70's killer kid horror gem, 2 February 2007

Author: Woodyanders (Woodyanders@aol.com) from The Last New Jersey Drive-In on the Left

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

A bus bound for a mental institution containing a quintet of psychologically unbalanced and murderous children runs off the road and goes tumbling down a cliff, killing the driver in the process (this opening scene is quite jarring and splendidly staged). The deadly brats survive the accident and take refuge at a swanky winter resort run by the mean, irascible, browbeating Papa Doc (a deliciously dour Gene Evans, a longtime favorite of Samuel Fuller who was in Sam Peckinpah's last two Westerns "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" and "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid"). Pretty soon the killer kids go on a rampage: they junk the guests' cars, cut the power lines, and begin to violently off Papa Doc's arrogant, decadent, back-stabbing clientèle (a lady gets set ablaze after being drenched with gasoline, another hapless lass has piranha dumped in her bathtub, that sort of ghastly stuff).

This thoroughly sick and therefor most compelling psycho thriller marked the impressive debut of promising horror movie one shot wonder Sean MacGregor, who proved with this creepy, unique and wickedly warped humdinger that he could make one hell of a fright flick (MacGregor's sole other horror picture credit was writing the story for the eerily offbeat rural Devil worship chiller "The Brotherhood of Satan"). The astonishingly brutal scene where the terrible tykes beat their psychiatrist to death with chains, hammers, knives and even a pitchfork attests to this claim; this excruciatingly elongated sequence makes artful and unforgettably potent use of both grainy black and white still photographs and painfully amplified sound effects. The other murder set pieces aren't nearly as ferocious, but since they're perpetuated by smiling, seemingly harmless and innocent kids they still pack a serious wallop just the same -- and all are punctuated with strangely startling freeze frames.

John Durren's barbed, deeply judgmental script possesses a conspicuously angry and borderline hostile sense of moral outrage. There's a deep-seated disgust for the pervasive amorality, hedonism and narcissism that was a true hallmark of the 70's which in turn gives this feature an additional biting resonance. (Durren also acts in the movie as Ralph, a sweet, guileless, retarded handyman who the other adults mercilessly mock and push around.) The cast deserve appraisal as well, with especially solid work from Sorrell Booke (Boss Hog on "The Dukes of Hazzard") as a meek, peevish physician and Joan ("Act of Veangeance," "Grizzly") McCall as the only decent grown-up. 70's teen idol Leif Garrett is surprisingly good as one of the nefarious little rugrats. Odd, often jolting and extremely twisted, this funky little sleeper stands out as one of the best entries in the always worthwhile and enjoyable killer kid horror sub-genre.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Like all Cult Films.../// spoilers, 16 July 2008

Author: brettkiser80 from north dakota

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

... there are reasons to love this film and reasons to hate it. Killer kids make for a splendid horror ingredient - most horror films use kids as characters placed in peril and not as the mischievous, cunning weasels that most are. That being said, this cult film, shows the kids gleefully killing adults by a number of methods - even by use of piranhas. However, like most cult films, there are moments that are handled quite unprofessionally. This film is great display of incompetence on the editors part. Although this film is set over the course of a couple days, there is no continuity, time frame wise. At one point in the film the sun is shining while moments later it is dark. The next scene, sun shining after darkness, makes the viewer feel as if we've been introduced to a new day, but we haven't. Also, the scene where Joan McCall sits beside her boyfriend on the kitchen floor is a classic display of editing ineptitude. While she is sitting next to her boyfriend, her father is killed outside, in a barn, but Joan is shown the entire time of her father's killing in the kitchen yet somehow knows that her father is dead without setting foot outside. There are things like this that don't entirely ruin the viewing experience to show you why this is of cult status.

VIOLENCE: $$$$ (You will get your money's worth! The kids are quite resourceful when it comes to killing folks. We have a fatal car accident, a hanging, a beating with the employ of various items found in a barn, a burning, a slit throat, a spear impalement and death by piranha. You won't be letdown in the violence and gore departments - if that is your thing).

STORY: $$ (The story is really quite weak. Five troubled kids survive a car accident and venture off to a secluded estate operated by the Naziesque Papa Doc (Gene Evans). With there innocent appearance, they weasel their way into the house and begin to systematically kill the residents).

NUDITY: $$$ (There is a love scene with Joan McCall and her boyfriend Rick - who shows quite a bit of man backside. Leif Garret's mother Carolyn Steller has a catfight with McCall in which her robe opens giving the viewer gratuitous nudity. We also get another look at M. Steller when she is the recipient of the piranha infested bathtub).

ACTING: $$$ (Nothing Oscar-worthy here by any means, but there are a few shining lights. The kids are led by Tierre Turner, who does a marvelous job as a military obsessed tot only being out-shined by Leif Garret's future drag-queen character. The three girl really didn't do that great of a job as the two boys clearly outshine them. The adults are led by Dukes Of Hazzard's Sorrell Booke, who plays Papa Doc's adviser, trying to get a promotion but unable to confront Papa Doc about the issue. Carolyn Steller is brilliant as the manipulating Lovely - she fits her name perfectly too).

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2 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
Psycho kids create gory death scenes, 9 December 2008

Author: The_Void from Beverley Hills, England

Devil Times Five is basically your basic seventies horror flick about a bunch of people in an isolated location being terrorised by psychos; except this one has a twist, and that twist comes in the form of the psychos themselves being young children. The most famous film to use the idea of psychotic children is probably the 1960 classic Village of the Damned; but it has been done many times since. Devil Times Five is perhaps something of an oddity within the genre as it doesn't particularly focus on the idea of the children being psychos, but instead puts its focus on the sleazy adult characters and gory death scenes. The plot focuses on a group of people staying at a snowbound lodge. Meanwhile, a bus carrying a group of psychotic children slips off the road; allowing the kids to escape. After taking out their guardian, the kids descend on the lodge where they are taken in by the people staying there. Shortly thereafter, the adults start turning up dead...

The film is a real piece of seventies grindhouse with the main focus being on the sleazy atmosphere. Immediately we are shown that not all of the main characters are angels and it sets things up nicely. Often horror films involving kids will be toned down a little; but that's not the case here either. The kids themselves are vicious enough and that is complimented nicely by a grisly set of death scenes that include things such as a woman in a bath being eaten by piranhas, someone being set alight and a vast assortment of mêlée weapons being put to good use. The snow setting provides a good location for the action to take place as it provides a good atmosphere of isolation to ensure we're always aware that the central characters are in trouble. It does have to be said that the film can't really be taken seriously; it's not particularly well written or acted and the story has no depth whatsoever - but it's not important anyway for a seventies horror flick and the film does provide ninety minutes that are worth seeing.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Creepy kid killers, 15 February 2009
Author: thomandybish from Weaverville, NC

DEVIL TIMES FIVE suffers from barely-competent direction and editing so bad, you wonder if it was done by trained simians. What could have been a genuinely chilling movie about child psychotics victimizing a group of unsuspecting adults is sabotaged by some glaring continuity problems, most noticeably a minor character who is played by one actor in outdoor scenes and an entirely different actor in indoor scenes and Leif Garrett's famous goldy locks being natural in some scenes and a wig in others. Psycho children are scary, but we don't get any back stories to heighten our horror. Maybe that was the point. This flick has some pretty nihilistic adults, spouting soap opera exposition about failed marriages, infidelities, and non-committed relationships. It may be like trying to polish a cow pie, but it might be observed that the adults and their trashy grown-up "games" are a revolting counterpoint to the homicidal "games" of the junior wackos. Both are disgusting, but the adults and their "games" are socially sanctioned. I just wish some details were followed up on. Leif Garrett is shown engaging in some behavior that may have been filmed to establish a split personality element that the director abandoned or didn't explore. I won't detail what it is, but it's something that, given the theme of the movie and the fact that a pubescent boy is doing it, still serves to give viewers the creeps.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
what a great film, 24 July 2008

Author: matt_snyder1970 from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The sex. The nudity. The out there character acting from the adults. The crazy kids all defined quite nicely. I really enjoyed the imaginative deaths. But it is the down beat ending that truly makes this film a winner in my book. The fact that the most sympathetic characters are not spared in the end was a nice surprise. That's the way horror films should be made. Although watching the interviews on the DVD was informative to explain just why in some parts Lief garret is wearing a wig & other parts his hair looks natural.

a minor cult classic. I would've gave it a 10 but the extreme car crash in the beginning of the film that the kids survived made it incredibly unbelievable.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
An impressive entry in the "killer kid(s)" sub-genre of horror., 6 May 2008

Author: Scott LeBrun from Winnipeg, Canada

Our film here begins with an excellently staged, catastrophic van accident that sees the five juvenile passengers walk away unharmed. They make their way to the local lodge where cranky, tyrannical "Papa Doc" (Gene Evans) is clearly running the show. The largely unsympathetic adults are slow to realize the true nature of the nasty little brats; by the time they do, it's definitely too late.

While a little light on exploitative ingredients (there's a cat-fight near the beginning that amusingly looks as if no-one's heart was in it, and doses of sex and nudity are brief), "Devil Times Five" is a low-key, character-driven, and moody little piece. It gets a lot of mileage out of the fact that adults can't often believe that children (particularly ones as angelic looking as some of these kids are) could turn out to be cold-blooded, calculating sociopaths.

Those viewers who might be frustrated with the ambitious, nuanced approach to the material for the first two thirds are sure to find their patience rewarded with the climax as the children find creative ways to dispatch their victims. We know as soon as we see that Papa Doc has piranhas for pets (!) that they're bound to turn up later, and so they do. Bear traps, axes, spears, and the proved combo of gasoline & matches will all play a part.

The fact that these are children is always maintained. These aren't adults-in-kids'-clothing, they truly act their age, although one odd and interesting touch has one of the tykes always playing the part of a novice nun. Their ghoulish playfulness is underscored by the music, which takes a more upbeat approach as the film goes on.

The wintry mountain setting works out well, the color red becomes something of a motif, and the acting is for the most part quite good. Evans walks away with his scenes, although Sorrell Booke (best known for the role of Boss Hogg on 'The Dukes of Hazzard'), Joan McCall ("Grizzly"), and Shelley Morrison ('Will & Grace') are also worth watching. The kids, including teen heartthrob Leif Garrett, certainly look like they're having fun.

For anyone who likes "killer kid(s)" flicks, this one is worth checking out.

8/10

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