A typical late '80s horror film, which has an goodish premise (a direct phone line to Hell), but which loses things at the end. While the film could have been a lot more thoughtful and interesting, it wastes the story and instead gives us lots of special effects and gore, in place of plot development.
However it's not quite as bad as some of the trash turned out in the 1980s, and the story is just about diverting enough to pass the time. Unfortunately, director Robert Englund, better known as Freddy Krueger in the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET series (and for his incessant cameos in many 90's horror films) gives us a rather poor film, this man is an actor, not a director for god's sake, so why did he even bother? Most of the scenes are too dark and it's difficult to see what's going on. Englund's presence is even more obvious in the way that the demon makes stupid wisecracks and jokes at the end of the film, just like Freddy.
The acting is pretty poor. Pat O'Bryan tries to be like Kevin Dillon in THE BLOB remake, but he's never convincing or sympathetic. He's just a clichéd rebel. There is a boring subplot involving a PI investigating the strange goings on, but this is frankly uninteresting. Sandy Dennis is quite good as the religious nutter of a mother (shades of CARRIE here) but is not given enough to do, while Robert Picardo (THE HOWLING, the Doctor from STAR TREK: VOYAGER) steals his single scene as a whacked-out loser who might just be the Devil in disguise. It's left to Stephen Geoffreys (FRIGHT NIGHT) to carry the main body of the film, and while he's quite funny as the nerdish, snivelling loser, he's not in the least bit effective at the end. I mean a tanktop, of all things, doesn't really cut it does it? There are quite a lot of special effect scenes, with people burning and getting ripped open, although there appears to be absolutely no police presence in the city where the film is set. While the gore is not excessive there are lots of people dying in bloody ways, and one girl nearly goes the spider death routine from THE BEYOND, only for the scene to change track halfway through. The demon makeup at the end of the film is surprisingly understated and therefore more realistic, and as the scenes are set in the dark this makes it more believable too.
If you can get over this film's flaws and accept the fact that it's no different from a million others, then you might enjoy it in fits and starts. Or if you're a strange fan of cheesy, poor '80s horror films then you'd probably like it as well. The fact is, though, that the theme of revenge is old (the ultra low-budget MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH did it a decade before, and better), and the theme of selling one's soul to the devil is even older, i.e. with Faust. Critical watchers would be well advised to watch something else, as there is a lot of stuff in here (90% of it in fact) which wouldn't stand up to those with a low tolerance threshold.
However it's not quite as bad as some of the trash turned out in the 1980s, and the story is just about diverting enough to pass the time. Unfortunately, director Robert Englund, better known as Freddy Krueger in the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET series (and for his incessant cameos in many 90's horror films) gives us a rather poor film, this man is an actor, not a director for god's sake, so why did he even bother? Most of the scenes are too dark and it's difficult to see what's going on. Englund's presence is even more obvious in the way that the demon makes stupid wisecracks and jokes at the end of the film, just like Freddy.
The acting is pretty poor. Pat O'Bryan tries to be like Kevin Dillon in THE BLOB remake, but he's never convincing or sympathetic. He's just a clichéd rebel. There is a boring subplot involving a PI investigating the strange goings on, but this is frankly uninteresting. Sandy Dennis is quite good as the religious nutter of a mother (shades of CARRIE here) but is not given enough to do, while Robert Picardo (THE HOWLING, the Doctor from STAR TREK: VOYAGER) steals his single scene as a whacked-out loser who might just be the Devil in disguise. It's left to Stephen Geoffreys (FRIGHT NIGHT) to carry the main body of the film, and while he's quite funny as the nerdish, snivelling loser, he's not in the least bit effective at the end. I mean a tanktop, of all things, doesn't really cut it does it? There are quite a lot of special effect scenes, with people burning and getting ripped open, although there appears to be absolutely no police presence in the city where the film is set. While the gore is not excessive there are lots of people dying in bloody ways, and one girl nearly goes the spider death routine from THE BEYOND, only for the scene to change track halfway through. The demon makeup at the end of the film is surprisingly understated and therefore more realistic, and as the scenes are set in the dark this makes it more believable too.
If you can get over this film's flaws and accept the fact that it's no different from a million others, then you might enjoy it in fits and starts. Or if you're a strange fan of cheesy, poor '80s horror films then you'd probably like it as well. The fact is, though, that the theme of revenge is old (the ultra low-budget MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH did it a decade before, and better), and the theme of selling one's soul to the devil is even older, i.e. with Faust. Critical watchers would be well advised to watch something else, as there is a lot of stuff in here (90% of it in fact) which wouldn't stand up to those with a low tolerance threshold.