The Devil's Assistant

The Devil's Assistant (1917)

02 Apr 1917 • Short, Horror • 0h 23m
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I love it! It's an early adults only-ish exploitation film. No nudity, but the thing goes for the rude shocks like the child dying in birth, an attempted rape, devils poking the damned and the sea of lost souls. Sort of like an Esper film. There's some scenes in hell, devils with dragonfly type wings, and a hilarious friendly looking 3-headed dog in one quick cut. There's even some very effective red tinting in the hell scenes. I loved the way the jilted lover turns into a pointed bearded satanic looking individual who is re-mindful of a character from a lower tier '50 horror comic. He's way over the top and maniacal with bulging eyes and an evil leer. He's even sports horns in one scene. I know it's a silent film (excellent huge organ soundtrack fits the film),but I could swear I heard him cackling at a couple of points. The 2-disappointed lovers in the beginning are so badly acted it's entertaining. This is SOOOO much better than the main feature. This makes me want to see BUD Pollard's THE HORROR all the more. I'm not sure if there is a relationship, but they both seemed to go for that lowest common denominator. I hope they do a go fund me for that film as well. It's at the LOC. I didn't get the feeling there was much missing from the story, so the footage cut from this was not missed at all. I applaud Undercrank for this release and I hope there are more of these exploitation horror films coming. BRAVO!!

Harry A. Pollard
Director
J. Edward Hungerford
Writer
Margarita Fischer, Monroe Salisbury, Kathleen Kirkham
Starring

Language: None, English
Awards:
Country: United States
Metacritic Score:
DVD Release Date:
Box Office Total:

6.9

IMDb (33 votes)
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