Les démoniaques

Plot synopsis:
At the end of the 19th century, on the north European coasts, live three shipwreckers simply nicknamed the "wreckers".
The Captain is their leader, followed by Le Bosco, Paul and the beautiful but perverted Tina.
When two young women accidentally stumble upon these wreckers, they brutally and violently rape them. The next day, the Captain thinks that he is going insane when he sees the women's dead bodies. He wrecks a tavern and gets into a fight with Le Bosco. The Captain, Tina, Le Bosco and Paul go back to the wreck to kill the women, who manage to escape. Wandering around, the women come across a clown who looks after them. The women are unable to speak, but a man tells them he can help them. They communicate via a drawing and the man realises that they want revenge. The women are the only ones who can free the devil from being imprisoned in the ruins of an old castle; by making love to each of them, he will give them the power to get their revenge. The women, now the "démoniaques", return for their revenge. At the beach, they are again attacked by the Captain and Le Bosco, who tie them to the wreck. The Captain goes mad and kills Tina and Le Bosco. He realises that what he has done is wrong, but is unable to save them, and the tide comes in and they all drown.

Tags: paranormal, violence, revenge, murder, sadist

Review:
Even worse, the supposed killing of the two girls (Lieva Lone, Patricia Hermenier).
The acting was atrocious.Now, if you want to see Joëlle Coeur (Fly Me the French Way, Seven Women for Satan) fully naked, and engaging in sex with John Rico, that's a whole other story.The Captain (Rico) hardly has time to enjoy the aftereffects when he is visited by apparitions of the two girls.
Yes, there is the usual mumble jumble ritual, but there is also orgasm.Don't expect a lot of gore in this film.
I think Rollin may have been trying to make an art film instead of a horror film.It is a shame that Lieva Lone and Patricia Hermenier did not stick around to do more films, but another chance to watch Joëlle Coeur is always worth the time..
Pirates, clowns, nude mute girls and sex, French-style..
I have a problem with Jean Rollin films.
Despite all the stylish surrealism, great French locations and nudity I still find his films incredibly boring.
I do appreciate Rollin's persistence of vision throughout his string of poetic sex/horror exploitation films through the 70s (clowns, castles, twins, beaches) but my mind begins to wander during his films and this is no exception.
The plot follows a dream logic known only to the director with too much time spent watching these sailors fight, rape or just sit in a bar.
The worst Rollin film I've seen yet.
Hell, it's even worse than Rollin's later film TWO ORPHAN VAMPIRES (1997), and that's pretty bad.
The only redeeming thing about this film is looking at luscious Joelle Coeur's naked body.
Coeur couldn't act worth a damm, but she sure was great to look at.Anyway, two blond-haired girls are shipwrecked on shore and are raped and murdered by the scavengers who lured their ship up on the rocks with lights.
There's just a lot of rolling around on the ground and it didn't look very violent to me.Their spirits make a pact with the devil(?) who doesn't even look like a devil in some old church ruin near the shore.
There's also a mime or woman in a clown suit who serves no purpose at all.The story is flaccid and hackneyed, the acting is awful (the worst I've ever seen for a French film), and the sets are too bright.
There's nothing scary or interesting going on at all except for Tina (Joelle Coeur) taking off her clothes and prancing around nude all the time.
Oh yes, she has a soft-core sex scene with the lead scavenger captain (John Rico) who looks old enough to be her father.It has all the feel of a bad Jess Franco film.
I hate to twist the knife, but it certainly breathes new life into the expression "Z-grade".The video blurb looked so promising - two girls raped by wreckers, take refuge in an abandoned abbey where they make a pact with the Devil to seek revenge.
Way too much time is spent on watching people walking long distances, or labouring blindingly obvious plot developments (the psychic brothel madam excels at this!)There is not nearly enough skin to compensate for having to sit through this, though some spiritied sex scenes do capture the attention.
The biggest draw of the film for me was the female member of the wrecker gang (character Tina).
I have a soft spot for beautiful girls who get sexually aroused by wicked deeds.Bizarre points include the Devil's two attendants - a female clown, and a Rasputin look-a-like.
After being raped and left for dead, a pair of women suddenly starts to invade the lives of the pirate gang that originally killed them after finding themselves imbued with supernatural powers and set out to take revenge on the gang for what happened to them using those powers.This one wasn't all that bad of an art-house-style horror film.
From the very beginning, featuring the beach rape of the girls as they're tormented by the gang features plenty of such titillating fare as the girls are captured, stripped, raped and disposed of while the fact that a vast majority of the revenge scenes are handled with the idea of the girls seducing the group one-by-one and then killed them off, give this one a lot of such material throughout the film.
Moreover, there are all the inserts of nameless prostitutes and village girls getting fondled and played with alongside the finale of the female leader pleasuring herself to the girls being raped once again in incredibly wild, vivid fashion brings that up a lot as well, and with the general atmosphere found here really gives this one a pretty sleazy feel.
Since the opening shots of the groups' rape and attack of the girls is done almost entirely devoid of dialogue makes for a rather startling and striking opening lasting nearly fifteen minutes before anyone really speaks a word, and the entirety of scenes that go by filled with silence or a more artistic representation really makes this one feel like a much more ambitious film than just straightforward exploitation like the way it's presented here.
Even the action scenes, from the all-girls brawl on he ship to the escape from the underground jail are handled more like an art-house film than a traditional horror film and really manage to showcase extraordinary skills here.
Not just due to the film's art-house look and feel, but the films' reliance on poetic atmosphere and the group going insane from their belief in what's going on makes this rather shock-less for nearly all of it's run-time despite the general plot line supporting such a potential outcome.
The softcore groping and sex scenes don't help matters, but because the revenge finally comes in the last third of the film it rarely feels like much of genre effort and really stands out as the major drawback to this one.Rated Unrated/NC-17: Continuous Full Nudity, strong sex scenes, Language, Mild Violence and several rape scenes..
The first scene on the beach with the young girls rape and attack is very good and the next one in the bar with them appearing as ghosts too...
Unfortunately the movie doesn't go on like that all the time.
There are good and bad moments but the scenes of nudity with Joelle Coeur are erotically very good.
But all in all there is a good atmosphere even if some scenes are a bit too long and some of them are great, like the one where the religious statues fall one after each other on the ground.
Jean Rollin knows how to mix sex and horror, as well as many other authors of that 70's era.
This is not one Jean Rollin's greatest works, but it does have one shinning light, Joelle Coeur, the gorgeous female wrecker.
Like all of Rollin's films (that I have seen) this one is full of all his artistic visions, but for some reason the film still seems slower in it's pace and is a little more difficult to get into.
Like all Rollin's film it's worth watching, but in this instance, only for the gorgeous Joelle Coeur..
Not Much To Say. A group of shipwrecked sailors brutally rape two young woman and the woman re-emerge after making a pact with the devil to get their revenge.More of the same from Jean Rollin.
Rollin does indeed have a unique view of art.If you want to see more of the same nude women and pointless sex scenes, this is for you...
but as far as plots go, this is not one of Rollin's stronger films.
Demoniacs, The (1974) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Four crooks (three men, one woman) work as "wreckers" as they lure ships to the shore only to make them crash on the rocks so that they can loot them.
The latest ship had two beautiful women (Lieva Lone, Patricia Hermenier) wash up on shore so they're raped and eventually killed.
This French-made horror tale isn't the best that director Jean Rollin has to offer but there are enough interesting moments to make it worth viewing to fans of his.
Those unfamiliar with the director will probably want to start elsewhere because while this has some good stuff in it, at the same time you can't help but be disappointed that it's not better.
The biggest problem with the film is that the 95-minute running time seems a lot longer and there are way too many scenes where nothing happens except people just walking around doing nothing.
I'm not sure if he was under pressure to release a film at a certain length but his slow style certainly doesn't help here.
I thought both Lone and Hermenier were very good playing the roles of the dead girls.
The film certainly doesn't ask too much out of them except, for a time, to be scared and at other times being "death" like and they do this just fine.
The real scene-stealer is Joelle Coeur as the beautiful but deadly female wrecker.
Being a Rollin film one can expect all sorts of nudity and we also get some mild gore but nothing strong enough to keep horror fans interested.
The low-budget seems a lot smaller than most of Rollin's work and one can't help but wish a little more was done with the story..
In future I will avoid any film by Jean Rollin like a toothache..
Bizarre but i liked it, it was well made with some impressive directing from Jean Rollin especially the shot near the Ruins.
The story was very interesting if a bit confusing at times, and we get TONS and TONS of nudity!.
Paul Bisciglia is the comic relief here and Joelle Coeur is beautiful but didn't have to do much except act crazy and take her clothes off.
"For God's sake let me kill them." The usual dull Rollin art/horror/sex/exploitation stuff..
Les Demoniaques, or Demoniacs as it is largely known under in English speaking country's, starts on a beach where a gang of four people, one known as the Captain (John Rico), his right hand man LeBosco (Willy Braque), Paul (Paul Bisciglia) & an attractive but deadly woman named Tina (Joelle Coeur) wave lanterns to attract ships which then get wrecked on the rocks & sink at which point they steal anything of any value, these gangs are known as 'wreckers'.
This particular night things go well & they recover some loot, suddenly they see two young women (Lieva Lone & Patricia Hermenier) stagger ashore, obviously survivors from the shipwreck.
LeBosco & Paul rape, beat & generally abuse them while the Captain & Tina have sex together.
The two women manage to make it to the apparently cursed ruins of a Church where the devil resides in a crypt protected by a guy with a long beard & a woman dressed as a clown (Mireille Dargent), they release the devil who gives them the power to extract a terrible revenge on the gang of wreckers...This French Belgium co-production was written & directed by Jean Rollin who made quite a few of these arty surreal horror sex films of which I have not seen many, however I thought Les Demoniaques was an OK film if not exactly brilliant.
The film moves along at a fair pace & never becomes too boring although the character development leaves a lot to be desired, no one in Les Demoniaques has any sort of personality beyond whether they are meant to be good or bad.
The two shipwrecked women are good & are violated innocents while the wreckers are uniformly evil who never stop drinking, fighting & having sex.
No, Rollin is far more interested in the visual side of a film which is not a good thing.
Lots of things don't make any sort of sense as he tries to mix horror, art, exploitation, sex & supernatural elements with uneven results, I was also expecting a big 'pay-off' for the wreckers at the end which unfortunately never materialised, that alone made sitting through the thing rather unsatisfying.Director Rollin lays on the visual style with Les Demoniaques being a very textured film, I love the old wooden boats, the inside decor of the tavern, the stone work of the Church, the bright almost cartoonish costumes & the dangerous looking jagged rocks of the beach.
Personally I think the arty surreal shots in Les Dominaques aren't that distracting, although the scenes in the Church with the clown, crypt keeper & some guy locked in a room who looks more gay than devil like are bizarre to say the least & destroys any credibility that the powerful & graphic opening establishes.
There is far more nudity in Les Demoniaques than violence, in fact apart from some fights & a bit of blood there isn't much graphic horror here while the nudity & sex is plentiful including a couple of very graphic & exploitative sexual assaults which do nothing for me personally.
You should also be aware that Les Demoniaques was filmed in French & I don't think an English language version exists so the sparse dialogue is subtitled throughout.Les Demoniaques must have been a really low budget affair, there are barely any actors in it, it has about three locations, no special effects to speak of & as a whole it could be described as minimalist.
However the locations Rollin chooses are appropriate, from the Gothic Church ruins to a beach full of stranded shipwrecked boats.
The acting is pretty poor from all involved especially the two shipwrecked women who are mute for the majority of the film yet still manage to be awful & irritating, oh & that Tina is a nice looking bird with or without clothes...Les Demoniaques is an OK Euro horror sex film from Rollin, if your a fan of his style of film-making then you'll probably love this, if not then you'll probably hate it.
Four pirates(..labeled "wreckers" for they draw ships with light crashing into the shore to pillage them)ruthlessly rape and assault two blond young women as they walk to shore, appearing from the darkness in nothing but gowns.
Soon the Captain(John Rico), already insane, is haunted by ghostly apparitions of those two girls they left for dead on the shore.
Yet, somehow, the girls survive fending off yet another proposed attack by the pirates, making their way to the "haunted ruins" which holds a demonic presence, imprisoned by two guardians who can give them the power they seek in weakness needed for revenge.I really enjoyed this one, even if I was often left with my jaw open wondering what the hell was going on.
I couldn't help but snicker when the twins make to the haunted ruins and are greeted by the female clown.
Many would probably throw their hands up at that, but I couldn't help but love such an audacious move by Rollin to throw a modern image inside a film representing pirates.
I like how over-the-top the pirates are, even Tina(..let me stop for a moment and gain my composure)who Rollin films in nearly every scene naked, delighting in her devilish ways.
Take, for instance, the Captain who lifts his mug to drink with beer spilling out all over himself, or Bosco(Willy Braque), always morose until he begins to trash the fisherman's bar and brothel.The film is Joelle Coeur for me.
Rollin's camera eyeballs a naked Coeur with her arms stretched to the heavens after their conquest and corruption of the innocence of two girls who had just lost everything.
The wrecking is child's play compared to the rape and destruction of innocence.I liked how Rollin gets his skeleton and bat in the film, by using them as "decoration" in the brothel-pub.
Oh, and I loved that winged creature statue in the brothel-pub as well(..I believe Rollin shoots one of the girl's apparitions next to it when they haunt the Captain).The ruins left me in a state of bliss, particularly how Rollin shoots the female clown guiding the girls to the "crypt-watcher"(..he looks like a Russian czar, or something)down those massive steps.
One of my favorite techniques established by Rollin is how he follows his female beauties, either naked or clothed under a gown or shirt(..just long enough to cover their crotch), holding a candle to guide themselves, as they make their way to a specific destination.I also liked how the final sequence ends with water engulfing the main characters.
Oh, and my favorite scene, besides the bedroom sequence where the Captain is fondling a bird he'd later rip into as Coeur slowly gets naked, is a certain character's death as a piano plays on it's own..
The film revolves around "wreckers," bandits who beached boats and raided the spoils.
The pirates rape the girls.
Still alive, they wander into haunted ruins, guarded by a woman in clown make-up and Rasputin.
The clown woman is bizarre, especially her first appearance perched on a rock.
As you'd expect, female nudity abounds and Rollin frequently frames the nubile bodies in a greater tableau, such as a stark naked babe standing on a bed in a ruined room, chastising the cowering men.Once empowered by the devil, you'd think the movie would become a rampage of revenge.
In the last ten minutes, the movie descends into almost pure allegory, as the mute girls (Did I mention they're mute?) are set upon by their attackers.
I think that's what the movie is getting at, something about the death of innocence.
The girls' tan lines betray the setting."The Demoniacs" is Rollin at his most linear but also his most pretentious.
People siting all around in a bar having sex and the only thing to change that is to fight with one another, a guy kills a girl without noticing, and when a friend gets mad at him for that he kills him too!!
and what's with the clowns, the cheap looking actor playing the wizard or whatever he is, the tide that is rising and the change in water level is very visible!!