Devil's Den

Reviewed by

Christopher Armstead

A strange thing happened while watching IDT entertainments new DTV release of ‘Devil’s Den’. I’m relaxing in my living room, marveling at how crappy this movie is despite the fact that there are a bevy of naked beauties bumping about, topped off with the appearance of the disarmingly lovely Kelly Hu. But about halfway through, without explanation, I actually started enjoying this crap. As far as I could tell, nothing had gotten noticeably better, the dialog was still pretty cheesy, and what little mystery there was supposed to be I had figured out in the first fifteen minutes but by the time it ended, I must say, I ended up actually enjoying it. And for the life of me, I can’t tell you why.

The premise of ‘Devil’s Den’ is pretty darned unoriginal as well in you have two young men cruising down a Mexican road (as if this is Mexico. Please.) with a suitcase full of Spanish Fly. Nick (Stephen Shcub) thinks the pills are a farce but Quinn (Devon Sawa) is convinced they work, so where better to test the worthiness of said aphrodisiac than at an out of the way, off the beaten path, Mexican strip club. This little strip club in Mexico just happens to be loaded with svelte lovelies, although, oddly enough, not a single one of them appears to be Mexican. Our man Quinn slips a pill into the beer of the clubs lead dancer Jezebel (Dawn Olivieri) and after her little stage show she takes my man back for some private lap dance action.

Now there are two other people of note at this strip club. One is Leonard (Ken Foree), a large Black man who for reasons unknown is wearing bi-focals, a breathing tube and an ugly golf hat, and then there’s Caitlin (Hu) who follows Quinn running off

with the stripper with twin silencers exposed raring to blast. Well, turns out Jezebel is a ghoul and is trying to get her eat on with young Quinn, but Caitlin comes in time to save his ass. By this time, Leonard has discarded his breathing tube and bi-focals, pulled out his Shotgun and Katana and is engaging in mortal kombat with the remaining load of stripper ghouls, who are busy devouring the patrons of the club. The only club worker who isn’t a ghoul is dense but busty waitress Candy (Karen Maxwell) who needs constant saving. Seems that Leonard is part of a crew of monster hunters who is trying to kill the Queen ghoul, because killing her means the rest of the ghouls will die, and he believes the queen is Dancer Jezebel. He thinks. Exactly why the skilled assassin killer Caitlin happens to show up at the club is unknown at this time. She didn’t come to kill ghouls as she is as surprised at their existence as our Spanish fly pushers. Now this motley crew must band together, find and kill the queen or they will be lunch!

Seriously though, I can’t figure out why I liked this movie, but I did. The story is a fairly shameless ripoff of ‘Dusk to Dawn’ albeit without the criminally over-developed Salma Hayek writhing on a stage with a snake wrapped around her. I like Salma. The movie was fairly low in the budget, but not rock bottom as it was shot fairly well and the action sequences were decent enough. ‘Devil’s Den’ wasn’t very scary and didn’t have a lot a shock value to it, Kelly Hu is karazy fine, but it’s not like she got close to getting nekkid in this film. I was actually talking to the TV screen (as I am wont to do) begging ‘Devils Den’ to surprise me with the whole ‘who’s the queen’ bit, but they didn’t. Devon Sawa unlocked his best Anthony Michael Hall, giving his role as the put upon Quinn his wise cracking best, but it wasn’t anything to stand up and cheer about, but here I am, on the verge of giving this movie a positive recommendation.

You know, the odd thing is as this moving went on, I actually started giving a damn about the characters and what happened to them. I was actually pulling for these guys through the cheesy dialog, and non-existent thrills. All of the actors involved seemed to be having a good time with the ridiculousness of it all, and through them they managed to shoehorn me into having a good time with them. The end even set itself up as if there will be a sequel, and though this would normally make one groan in painful agony, I’d actually be halfway looking forward it. Though that occurring is mightly unlikely.