Weirdhouse Cinema: The Devil’s Men

In this episode of Weirdhouse Cinema, Rob and Joe discuss the 1976 Greek horror film “The Devil’s Men,” also known as “Land of the Minotaur.” Horror legends Donald Pleasence and Peter Cushing head-up the cast, but the electronic score by none other than Brian Eno certainly deserves attention. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
And this is Joe McCormick. And today's movie on Weird
House is the nineteen seventy six Greek or greek Ish
horror film The Devil's Men, also known as Land of
the Minotaur. And I'm going to say right at the top,
this is definitely not one of the best or most
riveting films we have watched for Weird House Cinema, though
I think it will still make for a fun episode.

(00:38):
I almost feel like we were kind of tricked into
it because there are a lot of names here that
really want to invite you into the labyrinth. It stars
Donald Pleasance and Peter Cushing. It's also got Luwan Peters
and a score by Brian Eno.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
I think that was the kicker, that was the what
really drew us in. We're like, oh, oh, Brian Eno
scored this film. Well, of course we want to take
a closer look as we'll discuss it's I mean, this
is exceedingly noteworthy, and ultimately I think this is the
factor that makes this such an interesting hidden gym there
are a few other production notes that I think make

(01:15):
it stand out. Again, you mentioned it is a Greek
or a greek Ish horror film. It was a Greek
American co production essentially, and we'll get into some of
those details. But yeah, it has two big stars, it
has this fabulous score, and unfortunately it doesn't necessarily have
a lot else to recommend it, but it's still going

(01:38):
to be fun to talk about.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
The score is really good. I feel like it is
deserving of a much better movie. It's a modest score, Like,
there's not a whole lot of it in the film.
There are like I think maybe like two or three
main musical motifs that are used multiple times throughout the movie,
but they're good and they're deserving of a more thought

(02:00):
full set of images to accompany the sounds.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, my only critique on the score is that I
wish there was more of it, because there are plenty
of scenes where there's no Brian eno. And then also
I wish it was louder because it is it's so
subtle that it also actually, at least in my viewing,
and who knows, you know, stereo settings and so forth.
I felt like the score wasn't loud enough. The score
could have been a little louder.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
I agree, and that a lot of the scenes with
music were just using the same music over and over.
But did you notice the script had a similar quality.
There's a very copy paste quality to Land of the Minotaur,
where characters would have whole scenes where they were only
saying lines that they had already said in earlier scenes.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Yeah, this is not a film where anybody gets any
good lines. Nobody, whether you're the star top Build, Donald Pleasants,
whether you're the evil cult leader Peter Cushing, even if
you're one of the various other smaller players in the picture,
you don't really to get any cool lines. Nobody has
anything really cool to say in this movie. Most people

(03:03):
don't really have anything cool to do in this movie.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Rob, I'm gonna have to disagree with you about the lines,
because you were forgetting the part where the character Milo
says where the devil did the whole village get to?
And Donald Pleasant answers him You've answered your own question
to the devil.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, I guess we should hit on. An important fact
concerning this movie at this point is that it is
essentially a Satanic cult movie of the nineteen seventies, except
instead of it being outright Satan, there's like some slap
dash minotaur cult stuff added in instead. But they don't
even really commit to that, Like they don't even go

(03:44):
all in on some sort of like ancient religion or
mythology of crete or some sort of imagined minotar religion.
Like at one point Donald Pleasant is like, ah, Satan Minotar.
It's all the same.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
It's all all the same stuff, same thing. There's a
whole speech about it. Is like the Force with a
thousand faces and no face at all. It's been around
since before humankind. Some have called it Mephistopheles, the Devil,
the Mino Taar. It's all the same.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah. So just one of the many ways in which
this film, you know, is competent and has a lot
of talented people in it and people doing a very
professional job, but it doesn't go for it in any
of the ways that you might expect one of these
other films to do, both in a positive way in
a negative way, Like it doesn't even really go for

(04:35):
any of the really exploitive stuff you might expect. I mean,
the worst we get is like maybe a little bit
of blood and then it looks pretty good. We get
some you know, some basic seventies sexism, but that's about it.
It's not really an exploitation film at all.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
No, there are scenes where characters just stand around and
take phone calls naked for no reason.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yes, yeah, and they are very naked in those scenes,
and I guess the actors involved can be commended for that.
But that's about the extent now.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
I think, as is often the case with lackluster films,
a lot of the blame here goes to the script.
It's just like, not the most engaging story of all time.
But on the other side, like what is working pretty
well here? It does have a pretty good cast, though
most of them are not giving I think, the best
performances of their careers. It does have that nice Brian

(05:27):
Nino score, and we'll talk more about that as we
go on. It also has some really good locations, like
a lot of the outdoor shots and the stuff in
the caves and all that. I'm like, oh wow, okay,
so like they you know, they got permits, I guess,
to shoot in some very pleasant and interesting looking scenery.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Yes, solid cave locations, some very gorgeous scenes of the
Greek countryside. And also I thought they have a pretty
nice like cult layer set that they built some sort
of like, you know, sort of gothic dungeon cult kind
of a set that that's pretty good.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Now, may we compare and contrast with the other cult
of Human sacrifice movies that we featured on the show,
And I guess in order to do that we need
to remember what all of those are. There is, of course,
The Devil Rides Out from nineteen sixty eight. That is
the one that is based on the novel by Dennis Wheatly.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
Is that his name correct? Yeah? And I think one
of the things about The Devil Rides Out, because it's
based on that Wheatly novel, is that it aspires to
a sort of and we discussed this in that in
Our Weird House on this it aspires to a sort
of almost documentary feel like Wheatley and or this movie
is trying to warn you about the real threat of

(06:40):
the cult, and this movie is just making it all up.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
I mean, they're both, yes, But in The Devil Rides
Out there, I don't know, there are more interesting dynamics
about good and evil and all that in this one.
It's just kind of like the moral of the story
is that, well, there is a devil, and the devil's
real and you got to defeat him.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
Oh yeah, there are all sorts of interesting rules that
are employed in the Devil rides out, like magic has
has rules and laws to it, and there are all
these different examples that were that weakly clearly took out
of like old witchcraft, grimours and so forth. And again
you just don't have that in this movie.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
Oh there's another interesting thing, and the Devil rides out
about how some people have the power, have the fortitude
to explore the occult without being seduced and destroyed by it,
and others don't. If they start learning about the occult,
it's just going to suck him in and they will
be overpowered. Like Christopher Lee, he can read all the

(07:41):
occult tons, but simon, you better not read them.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yes, well, there is one classification of human that is
safe in this movie, as we find out, it is
of course the children.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
So the children here can read the occult tomes unharmed.
But if you're Peter Cushing and you read them, you
will not only end up leading a minotar cult, you
will literally explode at the end of the film. That
brings me to the second point of comparison. Another movie
we've talked about on Weird House is The Devil's Rain
from nineteen seventy five, which is only one year before

(08:13):
this movie came out. I can't help but notice that
comparison and the similarity with the titles. So this is
The Devil's Men, also known as Land of the Minotaur.
I don't remember which titles for what region, but somewhere
it was called The Devil's Men. That was The Devil's Rain.
Both are about a cult doing human sacrifice in a rocky,

(08:34):
arid landscape. And so I wonder if The Devil's Men
was trying to use a similar title and a somewhat
similar ending to kind of steal some of that melt
juice from the Ernest Borg nine hit.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
Probably so yeah, because The Devil's Men is the US
released title which came after The Minotaur or Mino tar
Oh release of the UK, is.

Speaker 3 (08:58):
That it I thought it was the other one around.
I thought it was The Devil's Men in the UK
and Land of the Menotaur in the US.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
Hmmm, you could be right. Now, now you have me
flipped I'm Lost in the Labyrinth. Now it's one of
the two.

Speaker 3 (09:10):
Now those are the two main satanic cult movies we've
covered that I can think of others. Oh well, treasurer
of the Four Crowns had a cult. I don't know
if that was satanic. It was instead based around that guy.
What was his name, like, like Johnny the cult leader.
He had a name.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, I don't even remember the name of that guy.
I can picture him though. This is an interesting dynamic
to point out because I think the Devil Rides out
in The Devil's Reign are both a lot more entertaining
compared to The Devil's Men. Yeah, and I think those
are ultimately perhaps better movies. You know, this is all subjective.

(09:48):
I would say Treasure of the Four Crowns is definitely
a worse movie than The Devil's Men, but it is
more fun to watch because it is so stupid and
the Devil's Men it's like on one one it's not
you know, it kind of falls into that sort of
lukewarm category in some ways because it's not it's not
bad enough or stupid enough. It doesn't have wonky enough

(10:10):
performances to really make it fall into that, you know,
cheesy movie territory, but it doesn't again, just doesn't really
go for it in so many other areas.

Speaker 3 (10:18):
It doesn't have the wall to wall mad cap three
D effects of Treasure of the Four Crowns.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Oh yeah, imagine if this said three D would have
worked in a few scenes.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
Oh yeah, yeah, I wonder if I can know which
ones your thinking of three D nostrils blasting fire in
your face?

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
Now beyond that, did the Blind Dead movie we did
have a cult? I don't remember if that had a
blood cult or not.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
Well, the Templars are depicted as a blood cult in that,
and of course the whole setup is they were a
blood cult, then they're all dead, and then like the
lone troublesome occultist in town helps them return from the dead.
Way we talked about return to the Blind Dead. So
I can't really speak to Tomb of the Blind Dead
the first one because I haven't seen it forever. But yeah,

(11:04):
similar stuff going on. But I think even more key
is that while this movie is filmed in Greece, it
still has a similar feel compared to the Blind Dead movies.
You know, dry, dusty walls and ruins used as a
backdrop for some sort of in a cult story.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
Now there's one thing I think some of the better
satanic cult movies do that most of the movies we've
talked about don't really do. I guess the Devil rides
Out sort of did is show the advantages one gets
from worshiping the devil. So that's, you know, classically there
in like Rosemary's Baby, it's like, you know, you make
a pact with the devil. Oh, hey, suddenly I'm financially

(11:41):
doing better and I'm getting a part in this play
and all the you know, the devil is in exchange
for your worship and the evil deeds you do in
his service, he sort of does favors for you. He
does some magic to help you along with to attain
your goals. A lot of these movies don't even have that,
so you're kind of left wondering, like, what's in it
for the cultists? Why are they worshiping a minotaur or

(12:02):
a devil? I don't even see that they're getting anything
out of this.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
Yeah, I mean, I guess sometimes it's in the performance,
like you know, borgnine looks like he's having a good time,
and of course that when to be fair, there is
the whole plot line that's established that they have been
alive for over one hundred years because maybe centuries I
don't recall, but they have vastly extended their lives because
of their pact with the devil. In this, I guess

(12:28):
we sort of assume wealth has something to do with it,
but otherwise we don't see any real results.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
I don't know, a lot of these cultists don't seem
all that wealthy, Like Peter Cushing's character is wealthy, but
most of them are like, oh the town, the innkeeper
and the guy who works in the grocery store, they're
in the cult. What are they are they doing all
that hot?

Speaker 2 (12:48):
I guess it's a pyramid scheme, you know, That's all
it is.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
Gotten the cult too late. They're trying to get some
more recruits into their downline.

Speaker 2 (12:56):
Mm hm.

Speaker 3 (12:57):
Can you imagine the pyramid scheme pitch? But it's in
the minotaur voice from the movie, like the statues talking
saying bring me three to five of your Facebook friends.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
Yeah, I can very well imagine that. In the accoumpning
booklet for the Blu Ray that we'll mention here in
a minute, Andrew Graves mentions some other influences. He mentions
the Devil rides Out, He mentions the Devils. Also mentions
the Wickerman from seventy three, which I thought is another
great comparison, because the wicker Man, of course, is like
the English folk carror film, you know, par excellence. You know,

(13:34):
it's the one that you think of when you think
of like the lineage of British folk car and this
movie kind of aspires to a kind of Greek folk
car but again doesn't really go for it, you know,
doesn't really give us something that we can latch onto here.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
Well, yeah, again, because it has so little interaction with
any actual Greek mythology or any of the particulars or
the feel of the minotaur itself. As we said, it
is just sort of like, oh the minotaur, that's just
another kind of devil. That's you know, there's a devil
in one of his forms is it's a bullhead horns,
and there's not much else to it.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
Yeah, So a lot of missed opportunities here with this film,
but there's there's still some fun stuff to talk about here.
My elevator pitch, I don't have a great one here,
but I just went with ambient six sixty six. Music
for satanic minotar cults.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
Yeah, music for blood gutters.

Speaker 2 (14:27):
Yeah. The actual tagline, or one of the taglines for
the film I thought was extremely deceptive. Half man, half
beast trapped in a world forgotten by time. Huh. Great,
not this movie, but it sounds great.

Speaker 3 (14:44):
I feel like it would be equally appropriate if that
were the tagline for Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
Yeah, all right, let's go ahead and listen to the
trailer audio. It is a pretty fun trailer. I don't
actually recommend watching the trailer if you intend to see
the film in full, because it does that thing where
they take whatever action they can find in this movie
and they cobble all of it together into this trailer,
like you see stuff from the finale in there as well.

(15:12):
But still it's a fun one. So let's have a listen.

Speaker 4 (15:19):
Madden, come with us. If you dare on a terrifying
journey through cells of madness, haunts of horror and fear,
Come with us to this forsaken monument of crumbling stones,
which echoes the desolate cries of the Descend with us

(15:41):
to the forbidden chambers of the ancient pagan gods of wrath,
where the Devil's Men perform the secret ritless of the
Land of the Mento. Those who enter the forbidden chamber
of the Minotaur must die. The Land of the Minotaur.

(16:13):
Donald bless us as the man of God who defies
the dark and sinister powers that curse this land and
all who venture into it. The Devil has many faces,
and many helpless too.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
Come out of.

Speaker 4 (16:34):
Peter Cushing as the red Prince of Evil who lures
young lovers into the deadly embrace of the Devil's Men.
The old customs remain, and the ancient gods live off.
The bullets cannot stop them, No really power can stop them.

(17:28):
The Land of a Minotaur the most terrifying film of
nineteen seventy seven. Coming to this theater soon. Don't miss it.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
All right. I want to take issue with this trailer's
claim that this is quote the most terrifying film of
nineteen seventy seven. Note that it was released in the
UK and Greece in seventy six, and then in the
US and seventy seven, Because if this state were true
at all, it would mean that The Devil's Men is

(18:03):
more terrifying than such films as Alukarda, Blue Sunshine, The Deep,
Demon Seed, Eraser head House, The Incredible Melting Man, The
Island of Doctor Moreau, Cronenberg's Rabid Rituals, Rolling Thunder, The Sentinel,
Mario Baba's Shock, Shock Waves, Sorcerer, and Suspiria. Wow. So granted,

(18:29):
it's you know, pure marketing. Everything's fair in marketing. If
no one else is going to say you have the
most terrifying film with seventy seven, you might as well
say it. But I don't think a strong case can
be made for The Devil's Men over these films.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
Now when it comes to ways of watching The Devil's
Men or the Land of the Minotaur. This is actually
a movie I became aware of a while back. It
might have been when we did our core episodes on
the Minotaur myth, I'm not sure. Sometime in the past
few years I found out about this and the streaming

(19:02):
version I found of it online. At the time, I
wanted to watch, but the quality was like so bad
it looked unwatchable. But there's actually a very nice blu
ray or DVD whichever it is that we watched it.
But I guess it was a Blu ray and it
looked really good.

Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, this is a terrific Blu ray release from Indicator.
I don't think they put out a lot of copies
of this is one of these, like limited to however
many thousand in the US, but it, you know, reasonably priced.
Includes a new two K restoration from the original negative,
two different cuts of the film, lots of other extras,
so you know, whatever faults you might have with the

(19:39):
movie itself, like this is a This is a great
presentation of it and has some great background. There's some
commentary tracks, so I highly recommend it if you if
you are inclined to view the movie. We're going to
pass our copy of it onto Videodrome here in Atlanta
after we're done with it, so you might be able
to rent it from them if you happen to be local.

(20:06):
All right, let's get into the people involved in this movie.
And I'm gonna go ahead and apologize at the top here.
We're dealing with some Greek names here, and it's entirely possible,
if not likely, that I'm going to mispronounce something. The
director is Costas Karagaianis, who lived nineteen thirty two through

(20:26):
nineteen ninety three, a very established Greek director of various genres,
but this was his first and only horror film. He'd
done some thrillers, it looks like. But in some of
the commentary I've read, a lot of people touch on
this that this is the only time he dipped his
toes in horror, and perhaps it shows in his unwillingness

(20:49):
or I don't know, just inability. I don't know how
you want to look at it, but the fact that
it doesn't really go after those horror moments the way
that other horror films would have. So, you know, because
while he draws on a lot on various setenic called
horror films, the horror, the tear, the suspense elements in
this film often feel a little bit blunted. We get

(21:10):
some great ambiance in places, and certainly with the aid
of ENO's score, we get a strong dreamlike flavor to
various scenes, but I feel like these scenes are often lacking,
again in that special something to push them over the
top and make them actually memorable.

Speaker 3 (21:25):
Yeah, I agree, I think I mean, for one thing,
I think we have something of a problem that, like
the the main monster in this film is actually just
a statue, and it's not that scary looking of a statue.
It's sort of more on the funny looking side. And
so that's the main monster. And then we've got some

(21:45):
cult members who where you know, anytime you put somebody
in creepy cult robes with hoods, that looks creepy, but
they're they're still not really used much. I mean, they're
like some scenes where they they like peek in a
window to scare some but then they like pull their
head back out of the window when the person sees them,
and it just looks funny.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
Yeah, I mean yeah, because there are shots where the
cult members are scary and you see those eyes behind
the mask and all, but yeah, other times not so much.
Sometimes they're bulletproof, and that's never explained either.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
Dumble Pleasance makes reference to that almost as if it's
like a known thing about cult members. He's like, they
can't be destroyed by At one point, I think he says,
the force of an automobile is not enough to destroy
them because they hit a cult member with the car.
But he's fine.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
I guess that's the this is the benefit. This is
the fringe benefit for worshiping the Minota. Now Cagan is here.
His other big films for the Greek market included nineteen
seventy three's Tango of Perversion, nineteen seventy four's Death Kiss,
in nineteen seventy seven's Dangerous Cargo. Again, this was partially
a Greek production, but you had outside money coming in.

(22:56):
Interestingly enough, I think some Getty money was involved in
funding this particular picture.

Speaker 3 (23:02):
Huh.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
They were involved in the film production for a while there. Huh.
All right. The rider here is Arthur Rowe, who lived
nineteen twenty three through nineteen ninety eight, an American rider
with TV writing credits going back into the early nineteen fifties,
eventually including episodes of such shows as Kuljak, The Knight Stalker,
The Bionic Woman, and Fantasy Island. Those last two he
was also a producer on those. He wrote three other

(23:25):
screenplays that made it to that made it to film.
Those include nineteen seventy one Zeppelin, nineteen seventy two's The
Magnificent Seven Ride. I assume it's a sequel. It sounds
like it's an actual ride though, but you know, like
you were with the ride at Universal Studios. Yeah, yeah,
but it's it's a movie. I don't know anything about it. Also,

(23:46):
in nineteen seventy six Coljack TV movie Demon and the Mummy.

Speaker 3 (23:51):
Was there supernatural stuff in Coljak Yeah? Yeah, Oh okay,
I didn't know that.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
Yeah. Yeah, that was a fun show back back back
in the day. I I mean, I didn't watch it
back in the day, but I watched it at some point,
like on sci Fi Channel in nineties.

Speaker 3 (24:05):
Oh okay, I've never seen it. I assumed it was
an earthy, realistic cop thriller.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
Yeah what Darren McGavin, I believe played the lead in that.
All right, let's get down into the cast of this film, though,
top billing goes to Donald Pleasants, who plays Father Roach
in this lived nineteen nineteen through nineteen ninety five. This
is our first Donald Pleasants film, famous British actor of stage,
screen and TV. He was reportedly offered the villain role

(24:34):
for this picture but said nope, he would only do
it if you got to play the hero, as he
was a bit burnout. I'm playing the villains at the time,
because of course he's a member of the Bond Villain Club.
Having played the Bond villain Blowfield in nineteen sixty seven's
You Only Live Twice.

Speaker 3 (24:51):
It's blow Fell, Drob. I know you're not a Bond fan,
but it's Blowfeld. He Blowfel, not Blowfield. Blowfeld hu Bofield.

Speaker 2 (25:00):
Sounds like more of an actual name. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (25:03):
Blowfeld is Springfield exactly. He has a secret volcano layer
and you Only Live twice. And you only live twice
is the one where Blowfeld feeds his victims to piranhas.
So he has like a bridge leading to his office,
and when you're walking over the bridge, if he's unhappy
with you, he presses a button, the bridge collapses and

(25:24):
you fall into the Piranha pit.

Speaker 2 (25:26):
Hmm. I remember enjoying this one as a child, watching
it on Turner channels and stuff. I think there's what
a airplane that folds into a suitcase. There are ninjas,
and then there's a lot of a lot of racial
stuff that probably hasn't aged well.

Speaker 3 (25:41):
Yeah, there is a really unfortunate whole sequence where they
attempt to turn James Bond Japanese and yeah, it's it's weird,
but the villain stuff in it is pretty good.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Now I think you can see the impact of that
role on subsequent Donald Pleasant's villain rolls. You know that
sort of detched, gray eyed mastermind sort of performance, which,
again Pleasants is a solid professional, So it's solid stuff
even in some really lackluster films. But the thing about
Pleasance is he did a lot more than just those

(26:14):
villain roles. We see in this film, a kind of
hint of what was to come with his Doctor Loomis
performance in the Halloween franchise. He had a memorable role
in the Great Escape from nineteen sixty three, which was
itself quite fitting because Donald Pleasant served in the RAF
during World War II, was captured and imprisoned in a
German prisoner of war camp.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
Oh I didn't know that.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Yeah. So he has a pretty interesting filmography, but just
considering horror and sci fi, his credits include a nineteen
fifty six TV adaptation of nineteen eighty four nineteen sixties
The Flesh and the Fimes with Peter Cushing, Circus of Horrors,
and the Hands of Orlock in nineteen sixty nineteen sixty
six is Fantastic Voyage, THHX eleven thirty eight and nineteen

(26:59):
seventy one one Tales that witness Madness in seventy three,
From Beyond the Grave and Mutations in seventy four, an
adaptation of Dracula in seventy nine, The Puma Man in
nineteen eighty Puma Man. Puma Man is a great example
of him being asked to do the Bond villain thing
in a movie that is clearly not the best.

Speaker 3 (27:21):
I'm trying to remember whether the villain role I'm thinking
of him in is the one from Puma Man or
the one from Warrior of the Lost World.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
That's right, because that's another one where he does the
same thing, is asked to do the same That's eighty
three Sandwich. In between these two, You've got to Escape
from New York. In eighty one, that's a rather different
role for him.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
He plays the President of the United States of America.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
I remember reading about him talking about that role where
he's like, yeah, Carpenter asked me to play this role,
and so I had to work out why a British
person would become President of the United States and had
all this background material, and then he asked if Carpenter
wanted to read it, and Carpenter is like, now, I'm good,
but I like that commitment. The professionalism.

Speaker 3 (28:05):
You know, the part when he's getting into the egg
shaped escape pod from Air Force one and he says like, man,
God being with you all.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
It's a I mean, it's a pretty good performance in
Escape from New York. You know he especially later on
in the film where he's he's a little it's more
of a raw performance, you know.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:26):
Other filmsles see eighty twos Alone in the Dark Phenomena
in nineteen eighty five. This is the Dario Argento film, right.

Speaker 3 (28:32):
That's right with him and Jennifer Connelly and one of
the craziest giallo plots of all time.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
Let's see To Kill a Stranger in eighty six, Warrior
Queen in eighty seven, Specters and Prince of Darkness in
eighty seven. And in nineteen eighty eight, he's in that
nos Faratu in Venice movie. This is the one where
Klaskinski was asked to reprise his role as nos Faratu,
asked to shave his head and report to set, and
he was like, I'm not shaved my head this time.

(29:01):
And obviously there were a lot of problems with that movie,
but not pleasants. You can count unpleasants. He's a rock.

Speaker 3 (29:09):
You know, if we ever wanted to do a John
Carpenter movie, I feel like we could do Prints of Darkness.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
Yeah, I think that one would be a good selection. Yeah,
let's put a pin in that one. Consider coming back
to it. Great cast, weird film. Yeah, now real quick.
A few other things on Pleasants. I'm not going to
touch on everything he was in because again, all sorts
of different genres, but I will say he has a
very fun and very spirited role as a blue collar

(29:36):
police inspector in nineteen seventy two's Deathline. That it's one
of those terrific performances that completely elevates a film and
also is very much against type, at least for what
many of us might expect of Donald pleasants. If you're
a pleasance fan, check that one out. It's a lot
of fun. I've also heard great things about his performance

(29:57):
in the nineteen seventy one Australian new wave thriller Wake
and Fright from seventy one. A lot of people hold
that up is kind of an excellent buried gem.

Speaker 3 (30:06):
Oh never heard of it?

Speaker 2 (30:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:08):
Another thing, did you mention that he appears not only
in the first Halloween movie but in many Halloween sequels,
including sequels after he was killed in the previous film.

Speaker 2 (30:18):
Oh no, no, I'm not as familiar with the various
Halloween sequels past two. I think.

Speaker 3 (30:24):
Okay, so you remember at the end of Halloween two,
he's definitely dead, right, just explodes, huge ball of fire.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
He's dead. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
Part three, no doll. Pleasants, totally story, we know.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
I kind of forget that it's part of the Halloween
franchise because it's Yeah, obviously I'm familiar with three.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
Right, Four he's just back. He's back, just some I think,
some scars on his face, and then I don't remember
what happens to him at the end of four, but
he's back again in five.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
Oh wow. Also, just real quick, I'll note that he
also did a lot of TV. He was on the
original Twilight Zone, the original Outer Limits, and then much
later at the Bradbury Theater. Pretty good, pretty good. I
believe four of his daughters went into acting as well,
with the most notable being Angela Pleasants, who did quite
well for herself on stage, screen and TV. She's been

(31:11):
in a load of things.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
One last thing you didn't mention, Donald Pleasance was the
spirit of dark and lonely water.

Speaker 2 (31:18):
Yes, of course this was a like a public service
TV bit right that was warning children to stay away
from the dark and lonely water, stay away from those
green pools, lest dark fate fall upon you.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
I think we talked about this in our episodes on
Jinny Green Teeth.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
But yes, yeah, stuff to blow your mind.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
Episode Yeah, narrated by Donald Pleasance.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
All right, again, Peter Cushing is in this playing Barren CHLOROPHYX.
We're not gonna spend a lot of time talking about
Cushing here in this part because we've covered Cushing before.
He lived nineteen thirteen through nineteen ninety four, kind of
a weird, weird house cinema standard at this point. I
think the first time we discussed him was in our
episode on shock Waves, which came out the same year

(32:05):
as this. You know, this is what can you say?
This is Hammer's Doctor Frankenstein, this is Star Wars's Grand
Moth Tarkan. So he's always solid, whether he's playing a
villain or a hero. Though this is, as Graves points
out in the material on the Blu Ray later day Cushing,
during which he's generally more memorable and smaller, more intense

(32:27):
roles rather than bigger villain roles or you know, more
pronounced roles like this.

Speaker 3 (32:32):
I want to say he seemed especially angular in this film.
Like Cushing always has a striking face with very sharp features,
but in this movie, it's just ridiculous his head. I
was trying to think what it reminded me of, and
I realized he looks like a Boss from the original
Star Fox video game, where it's just polygons, the angles,

(32:54):
the corners. It's crazy.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yeah, I can see the comparison. It is a very
stark face. I mean, when he was a younger man,
he still had a very stark face, and here he's
you know, he's leaner, he's older. You know. I think
at this point he'd been through some you know, some
intense personal loss. His wife of many years had died
earlier in the seventies, and I think that kind of
cast a shadow on him personally for a good decade there,

(33:19):
if not the rest of his life. But again, consummate professional,
very talented, even in a role like this that isn't
really asking him to go beyond any anywhere, you know,
even even though he doesn't really do anything all that
memorable it's still nice when he's on screen. All right?
Who else is in this thing? Okay? We have lou
N Peters playing Laurie. Lou N Peters lived nineteen forty

(33:41):
six through twenty seventeen, also sometimes known as Carol Keys,
beautiful blonde English actress and singer. She started out on
TV in the late sixties, but eventually became a hammer
horror star after appearing in nineteen seventy one's Lust for
a Vampire and Twins of Evil, which had Peter Cushing
in it.

Speaker 3 (34:00):
Peter Cushing plays a kind of witch finder inquisitor sort
of character in that he's the very stern church like
uncle of the twins of the titular Twins of Evil.

Speaker 2 (34:14):
Ah are the twins themselves evil? Or are they just
aw of evil?

Speaker 3 (34:18):
Only one of them is evil? One becomes the sort
of vampire bride of Count Carnstein.

Speaker 2 (34:25):
Is that what he is?

Speaker 3 (34:26):
He's the guy in the So there's like an evil
count in the movie who is a Satan worshiper. He
has dinner parties where he lifts his goblet and says
to Satan, and he seduces one of the two twins,
and that and she becomes evil, but the other one
is good.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
Oh okay, all right. Her other Lun Peter's other horror
credits include the Flesh and Blood Show from seventy two,
Vampira from nineteen seventy four, but I have to stress
not the seemingly lost German TV movie Vampira, directed by
George Morse, starring Grisha Huber and with an early score
by Tangerine Dream. I'd love to get my hands on this.

(35:05):
If you have a copy of this, email us. But
no Peters was in the Vampira movie that is also
known as Old Dracula.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
I don't know that one.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
It's not supposed to be very good. Her TV credits
include two episodes of Doctor Who and a memorable gag
on Faulty Towers. I included a screenshot from this for
You Hear Joe, as well as one of her album covers.
So yeah, she was quite a fairly successful back in
the day.

Speaker 3 (35:31):
Love Countdown is the Leun Peters album.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
Yeah, she's wearing like gold pants.

Speaker 3 (35:36):
Gold pants, yellow top, blonde hair, sort of gold background
with gold lettering it.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
Yeah, all right. We also have a character named Milo
that's going to be important, played by Kostas Kara Georgis,
who lived nineteen thirty eight through nineteen eighty nine. So
his character in this is an American playboy who spends
the first couple of scenes naked in New York, not
on the streets, like in a like a penthouse apartment.

(36:05):
But the actor is a Greek leading man.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
He looks like he's in a room at the playboy mansion,
but in all of his scenes in his room there's
like church organ music playing in the background. Did you
notice that?

Speaker 2 (36:19):
I didn't notice that.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
What's going on?

Speaker 2 (36:21):
Yeah? So this may be his best known international film,
but his other works include nineteen sixty two Sky, nineteen
seventy three's Love on a Horse, and nineteen seventy seven's
Dangerous Cargo, which we referenced earlier. He's kind of a young,
prematurely gray or white haired fella, and I think he's

(36:43):
ultimately he's good in this, but again it's this is
a hard film to gauge anyone's talent on.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
Yeah, I don't think the actor is bad. I think
it's a very poorly written part. His character is very flat,
like he just has basically one type of line, which
is I'm a detective. I need facts, stop with your
day dreaming.

Speaker 2 (37:06):
Yeah, he's like a private detective that I this film.
I'm really floored by what the actual connections between any
given character is to another. Like, yes, we have this
basic idea that Donald pleasants, this kind of Catholic priest
has like this, this long standing relationship with these these

(37:28):
young folk that have gone out all over the world.
But I don't know what that was like he was
he a teacher, did he raise them? I don't. I
just don't know.

Speaker 3 (37:37):
They don't make it seem like that. So yeah, but
it's very perplexing. He he's father Roach. Father Roche sorry
for Roche, is an Irish priest living in Greece who
constantly has American archaeology students coming to live at his
house while they do archaeology.

Speaker 2 (37:58):
Yeah, in his main finding characteristics are, you know, likes
the young people, he's hip with the young people, loves
God of course, hates minotar.

Speaker 3 (38:08):
Cults, hates the devil. He's really not into the devil.
But yeah, also, like you said, it would be one
thing if he was like, oh, yeah, I run a
hostel for traveling students or something, but it's not like that.
It's like he knows all of these students from long before.
He's like, oh, I remember you when you were just
a child. So does he Where does he know him from?

Speaker 2 (38:28):
Was there another movie we were supposed to have watched
or something?

Speaker 3 (38:31):
You know, I think they're trying to set up a
sequel to this movie at the very.

Speaker 2 (38:35):
He did do that at the end, yeah, where they're like,
well the evil is defeated for today.

Speaker 3 (38:40):
But he turns to Milo and he's like, I may
need your help in films yet to come.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
Yeah, if the Getty money continues to pour in, we
may have another adventure.

Speaker 3 (38:51):
But also so that those are our three main characters
when we've got father, Father, Roche, Milo and Laurie that
they're they're the three main casts starting at like a
third of the way in. But also, this movie has
too many characters.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
Yeah, there are a whole bunch of other characters who
really don't do much other than behave in a sexist
manner and then get kidnapped by minotar cults. So we
have Bob Belling playing Tom Belling lived I believe nineteen
forty four through nineteen seventy seven. These dates are not
listed on the major databases, but I spoken around. I
think they're correct, but they could be incorrect. American actor

(39:29):
and model who worked extensively in Greece for a while,
appearing in at least five films, but I'm to understand
he also did some modeling work. Three of his films
were all released in seventy six. This a kind of
Greek jallo film called The Hook, and a notorious video
nasty titled Island of Death, about a pair of British
newlyweds who seem like they're just on a honeymoon and

(39:52):
enjoying life, but then they go on a religious, murderous
rampage through rural Greece. It's kind of universally reviled and
was seemingly his final film before his possible untimely death. Again,
I'm not one hundred percent sure on these dates, but
that seems to be the story.

Speaker 3 (40:09):
I noticed in this movie when I was first watching it,
I saw an actor. I was like, wait a minute,
Brad Douriff's in this. It wasn't Brad Dourif, but at
certain angles, this actor looks a lot like Brad Douraf,
except more with a kind of football player physique.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
Yeah, I think he has a great look, you know,
like clearly he's he's like a cut leading man type
with this kind of like rugged seventies hair and face. Again,
he doesn't really get to do much in this and
once he's kidnapped by the Minotaur cult, like that's it.
You're tied up for the remainder of scenes.

Speaker 3 (40:41):
I guess you wouldn't think that brad Dorof could so
easily with a few tweaks go into like total hunk mode.
But yeah, he's pretty close already. Sorry, we just got
sidetracked with a significant off mic conversation about which guy
was which, whether which Tom was witch character and Ian
was which character. But I think all the stuff you

(41:03):
just said we are talking about the same guy.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
Yeah. There, the secondary young people are easily confused in
this film, all right. We also have an actor named
Jane Lyle who plays Milo's girlfriend dates unknown British model.
I think she plays the wife in Island of the
Dead opposite Belling. These are her only film credits, though

(41:26):
there is also sometimes a third credit nineteen seventy eight's
Erotic Nightmare. Is she a great actor? Probably not, but
to be fair, she's given very little to do in
this film other than be naked in that penthouse in
New York. One last person of note is that this
film also features Jessica Dublin playing Miss Zagross. She lived
nineteen eighteen through twenty twelve, another American actor who is

(41:49):
working in Europe at the time. Her credits go all
the way back to nineteen sixty nine, but then with
a lot of early work in eurocinema, she appeared in
The Hook, Death Has Blue Eyes, The Devil's Men. Of course,
She's also an Island of Death all in seventy six.
But then she eventually moves back to the States and
appears in the nineteen eighty eight horror movie The Rejuvenator,
and also several trauma films, including Trauma's War in eighty

(42:13):
eight and Toxic Avenger two and three in eighty nine.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
Haven't seen those, and please don't tell me we're going
to start doing trauma films.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
I you know, off the top of my head, I
don't know that I've ever watched one in its entirety.
I remember seeing parts of them on TV back in
the nineties. But yeah, so listener recommendations, let us let's happen.

Speaker 3 (42:35):
I mean, they're you know, they embrace the cheese, and
I feel like they're the kind of film that, on
paper would be something that we should enjoy, but I
just don't like them.

Speaker 2 (42:55):
All right, Well, let's talk about the music. What do
you want to talk about first? You want to talk
about eno or do you want to talk about the
theme song that we get at the credits?

Speaker 3 (43:02):
Oh? Man, how about that rockin theme song?

Speaker 2 (43:05):
Yeah? This is It's titled The Devil's Men, with music
by Carl Jenkins, who I think, unless I'm confused here,
I believe as a Welsh composer born nineteen forty four,
lyrics by Carol Ann Barrett. And then the singer is
Paul Williams, though not that Paul Williams, a different Paul.

(43:26):
This is the English blues and rock singer Paul Williams
who was in the band Zoot Money and Juicy Lucy.
Juicy Lucy apparently also featured future Whitesnake guitarist Nick Moody.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
Juicy Lucy's album titles sound like spinal tap albums. One
of them is pretty much called Smell the Glove. It's
I don't really I'm not familiar with this band much,
but this track was rockin it felt like, you know,
it had a little bit of I was trying to
think what reminded me of Black Sabbath about it, and

(44:00):
I think maybe it was the drums. It had some
kind of more interesting, kind of jazzy drum fills like
Bill Ward does on some Black Sabbath songs. But it
also had this driving, kind of up tempo beat and
some really good synth, and the singer on it sounds
like the guy from Jethro Tull.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can see that comparison. It's kind
of catchy.

Speaker 3 (44:22):
I kind of like it Devil Devil's Mayh.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
But of course, the main attraction here is this terrific
score by Brian Eno born nineteen forty eight. Eno is,
of course, the legendary British musician, composer, record producer and
visual artists. I got it. I'm tempted to say bet
perhaps best known for his ambient work, but I mean
it's really too limiting to say that, because he's I mean,

(44:50):
his work encompasses pop, rock, funk, electronica, all sorts of stuff.

Speaker 3 (44:56):
I was just trying to remember when I first became
aware of who Brian Eno was and I think I
discovered him through his collaborations with David Bowie. So I
think like when I was in high school, I first
heard some of those three Berlin albums. I heard like
low and I was like, oh wow, what is all

(45:18):
this real? Like spooky, haunting synthesizer, And I found out
Brian Eno had been a collaborator on these albums and
was partially responsible for the sound and direction of them.
But yeah, God, where do you start with Eno? That's
my personal story.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
Yeah, yeah, I mean he he played synth and roxy
music from seventy through seventy three. He's still active today,
still producing, still writing, you know, still building up that legacy.
When now I guess it's in a way it's easier
to just sort of like hone in on his work
with film over the years, because when it comes to film,

(45:54):
his tracks and tracks that he's produced have been featured
on various soundtracks. His track an Ending Assent from the
nineteen eighty three album Apollo Atmospheres and Soundtracks has popped
up in more films and TV shows than I can list.
Absolutely amazing ambient track. He has also had composed isolated

(46:14):
tracks for films over the years, including the prophecy theme
from David Lynch's Dune in eighty four and from the
beginning from Dario Argento's Opera from eighty seven. He's also
composed a number of tracks for non existent films, and
I'm not deep enough on the background of these tracks
to know which ones were were in fact tracks he

(46:37):
composed for films that don't exist, that are kind of
like in the spirit of score composition, and I think
some of them were also like originally intended for film
product projects and they didn't come together. But you'll find
these on nineteen seventy eight's Music for Films and nineteen
eighty threes Music for Films, Volume two. But as far
as complete eno scores for films where like he's doing

(46:59):
the soul score work, he did some scores for Derek
Jarman Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones in two thousand and
nine and also the two thousand and five film The Jacket.
His score for The Devil's Men aka Land of the
Minotaur was I believe, his first full score and for film,
and his only his second composition for film, following a
short nineteen seventy film titled Berlin Horse. In terms of

(47:23):
his discography. This comes out in seventy six, so it's
following his work with Robert Fripp on seventy five's Evening Star.
This is an album that JJ was talking to me
about and recommended that I listened to and indeed is awesome.
This also comes out after his solo album seventy four
is Here Come the Warm Jets, seventy four's Taking Tiger

(47:46):
Mountain By Strategy, seventy five's Another Green World, and nineteen
seventy five's Discrete Music. The weird thing about this score, though,
is despite the fact that it's Eno, I don't think
it has ever been released, and none of the acts
are seemingly featured on his release film Music nineteen seventy
six through twenty twenty. So I'm not sure if it's

(48:06):
a rights thing or if it's a situation where ENO
is not you know, doesn't look back on this music favorably.
But I mean, to my ear, I think it sounds
wonderful and it seems like the sort of film score
that film fans would jump at, and also Eno complete
as would jump at.

Speaker 3 (48:22):
I agree, and you know, I was thinking about this.
I can't say for sure because I knew about ENO's
involvement before I started watching the movie, but I feel
like the music here is so distinctively Eno that I
might have identified it even if I hadn't known. Like,
the first track we hear in the movie is actually
very simple. It only has a few elements. There's kind

(48:44):
of a lower droning pad, like a robot moaning softly,
and then there is there's what sounds kind of like
a tape loop effect, introducing little rhythmic hiccups and interruptions
in the drone, and then there's a soft higher part
that's basically just stepping back and forth between two notes.
So it's a pretty simple track, but I think it's

(49:05):
just unusual for a movie of this kind, and its
mood imbues what you're seeing on the screen with so
much more interest and emotional paradox than would be there otherwise,
Like it is at the same time calming and unnerving.
It kind of feels like it's safe to settle down
and go to sleep, but also it suggests a question

(49:27):
like is there danger?

Speaker 2 (49:28):
Yeah, I mean really in the opening scene there's about
to be a Satanic sacrifice, but the music does kind
of imbue you with that feeling of like, yeah, I'm
feeling kind of chill about this. Then you kind of
reflect on that and compare that feeling to what's actually
happening on the screen. A dreamlike quality sets in.

Speaker 3 (49:47):
So there's not a ton of it, but I think
it's a very very good score.

Speaker 2 (49:51):
Yeah, so, you know, I would like to hear it
in isolation, but I dotter maybe Brian, you know, has
different thoughts in the manner, and you know you can't
argue with you know.

Speaker 3 (50:02):
All right, we're going to talk about the plot a bit.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
Yeah, let's get into the plot.

Speaker 3 (50:06):
As I've mentioned before, I love a film that begins
by showing you its papers. The disc release here debuts
with a certificate showing that The Devil's Been has been
reviewed by the British Board of Film Sensors and has
been rated X. And I was thinking, really, it doesn't
seem that off the charts to me.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
Yeah, Like I say, this film does not really have
any exploitive elements to it. I mean, there's a little
bit of a full nudity, but it's even so it's
very tame compared to other like naked films of the seventies.

Speaker 3 (50:38):
Yeah, I don't know, so the rated X. But who
are we to question right X? So saith the right
Honorable the Lord Harleck KCMG, president of the British Board
of Film Sensors, and so I briefly got interested. I
was like, wait a minute, his name's on this movie.
Who is the right honorable the Lord Harleck KCMG. If

(51:00):
my googling has not led me astray, this is William
David ormsby Gore, the fifth Baron Harleck, who lived nineteen
eighteen to nineteen eighty five, who was a member of
the UK House of Lords and a diplomat, including he
was ambassador to the United States during the Kennedy administration,
and he was an associate of the Kennedy family. Apparently

(51:22):
he proposed marriage to Jackie Kennedy in nineteen sixty eight,
but she turned him down, and somehow that led to this.
So he years later was overseeing the review and classification
of fine films like this one.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
So he's like, what's this one here? Minotaz rated X,
no menotas on my watch.

Speaker 3 (51:41):
I don't know if he actually watched the films. He
may have just been president of the organization. I like
to think he watched every film personally anyway. The movie
proper opens with a deep blue night sky, a full moon,
and dark tree branches looming in the foreground, and there
is ambient music. There are owls and insects chirping in

(52:01):
the dark, and then we see figures walking through the
night around a Greek city on a hill, or maybe
not a city, more like a Greek village on a hill.
There are men in multicolored robes and hoods, like inquisitors,
marching between the houses and climbing up the rocks to
a secret cavern.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
Yeah, like we said earlier, these various shots of like
the Greek countryside and Greek cities and so forth, Greek ruins,
they look good. I mean, it's attractive looking. I mean,
even though some of the footage I looked at from
Island of Death like nothing else you can say like
this looks looks like a cool place to visit.

Speaker 3 (52:38):
Agreed, I like the rocky crags. And here's where we
get that eno track I was describing a minute ago.
But your classic cult sacrifice scene starts to unfold. There
is an ancient stone temple with columns and archways and
menacing statues of bullheads and double bladed axes, and then
somebody cranks a wheel and the giant statue of a

(53:01):
minotaur emerges from beneath the floor. And this isn't just
any minotar statue. This one has full blow torch nose,
jets of flame blasting out of each of his nostrils.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
That's right. It's a magical, technological marvel. I think it
also has genitalia, which I think was also pointed out
on the the IMDb parental notes for this film.

Speaker 3 (53:26):
That's what got it an X rating. The full frontal
mintar statue.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
Nut a Minita penis rated X.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
You know one thing about the minotar statue on its nose.
Rachel and I were watching this, and she pointed out
that she could see the texture of the paper mache
on the on the nose. They're like, you can see
sort of strips of cloth and paper.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
That's a good note. I was noticing the texture, but
I didn't, like instantly identify what it was. But I
was thinking about the fact that I guess most of
the people that originally saw this film would not have
seen that texture. You know, there's so much that's lost
in the prior projection of these films.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
I guess I imagine this primarily playing on television, but
I don't know, maybe.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
Not not without X rating.

Speaker 3 (54:18):
Oh that's a good point. Okay. So acolytes in red
and green satin robes. They light fires in a semicircular
trench on the floor. It's surrounding not an altar, but
three stone reclining chairs.

Speaker 2 (54:32):
Okay, all right.

Speaker 3 (54:34):
Some cultists bring in a man and a woman who
are dressed not like the rest of the cult. They're
wearing just seventies straight clothes and looks like we've got
some victims. So they're placed on these stone recliners. Peter
Cushing appears and he is the head cult member. He
stands in the middle of the room in a red
robe with a big gold minotaur chain around his neck,

(54:55):
and he says, we cover our faces in sight of
our Lord. And then every and the cult repeats his words,
and they all pull masks down over their faces, and
the minotaur statue is just snorting so much fire.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
Yeah yeah again, Minotaur statue looks good, strong atmospheric opening.
I feel like I love the set. I like the
multi colored robes that seemingly hint at different ranks in
the colt. So this is not just a black robes
in the darkness kind of a cult. You know, they
put a little color into it. I looking back in
these sequences, though, they are revealing that all the villagers

(55:32):
are members of the cult. I don't think I necessarily
got that the first way through, But there's not like this.
It kind of takes the punch out of any revelation that, oh,
all the villagers are in the cult. Like, no, you
know that from the get go.

Speaker 3 (55:43):
Yeah, they're all pretty much there. And then you know what,
not just the adults, the kids too, because there is
a young girl in a cult robe. She comes up
to the two people in street clothes on the stone
recliners and she stabs them in the heart with a knife.
And I think I saw a comment somewhere online and
asking is that the director's daughter in that role? And
I have no idea, but I want to believe that.

Speaker 2 (56:06):
Well. Either way, it's just super creepy. I love it.

Speaker 3 (56:08):
So the human sacrifice is done, the people are dead.
I guess that was for the minotaur. Did he like it?

Speaker 2 (56:16):
There's no way to know. It doesn't. Again, there's nothing
you can even compare to in the like the classic
more or less canonical minotar myth, Like what does this
do for relations between you know, the the an ancient
crete and the rest of the of of the ancient world,
Like there's none of that, Like nobody's been thrown into

(56:38):
a labyrinth. We have nothing to go on here.

Speaker 3 (56:40):
Oh but there's a hilarious choice here.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
Oh yes, the opening titles. The letters for the opening
title blast out of the freeze frame minotaur's nostrils, just
an absolutely excellent choice.

Speaker 3 (56:52):
Right, so it snorts out the I don't know, snort's
the right word that implies the air is going in
it like uh sneezes out the letters that formed the
Devil's men, and then freeze frame on the fire. It's
like duh. And then there were some legitimate chortles at
that moment on our couch, but because it sounds like

(57:14):
the kind of idea like a seven year old would have,
you know. And then the words come out of the
monster's noseholes. Yeah, so that's good. And you might think
this is the part since there's a freeze frame that
you you know, cut to the uptempo rock theme, But no,
not at all. Instead, we transition to a different ambient track,

(57:36):
another big spooky mood. I guess it's Eno again, And
this one is actually very spare, with a lot of
space in it, and the main motif is made of dissonant,
swelling synth chords that sounded to me like a choir
of ancient mummies sighing on the other side of a wall.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
Yeah. It immediately pulls you back in and you're like,
oh no, he knows being real serious here, so I'm
gonna serious too.

Speaker 3 (58:10):
But okay, on to more action. Now we're in the daytime,
children running through the streets kicking a soccer ball.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
Yeah yeah, I see these kids come running through the
streets though in a dusty European town, and I immediately
assume they're going to start pelting the local hunchback with
rocks or cabbages or something. That probably says more about
my viewing habits than anything. Yep.

Speaker 3 (58:30):
So there's a local police inspector. He's receiving a phone call.
It's from a man named Father Roche, and that's Donald
Pleasance again playing an Irish priest living in Greece. Father
Roach is like, hey, how come so many people keep
disappearing in your village? He mailed this cop a letter
and a photo of two students who had been there

(58:52):
and went missing recently, And what do you know, it's
the two people from those Stone Recliners that we saw
being sacrificed to a menotaur. But he doesn't know that.
So the police inspector says to him, you can't expect
me to keep track of every person who goes missing
in my jurisdiction, and okay, And Father Roche suggests that
they may have been victims of murder, and the police

(59:12):
inspector gets real mad and says, why don't you stick
to your job and I'll stick to mine. And I disagree.
I think they should trade jobs.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
I want to point out, and this is something I
didn't get at first. But the police inspector is clearly
one of the cultists, Like this actor was clearly one
of the cultists, pulling a hood over his face for
the for the sacrifice. So there's no there's no you know,
suspicion or mystery here. Like he's clearly in with the cult.

Speaker 3 (59:42):
Everybody's in the cult, everybody. So we see Father Roche
in his humble office and he's pondering a gold trinket
on his desk, which is a little bull head hmmm.
And then we see him going about his business. So
he walks on the hillside and he talks to the locals.
We see him kneeling alone in a tiny rustic chapel
and praying, and then we see him writing a letter.

(01:00:04):
By the way, there are a lot of letters, handwritten
letters in this movie. He's writing it to Milo Kea
in New York. And so then and then we fade
to New York, just like come up on the New
York skyline.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Yeah, so far this movie set itself up again kind
of like a full car movie. But no, it's more
of a globe trotter apparently.

Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
I guess. So when we first meet Milo, he is
lying naked on a bed with pink sheets and pillows,
smoking a cigarette. His chest hair is catching a shaft
of sunlight. Milo, he creates the impression of kind of
shaggy cad. He's got puffy gray hair. Though he's a
young guy. He's one of those young guys with gray hair,

(01:00:45):
dark eyebrows, and a very sarcastic, almost mean kind of edge.
He's hanging out with his lady friend in this bedroom.
That's just crammed with candles and liquor bottles and stuff.
But again, this is the room where there's church or
music playing.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
Yeah, And when we check in with him again in
New York, it seems to be the same room, the
same setting, still naked. So it implies that whatever his
job is supposed to be, the only thing he does
in New York is sex pretty much.

Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
Yeah, so he's hanging out here. He gets the letter
from father Roche like his lady friend is like, oh,
there's mail for you, and so he opens it up
and he's reading it. She sees him reading the letter
and is jealous. When she sees him reading, she's like,
who is she? And she takes the letter and then
she reads it and she's like, oh, it's just that
unwell irish priest that you are constantly exchanging letters with.

(01:01:39):
And my love is like, Okay, maybe he's gone a
little too far with some of his minotaur theories, but
lay off him. This is a direct quote. He's the
best friend I ever had.

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
Oh, no additional detail on that, really, but he seems sincere.

Speaker 3 (01:01:55):
How do they know each other? Well? She says these things?
He he keeps writing you about students disappearing, being swallowed
up by some ancient magic or something. It's crazy, it's medieval.
And Milo says, yeah, I don't really believe him, but
you know, he's a good guy. Even though and even
though Father Roche is a good guy, and he's asking

(01:02:16):
Milo to come out to Greece to help him investigate
the missing students, he will not do it. He's going
to stay here in New York and mostly just stay
in bed and in fact, never even put his clothes
on or leave the house.

Speaker 2 (01:02:27):
Right, Yeah, very little to suggest he wears clothes in
America at all.

Speaker 3 (01:02:31):
I think he's supposed to be a private detective.

Speaker 2 (01:02:35):
I guess that makes as much sense as anything.

Speaker 3 (01:02:37):
Sure, so there's more globe trotting. A group of three
archaeology students show up at Father Roche's house to stay
there while they're doing some kind of field work.

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
Oh this is where they drive up in the Australia van, right,
the super confusing van that says Australia on the front.
And at this point in the film, I was like,
are we in Australia. I don't know, we were just
in New York. Maybe this is truly an international picture
going on? Here. But I think the idea is that
this is like the hippie fun bus that has brahas

(01:03:10):
driven to Australia.

Speaker 3 (01:03:11):
I think it has the names of other countries on
different parts of the van as well. I think it
just says Australia on the front. But okay, we got
the three archaeology students here, we got Tom. Well, actually, no,
I think maybe I'm getting the names mixed up. I
was gonna say Tom is the one with the dark
hair and the beard who looks like a member of
Still Water. But if you're correct, you're saying that was

(01:03:33):
actually Ian.

Speaker 2 (01:03:35):
Yeah. Ian is played by Nico's Verlicus, who is an
actor and I think a director as well. He's still
I think he's still around and had a pretty big career.
But yeah, just a very handsome, like Greek Jesus or
Hercules type of a figure here.

Speaker 3 (01:03:52):
Okay, that you're saying that's Ian, So that would make
Tom the one who looks like football Brad Doriff, Yes, okay.
And then you've got Beth who has long hair, big
radiant smile, very short short So we were joking at
Rachel and I were noticing that, like there's a scene
where she's standing next to one of these guys who's
wearing such huge jeans that they're basically jincos, and there's

(01:04:15):
like enough material in his pants to make a whole
second pair of pants for her. Yeah, but so anyway,
Father Roche takes them inside. He's going to feed him
some food. And here, oh boy, we get a table
setting scan. We love to examine movie set food more
closely than it was meant to withstand. So Father Roche
cooks his three guests a big skillet of food of

(01:04:37):
some kind, and it looked to me like the skillet
had whole unchopped basically raw tomatoes in it, and then
some kind of steaming white substance. And at one point
Ian gets served out of the pan and it looks
like Donald Pleasants reaches in with the spoon and like
serves some food, but what comes out is just one
huge floppy lasagna sheet onto his plate and not much else.

Speaker 2 (01:05:01):
Well, you know it's served with love, though, so you
don't you don't question it. But it could just as
easily have been a meal served up by like a
harsh witch in another movement than just as fitting.

Speaker 3 (01:05:12):
Yeah, this is baba, ye got let's eat it. So
the main point of their meeting here is that Father
Roche tries to talk them out of going to the
village where they're headed. They want to go do archaeology,
but he's like, no, students keep disappearing there, and so
he thinks he's talked to them out of it. Everybody
goes to bed, and then the students, of course, they

(01:05:32):
sneak out and they go to the village anyway, They
go to the Village of Death and camp their intents.
They know no fear.

Speaker 2 (01:05:38):
Yeah, you know, we know how this is going to
turn out for them, though, there's no question.

Speaker 3 (01:05:42):
And then meanwhile we see Father Roche almost it's like
he's playing with minis or something. He's got a parchment
map and all these shapes and lines on it, and
he's arranging the minotaur trinkets on it.

Speaker 2 (01:05:53):
Mm yeah, yeah, I guess they are kind of like mini's.
This would have really been more Peter Cushing's thing, who
was a famously, you know, a a miniature soldier enthusiast
and painted them and so forth. A man after my
own heart.

Speaker 3 (01:06:05):
So while they're camping, either Tom or Ian, whichever one
it is, writes a letter to somebody named Laurie, another
blonde woman, telling her this is gonna be the third
similar looking blonde woman of the movie, telling her about
his quest for knowledge of the past and asking her
to come join them in Greece. And the next morning
he gives the letter to Beth, asking her to mail

(01:06:27):
it when she goes into town to buy groceries.

Speaker 2 (01:06:30):
You know, in this film, we will later find out
that the only thing that really works against the cultest
is God's stuff. So it is kind of weird in
retrospect that he's reaching out to all of these archaeologists
and non church people when really he should have just
brought in one or two other priests and they could
have knocked this cult out in an afternoon.

Speaker 3 (01:06:50):
But he doesn't even know it's a cult yet. He
doesn't know that he's just looking to find the secrets
of ancient Greece. Oh okay, oh waiter, are you talking
about Father? Are you talking about Father Roche bringing people in?

Speaker 2 (01:07:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:07:01):
Yeah, Oh, I'm sorry, I was confused. I thought you
were talking about either Ian or Tom the guy riding No.

Speaker 2 (01:07:07):
No, no, they're basically I mean, they're just they're just
ponds in this whole scale but right, right, right, But yeah,
I think Father Roach should have brought in like one
or two other priests and he could have handled everything
in just like an hour or two.

Speaker 3 (01:07:19):
I apologize I was confused, Yes, exactly right. He should
have known better. He even says it later when when Milo,
So he's the guy who summons Milo. Milo just wants
to shoot a gun at everything, and he's like, you fool,
you fool, that will not work, called us a bulletproof.
But Beth goes into town to buy groceries. Oh and then,

(01:07:39):
by the way, while they're the three of them are
hanging out, there's a creepy guy with binoculars up on
the cliffs above watching them, and the we get the
Brian Eno mummy size going and so we know something
is really wrong here. And the guy watching them, he's
some sort of chauffeur. He's in a uniform driving a
fancy black car.

Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
M yes, and this'll find out as Peter Cushing's driver.

Speaker 3 (01:08:02):
So, while Beth goes into town, Tom and Ian explore
the ruins of an ancient temple, and while wandering around
among the weathered stones and the columns, they find a
secret doorway covered with the double axe symbol and then
they open it up. Passageway leads down into a cave
full of stalactites and stalagmites, interesting rock formations. It actually

(01:08:24):
is a beautiful cave. And so they're wandering around the
caverns and they find a couple of dead bodies wrapped
in a red cloth, and what do you know, it's
the two people from Father Rosch's photograph. And then we
get a minotaur jump scare. There's a minotaur statue just
right there at him, fire nose blasting, and it says
those who enter the forbidden Chamber of the Minotaur must die.

(01:08:48):
Camera zooms in on Tom and Ian's faces. They appear
to be taking this news rather stoically. They just kind
of like boom, okay, and then it fades out.

Speaker 2 (01:08:56):
Yeah, kind of perplexed.

Speaker 3 (01:08:58):
I mean, I guess that would be just con fusing.

Speaker 2 (01:09:01):
Yeah, in this bright, bright cave, which just so brightly lit.

Speaker 3 (01:09:05):
It is quite you're right, I didn't even think about that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:08):
Yeah, but it's a beautiful cave. So it's like you
want to show everything. It's kind of like the reverse.
If your your cave set is barely cutting it, you're
gonna turn those lights way down. But when it's this beautiful,
actual cave environment, yeah, light it up.

Speaker 3 (01:09:23):
So we see Beth shopping in town. She gets a
kind of icy reception from this lady she meets. There's
like a lady with redhair pushing a baby carriage, and
the lady buys some meat and then puts it in
the carriage with the baby, and Beth is like, cute baby,
and the woman just gives her dagger eyes. And then
outside the market, Beth meets Peter Cushing and he is

(01:09:45):
a very polite, courteous, genteel man. He's wearing a wool
jacket and a nice suit. And Beth drops a bag
of what looks like cheese puffs or something in the street,
and he picks it up for her and then has
his chauffeur help her with her grown.

Speaker 2 (01:10:01):
Doesn't she call it like, oh, my product or something
like that.

Speaker 3 (01:10:04):
Yeah, I think she says, my package, my package, Yes,
my package, but it's a bag of cheeseballs.

Speaker 2 (01:10:11):
Yeah. I mean, you know, I guess if you're in
the in the presence of Peter Cushing, you know, you
may scramble your words. And afterwards she's like, oh, why
did I call my cheese puffs, my package, Oh my god,
so embarrassed.

Speaker 3 (01:10:23):
Well, she explains that she's an archaeology student. She's here
to do archaeology, and he says, well, I am baron Corrafax.
This castle is my castle and you're on my land.
And it's like, oops, oh, I guess we didn't clear
that with him ahead of time. But he says, don't
worry if you're genuinely interested. This is one of the
oldest pagan sights in the country. Her answer to this is,

(01:10:47):
are you a real baron? He says, it's an ancient
title in his own land, which is Carpathia, but now
he lives here, and I got so true ripped up here.
We had to pause it and try to figure out
is he saying hereditary titles and lands are transferable from
Carpathia to Greece, Like, can you trade in your Carpathian

(01:11:11):
barony for a Greek castle?

Speaker 2 (01:11:13):
Well, European royal families. It's complicated, right, yes.

Speaker 3 (01:11:19):
Yes, you see it is because I am my own cousin. Well, anyway,
so he's friendly. He offers to help her and her friends,
and then she drives away. She asks for her package
and he gives her the cheese doodles and then she
drives away, and then the Mummy starts sighing in the
Eno score and he gives a devilish look, so we know, oh,

(01:11:41):
he's up to no good. And when she gets back
to her campsite, Tom and Ian are nowhere to be
found and the tents are gone, so she goes to
look for them at the Temple Ruins. We see her
later that night walking outside the baron's estate and then
dudes in cult robes just kind of wander up to
her and she screams.

Speaker 2 (01:11:59):
Yeah, she's genuinely worried there because like Tom and Ian
don't seem to know how food works, and they're out
there alone without cheese doodles, and it's just gone from
from from bad to worse here.

Speaker 3 (01:12:10):
They do genuinely seem like they're like, oh, no, we
need Beth to cook for us and otherwise we will starve. Yeah,
so we transitioned to a plane landing, and let's get
a good look at that plane. Oh it's it's on
the runway now, Okay, now it's turning around. Did you
see the engines? Here are the jet engines.

Speaker 2 (01:12:30):
Yeah, get some good globe trotting stock footage.

Speaker 3 (01:12:33):
And we meet another blond lady. This is Laurie, who
either Tom or Ian wrote the letter to and she
goes to stay at Father Roche's house. She's like, Hey,
what happened to my boyfriend? Why didn't he meet me
at the airport? And Father Roche is like, I have
had enough of students disappearing. We've got you know, we've

(01:12:54):
got to put a stop to this. So he finally
commits to doing the charges of a long distance call
to call Milo at his house on the phone and
demand he come to Greece to investigate. And then like
the very next moment, Milo's there in Greece.

Speaker 2 (01:13:08):
Yeah. It's like, Milo, I need you to put pants on.
I need you to find your passport, and he does.

Speaker 3 (01:13:13):
Milo doesn't own pants, so I'm sure he has to
send out for some. So then we get the three
of them driving in a car on a country road
and Milo is driving fast and recklessly, and Donald Pleasantce
is like, I'd have taken the bus if I'd known
you were such a speed demon. And this is a dynamic.
I said earlier that this is a movie where the

(01:13:36):
same conversations just happen over and over again, and this
is definitely one of those things. There's like, there are
like four different scenes where they are driving a car
and he's driving too fast and they talk about it,
how he's driving too fast.

Speaker 2 (01:13:50):
Yeah, yeah, because we come back to this later where
he's like, yeah, way, they're just talking about the same
thing again, more driving, more moving from point A to
point B.

Speaker 3 (01:13:59):
Another conversation that repeats many times is Milo saying I'm
just a simple private detective, ideal in facts, not demons
and devils, And of course Father Roache is like, well,
you know, you'll learn soon enough. So they're driving around
I guess they're trying to start their investigation, and they
stumble across a funeral where there is a sudden, weird,

(01:14:20):
psychic mind meld between Laurie and the local girl. Wait
a minute, was that the girl wielding the knife in
the cave earlier?

Speaker 2 (01:14:28):
Oh yeah, yeah, another nice scene of this girl staring
blank expression at the camera. I think eno music kicking in,
making it nice and creepy and dream like. I like it.

Speaker 3 (01:14:39):
So they stay at the local inn, and then later
this night there is a scene that's really funny where
Laurie is like in the bath and then the cult
members I guess are trying to come get her. They're
like one's coming in the door and another one's coming
in the window, and she sees them. And then when
they see that she sees them, they like run away,
so they like retract their heads through the doors and

(01:15:00):
the windows and like slam them shut. And we see
this happen about seventeen times. So Laurie's like, hey, there
were guys in weird hoods trying to get me in
the bath and Milo doesn't believe her. He's like, oh, yeah,
you were just dreaming or something.

Speaker 2 (01:15:16):
He deals in facts, that's.

Speaker 3 (01:15:17):
Right, But yeah, nothing she says is even supernatural or anything.
She's just like, guys attacked me while I was in
the bathroom. Is like, that is a perfectly factual seeming statement.
So the next day they explore the temple ruins. They
find the passageway, they go down into the caverns, they
find the sacrifice room. There is a chandelier trap where

(01:15:39):
Milo saves Donald, Pleasance and Laurie from a falling chandelier
and they they I think, Milo goes up to like
the rope that has frayed and says, oh, is this
an act of God? And then Donald Pleasant says, there's
someone here. I can feel him all around me.

Speaker 2 (01:15:57):
Yeah, this is a great set in this The chandelier
trap is one of the few action sequences in the
whole picture, so of course it's in that trailer, but
I do love the set.

Speaker 3 (01:16:07):
Let's see so skipping over a few things here, Roche
and Milo. Oh, there's one point where they go and
speak to the baron at his house. He like sends
a car for them, and not a lot comes out
of the scene. The baron is We learn that he's
an exile from his home country, and they kind of
play trade some pleasantries, and then we see the lady

(01:16:28):
with the baby from the grocery store and she says
she is staying with Baron Korafax, And we see the
baby playing with this gold artifact and Donald Pleasant says
it's an odd toy, and Cushing says it is old,
but not odd. It is the liberis and Donald Pleasant says,
I know it is the ancient symbol of the Minoan priesthood.
And then later he explains to Milo when they're alone

(01:16:51):
after they've left the house, he says, I didn't want
to say too much. But it's also a symbol of
human sacrifice. And then Milo's is like, shut, it was
just a toy. I only want facts. By the way,
remember that Milo said Donald Pleasants is the best friend
he's ever had.

Speaker 2 (01:17:09):
And again Milo's supposed to be a detective, but the
tech detective work in this film is pretty shoddy. We
don't feel I don't really never felt like we really
have a detective story. It's the investigation portion of the
film is just just feels kind of sloppy and with
lacking in direction.

Speaker 3 (01:17:26):
So they come back to the end that night. Oh
and by the way, there's a recurring theme with like
this woman from the village who wants to talk to them,
but every time she wants to talk to them, one
of the like the police inspector, will pop up from
behind a bush and kind of grunted her menacingly, and
then she'll get scared and run away. So that happens
a few times, and then they find her dead at

(01:17:48):
the end.

Speaker 2 (01:17:49):
Yeah, I think this is Jessica Dublin, by the.

Speaker 3 (01:17:51):
Way, Okay, missus Zagros, Yeah all right. And then also
this night we see Laurie getting chased through the woods
by people in cult robes, like they're chasing her. And
then Milo goes and he hears her screaming, so he
goes and finds her in the woods and she's like,
there were men chasing me and Milo's like, no nonsense,

(01:18:13):
probably just a cow got loose in the woods.

Speaker 2 (01:18:16):
Geez. Yeah, the film is there. Again, it doesn't get
into like really big sexism, but there's just like a
pervasive film of sexism over the entire thing, you know,
Like again, doesn't really get into exploitation territory, but it's
like nobody listens to the female characters at all.

Speaker 3 (01:18:35):
All of the young men at least do not listen
to any of the women. Yeah, yes, I guess Donald
Pleasants is sort of he's listening.

Speaker 2 (01:18:43):
He's listening to everybody. He's hip, he's hip with the
young folk here.

Speaker 3 (01:18:51):
So when the three of them get reunited, they let's see,
they learn, Oh, the whole village is deserted because Roach
had been going out trying to find somebody to help them.
I guess I think maybe because they heard Laurie screaming,
but he can't find anybody, so all deserted. There's no power.
The houses are dark and empty, so they go up

(01:19:11):
to their rooms at the end with candles. But then
Milo goes back down to the bar because he says
he's gonna have a drink I guess in the dark,
and Laurie is scared. She says, there there were people
in the woods, like some human fiend. And here Donald
Pleasant is listening to her. He's like, I know. And
this is where he gives his speech about the devil.
The force acting here is older than mankind, the power

(01:19:33):
without a face. It may have been known as Mephistopheles
or Beelzebub or whatever else, but it is all the same.
It is the devil.

Speaker 2 (01:19:41):
Yeah again it's devils, minotaurs and yeah, all the same thing.
Doesn't matter. I'm opposed to it. Let's go stop it.

Speaker 3 (01:19:50):
So he goes back downstairs, so there's a lot of
just kind of going up and downstairs. Here he goes
back down to Milo, and this is where they have
the exchange about where the devil. Did the whole get too,
and he's like, you said it yourself, the devil.

Speaker 2 (01:20:04):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (01:20:05):
But then it finally reveals where the three archaeology students
from thirty minutes ago were they are in a cave,
still alive, being held prisoner by Peter Cushing, and he
stands in front of them without saying anything, but the
minotaur talks to them. The statue says, only one thing
can save you now, or I guess it does a
creepy voice. Only one thing can save you now. Father

(01:20:26):
Roche must die. He has entered my forbidden chamber, and
I think he's sort of talking mostly to Beth, and
Beth has a vision of herself stabbing Donald Pleasance with
a knife and she's like, oh no, you know it
wants me to kill Father Roche and she says she
won't do it. But Cushing and his chauffeur are both

(01:20:48):
standing there and they laugh like ha ha ha ha
ha ha, and they just wander away.

Speaker 2 (01:20:53):
Yeah, it's like a creepy sequence, but nothing's really done
with it, and like nothing really evolves out of this moment.

Speaker 3 (01:20:59):
There actually a lot of scenes in this movie where
nothing changes plot wiseing nothing new has happened.

Speaker 2 (01:21:08):
But you keep watching because you know there's going to
be a showdown. You know that there's going to be
some sort of payoff of the end, right, so we.

Speaker 3 (01:21:14):
Start getting there, so Roche and Milo. They see more
cult figures moving around or I guess maybe Milo season
for the first time, and then they chase after them.
They chase the cult members, then the cult members chase them,
and there's a lot of chasing around. They get the
two non cult members get locked into some kind of
walled garden and we see a ceremony beginning where Cushing

(01:21:38):
is saying the old customs remain and the ancient gods
live on, which isn't much of a catechism, I don't know,
but everybody repeats this. They're saying all the same things
he's saying. And then we see the archaeology students. They're
tied to poles like prisoners of the Ewoks and brought
in put on the recliners, and Ian and Beth get

(01:22:01):
deposited on stone recliners and the girl stabs them in
the heart or maybe it's Tom and Beth, whichever Ian
or Tom, so they're dead. And later Donald, Pleasance and
Milo just walk up on these recliners and find them there.
I don't know how they got to where this was,
but so they're driving around and at some point they
hit a cultist with their car and then they uncover

(01:22:25):
his face and I think it's the police inspector. Is
that who you thought it was?

Speaker 2 (01:22:29):
I think I think it is, yes.

Speaker 3 (01:22:30):
And he smiles. He's like aha, and he gets up
and he runs away, and Roche says, yes, he was
at the edge of death, but it takes more than
the force of an automobile to destroy them. And I
was thinking, where did he get this info? He's like
Van Helsing, but instead of knowledge on vampires, he has
knowledge on Minotaur cult members.

Speaker 2 (01:22:51):
Yeah, and they're sort of bland powers, bland but impressive, like, yes,
you can survive a gunshot, but it feels like the
kind of thing that would have been impressive in like
a an action adventure serial from the thirties. You know,
that's like the level of threat in magic we're dealing
with with these cult members.

Speaker 3 (01:23:22):
So the next day in the village, everybody is going
about their business, but now Roche and Milo are walking
amongst these people in the streets and they realize all
of these people are members of the Minotaur Cult.

Speaker 2 (01:23:32):
By night, finally putting Linen two together here.

Speaker 3 (01:23:36):
Oh wow, how who would have thought? Also, they realize, whoops,
Laurie has been cult napped in the night, so now
she is she's been taken by them, and they know
she's probably going to be sacrificed the next night. So
the so they're they're trying to figure out what's going on,
and Milo is like, wow, finally finally he recognizes something

(01:23:57):
as up when Laurie is gone, so he he starts
The police inspector comes in the door of their room
at the end, I guess and is like, hey, what's up,
and Milo just starts beating him up and punching him
in the face, throwing him down the stairs until he
is stopped by Peter Cushing, who is like, hey, why
are you beating up a police inspector? And then Cushing

(01:24:19):
pulls a shotgun on him. So it's barren with a
shotgun here, and what's the deal with it. He says
he's going to give them one minute to do something,
maybe to get out of the inn or something, and
then he counts down a few seconds but then shoots
the clock. It's really kind of a squib of a scene.

Speaker 2 (01:24:37):
Yeah, so many squibs in this movie where yeah, it
doesn't there's not really any kind of payoff. It's unclear
exactly like why we were here, But you keep watching
because you know you're gonna get to that big showdown.
There's gonna be a show There's got to be a showdown.

Speaker 3 (01:24:54):
Oh, we're basically there. So Roche and Milo drive away.
Milo pulls a gun out of the glove in the car,
and Donald Pleasance is like, haven't you learned anything? Do
you really think you can stop this with bullets? There's
only one force that can fight them, And so Donald
Pleasance and Milo stop at a roadside chapel to get weapons,
so they get a crucifix and holy water and all

(01:25:15):
this for the final showdown.

Speaker 2 (01:25:17):
I did like that we got to see the sourcing
of the holy water. I feel like this is one
thing the film does well. More often than not, you
see the holy water in a vampire movie or what
have you, it's you know, it's already been collected. It's
just in a little bottle as if you get it
that way and you store it that way. But I
kind of like that we saw the collection of the
holy water in a way. It it's one of the

(01:25:39):
few moments in the film where they successfully build towards
something else.

Speaker 3 (01:25:43):
I agree. I like this scene also also we see
Peter Cushing go to the temple to speak to the minotaur,
and the minotaur, unsurprisingly wants him to kill the priest.
He's like, bring me Father Roach. I don't know why
he's so interested in Father Roach. I think it's because
he entered his forbidden chamber and is still alive. But
that's also true of Milo and of Laurie, who I

(01:26:06):
guess the cult has now in custody.

Speaker 2 (01:26:09):
You know, time was a minotaur would take care of
this problem itself. You know, that was kind of the
classic situation.

Speaker 3 (01:26:16):
Yeah, yeah, but now he's got to get Peter Cushing
to do his work for him.

Speaker 2 (01:26:20):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:26:21):
So there's a final showdown. Milo and Roach go back
to Stop. You know, there's a ceremony going on. You
can imagine exactly what it is. There are no real
surprises at all at the end of this movie. There's
a big ceremony and they've got Laurie there, and then
they've got whichever one of the archaeology students it was
that's still alive, either Tom or Ian. Those two are
still alive and they're going to be sacrificed.

Speaker 2 (01:26:43):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:26:43):
The girl with the knife is there ceremonies going on.
Milo busts in into the ceremony with a gun, but
the cult is basically don't care. They just sort of
ignore him while he's like blam blaming at them, and
they just grab him, you know, because they're in vulnerable
to bullets. Of course, only a greater power can stop them,
so they tie him up to the third recliner at

(01:27:04):
the front of the temple, and I guess they're going
to sacrifice him too. The minotaur statue once again reiterates
those who enter the forbidden chamber of the Minotaur must die.
And then Roche bust he comes in and he defeats
them all. How does he do it? Does he is there?

Speaker 2 (01:27:20):
Any? Is there?

Speaker 3 (01:27:21):
Like a big twist? What is it he's gonna do?
He holds up a crucifix and he says some Latin
he's like in nomine patrees, and then the minotaur and
all of the cult members explode like just shrapnel everywhere.

Speaker 2 (01:27:36):
The least little bit of religion down here, least little
bit of Christianity down in the Minotaur's layer, just explodes.
Everyone except for the coldest children. So anybody in I
think the children are all wearing white robes. Yeah, so
if you have any other color of robe, you just
completely explode.

Speaker 3 (01:27:57):
The green, the purple, the red, they're all exploded.

Speaker 2 (01:28:01):
Yeah, just completely blasted. You know. It's kind of like
a low rent version of the Devil's Rain. Instead of
having them like slowly painstakingly melting for you know, a
good fifteen minutes or what have you, it's just a
few quick explosions and they're done.

Speaker 3 (01:28:16):
But I think this is kind of funny because the
creepy cult girl was the one who actually physically did
all the murders, like she put the knife in the people.

Speaker 2 (01:28:25):
But she's okay, an innocent She's an innocent Joe.

Speaker 3 (01:28:28):
That's right. So she and the other kids they wander out,
and you know, Milo's like, how come they didn't explode?
And Father Roche explains. He says, they are young, their
souls are incorruptible, but the fight against evil goes on.
One day, Milo, I may need your help again. They
are setting up a sequel, and then it cuts straight

(01:28:49):
to the rock track. You know, let's get a sample
of that, Jja.

Speaker 2 (01:29:00):
So groovy. What kind of globe trotting adventures are these
two going to get into? In the next film that
they didn't make.

Speaker 3 (01:29:06):
Oh, maybe they'll go back to Roche's home of Ireland
and there will be a banshee and we'll learn about
how banshee is just the same thing as the Devil.

Speaker 2 (01:29:14):
Yeah, like I think that would be the template Satanic
cult that's worshiping the Banshee. And then they do a
film where they go to somewhere in the US and
it's like a Satanic cult that's worshiping Bigfoot, just whatever,
just which as yes, yes, I mean in all cases
it's obviously the Devil. And then they go to one
and it's like it's a Satanic cult and they're worshiping

(01:29:34):
Oh Jesus, oh this is just a church. Then they're like, okay,
cancel this, this is just another church.

Speaker 3 (01:29:42):
Okay, Well, I think this is definitely not one of
the best films we have covered, But you know what,
I had a great time on today's episode.

Speaker 2 (01:29:49):
Yeah, this is a fun one. I also want to
drive those explosions when the cult members explode, it's not gory,
it's just kind of they just kind of explode. It's
like they're like drift foot. They're yeah, so yeah, this
is a this is a fun one. It's a hard
it's hard to recommend this one too, folks, unless you were,
you know, the completest on any of the talents involved here.

(01:30:12):
I think if you're if you're a big Brian Eno fan,
it's worth checking out. Again. If you're a huge Donald
pleasant for Peter Cushion fan and you just must see everything,
then give it a go.

Speaker 3 (01:30:23):
It's I think this is a good This is a
good movie to put on while you're doing something else.
That's something I like to do sometimes if I'm like
hanging out with people, I put on a silly movie
on low volume that's not too visually arresting. This is
a good.

Speaker 2 (01:30:38):
One, Yeah, I think. I think. In fact, I have
a neighbor who had these years and years ago. I
think he was playing this in his backyard. So yeah,
it's it's it's it's pretty good to play in such
a setting, and you know, the Greek connection is pretty cool.
I like getting to check Greek cinema off to some
degree on the Weird House Cinema International checklist.

Speaker 3 (01:30:58):
This was the one.

Speaker 2 (01:31:01):
Well, we're not doing Island to Death, that's for sure,
but we always, you know, we invite a recommendation from listeners.
So if there is another example of weird Greek cinema
that we should consider, write in and let us know. Yes,
of course, all right, well we're gonna go ahead and
close this one up. Just a reminder that Stuff to

(01:31:21):
Blow Your Mind is primarily a science podcast with core
episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but on Fridays we set
aside most serious concerns to just talk about a weird
film here on Weird House Cinema. If you want to
see a list of all the movies we've covered over
the years, you can go to a couple of places.
We have a profile on letterbox dot com that's L
E T T E R box d dot com. We're
weird House. There there's a list where you can see

(01:31:43):
all the films we've covered over the years, and I
also blog about these movies. That's Immuta Music dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:31:48):
Huge thanks to our excellent audio producer Jjposway. If you
would like to get in touch with us with feedback
on this episode or any other, do suggest a topic
for the future, or just to say hello, you can
email us at contact that Stuff to Blow your Mind
dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:32:08):
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.