SHE DEMONS (1958)

SHE DEMONS (1958)

Tagline: Re-created half beast, half woman!

(Sci-Fi, Horror, In That Case, Just Leave The Mask On) [PG-13]

Note: This movie was not given an MPAA rating, but it definitely would have been a [PG-13]. Theatrically this movie came out as a double feature with GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN. 

What an amusing name for my specimens. She demons! That's very amusing but quite appropriate.

In this one, Fred Makiln, Jerrie Turner, and Fred’s friends Sammy Ching and Kris Kumana end up stranded on an island they are not familiar with. It doesn’t take long before they are taken prisoner by stormtroopers and their leader ex-Nazi Colonel Osler. This isn’t the first time they have taken prisoners (mostly women referred to as “she demons”) on the island and used them to experiment on, to try and restore his wife Mona’s beauty after she was terribly disfigured. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking for Fred, Jerrie, Sammy, and Kris, because the United States air force just happens to use this island as a bombing test site. Can they escape…the SHE DEMONS?

First off, the vast majority of this movie is pretty tame. This kind of threw me off because the movie's advertisements are pretty rowdy for the most part. Towards the end of the movie, we finally get a fairly shocking horror scene but don’t expect actual “demons” in this movie. We don’t get any and I am thankful for that. Having said that, this movie is definitely more “horror” than sci-fi, especially given that crazy scene near the end. 

Acting wise no one is really all that good in this. It seems like if you were making a creepy sci-fi flick in the 1950s you were giving Tod Griffin a call. If it was semi-creepy I guess he wasn’t on the call list. Tod plays Fred in this but was also famous for SHE DEVIL. If there are two standouts among the shaky performances I can point to Rudolph Anders who plays the sinister Col. Karl Osler. Anders was also famous for the sci-fi films PHANTOM FROM SPACE and FRANKENSTEIN 1970. The other decent performance is from Irish McCalla who plays Jerrie. One thing I liked about her role at least was that her character does have some character growth. She goes from a whiney spoiled brat to someone you would want to be trapped with because she will probably outsmart whoever captured you. She was only in 6 more productions after this but is still probably the best part of this movie. 

I think some of the interesting things about this movie are that they save the big shocking reveal till the right moment. The story did move along at a pretty good pace and you felt some sympathy for Mona which was really unexpected. Outside of that, the movie did have some struggles. 

Where this film goes haywire is that we have some pretty jacked-out scenes where you can tell someone was not paying attention. In one scene our heroes are thrown into the outdoor cages where the “she demons” are. The problem is that the cages are open with no visible locks on them. Then the stormtroopers leave and there is no lock to lock. So essentially there is nothing keeping them in. It literally looks like the gate couldn’t even close all the way. This isn’t the only error (there is another one where clothing isn’t there then suddenly is), but this movie is taking itself seriously so obvious errors like that really stand out. 

Overall this ends up being a bit more fun than the producers probably wanted it to be if they were going for straight-up horror. Looking at this flick as a comedy might be the best way to go because if you take this thing too seriously it’s a rough one. I have to say this one lands at a 3 out of 7. You can’t go wrong having Nazis or former Nazis as the villains, but the execution is what knocks this rating down. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF SCREENCRAFT ENTERPRISES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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