Synopsis
A gang of pirates rape the two sole survivors of a ship wreck. The violated girls are rescued by the strange inhabitants of a supposedly haunted island, where they are granted supernatural powers to strike revenge against the pirates.
' ].join(''); if ( adsScript && adsScript === 'bandsintown' && adsPlatforms && ((window.isIOS && adsPlatforms.indexOf("iOS") >= 0) || (window.isAndroid && adsPlatforms.indexOf("Android") >= 0)) && adsLocations && adsMode && ( (adsMode === 'include' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) >= 0) || (adsMode === 'exclude' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) == -1) ) ) { var opts = { artist: "", song: "", adunit_id: 100005950, div_id: "cf_async_9cbe828f-72d6-4766-a518-c901c93a8dc1" }; adUnit.id = opts.div_id; if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } var c=function(){cf.showAsyncAd(opts)};if(typeof window.cf !== 'undefined')c();else{cf_async=!0;var r=document.createElement("script"),s=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];r.async=!0;r.src="//srv.tunefindforfans.com/fruits/apricots.js";r.readyState?r.onreadystatechange=function(){if("loaded"==r.readyState||"complete"==r.readyState)r.onreadystatechange=null,c()}:r.onload=c;s.parentNode.insertBefore(r,s)}; } else { adUnit.id = 'pw-9cbe828f-72d6-4766-a518-c901c93a8dc1'; adUnit.className = 'pw-div'; adUnit.setAttribute('data-pw-' + (renderMobile ? 'mobi' : 'desk'), 'sky_btf'); if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (event) => { adUnit.insertAdjacentHTML('afterend', kicker); window.ramp.que.push(function () { window.ramp.addTag('pw-9cbe828f-72d6-4766-a518-c901c93a8dc1'); }); }, { once: true }); } } tag.remove(); })(document.getElementById('script-9cbe828f-72d6-4766-a518-c901c93a8dc1'));
The Demoniacs
Cast
Director
Producers
Writer
Editor
Cinematography
Art Direction
Composer
Studios
Countries
Language
Alternative Titles
Curse of the Living Dead, Demoniacs - Zwei Jungfrauen für den Teufel, 活死人的咒语, Espasmos de muerte, Dienerinnen des Satans, L'isola delle demoniache, Les Démoniaques, As Demoníacas, Бесноватые, Diablice
Genre
Releases by Date
Theatrical
-
France16
01 Jun 1977
-
USA
Releases by Country
France
05 Dec 1974
- Theatrical16
USA
01 Jun 1977
- Theatrical
Popular reviews
More-
Out of all the Jean Rollin films I've seen, this one felt the most quirky and acts as the middle ground between his early gothic vampire romps of the late 60’s and full on bleakness of his late 70’s/early 80’s films.
The Demoniacs starts off with introductions to our four disgusting pirates and each of their characteristics in a manner akin to a 70’s dating show (only for rapist sleazebag Murderers), and we’re thrusted into their plan of luring ships looking to dock at night towards rocks… using lights to guide the ships to a doomed end where everyone dies a terrible death. All that so they can pillage the wreckage.
Two survivors come towards them begging for help and…
-
Jean Rollin's seaside fairytale. Feels like a bit of a departure from his signature ethereal lesbian vampire films, but The Demoniacs still retains many of Rollin's common elements. The film begins by introducing the nefarious cast of characters before proceeding to the main plot which sees said pirates lure a ship onto the rocks, before raping the two female survivors (to the tune of a score that sounds like something from a pirate adventure movie!) This is more straight laced than many of Rollin's movies but there's still plenty of time for the fantastical elements he is known for. The plot goes on to depict the violated girls gaining supernatural powers in order to get their revenge. There's a woman…
-
Jean Rollin takes his dreary baggage and haunts a seaside rape/revenge flick with powerful-but-mixed results.
Starting off like Last House on the Left but in a folk-horror zone with pirates instead of ex-cons, a small crew of "shipwreckers" brutally assault two blonde girls in nightgowns on a beach and leave them for dead. Paranoia starts seeping in and as it turns out these two girls are still very much alive, fleeing to the haunted ruins for some supernatural support to take that glorious revenge they so deeply deserve.
Gone is the poetic reverie of Rollin's other work, this instead plays out like an exploitation romp, pleasantly cinematic with more music than you'd expect for Jean (he likes to keep things…
-
Extended Export Cut
Very surprised to see a Jean Rollin film not contain vampires, not surprising that it wasn’t fun. All the sexual scenes were so drawn out it was crazy, I’m not even sure any plot happened apart from the intro and the ritual.
-
“Let the ghosts come!”
…shuns generic expectations to become something far more humane and poignant: a celebration of friendship.
— Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, “Rape, Revenge and The Demoniacs”Joëlle Coeur knew how to make use of her body better than anyone….She loved to feign erotic scenes. As a real bitch, she loved to titillate a partner. Shooting an ‘X’ film with her, however, would have spoiled everything.
— Jean Rollin, “The Making of The Demoniacs”Two Virgins for Satan
❗ Watched the 100-minute French theatrical version
Okay, I think I’m Demoniacs pilled. Maybe it was Stephen Thrower’s strong argument for the film in “Vengeance and Purity,” his 42 minute critical appreciation included on the new Indicator release (I’m easily convinced by…
-
Just another Rollin Monday…
Overall I’ve really enjoyed my trip through Jean Rollin’s filmography, but I was bound to hit a clunker or two…and here we are. The Demoniacs is Rollin’s stab at the rape-revenge subgenre that was gaining traction in the 70s, and that’s definitely not one of my favorite subgenres. But being Rollin, as usual he doesn’t conform to the rules and expectations of the subgenre, mixing in fairy tale/fantastique and the structure of the French and American serials he loved as a child.
The villains in this one are a group of four “wreckers”, a type of pirate who use lights at night to trick ships into crashing onto the rocks, where they can then plunder the…
-
💧Daily Horror Hunt #22 – April Horror 2020💧
11. Can't go anywhere on your holidays? Get a taste for travel by watching a foreign horror.😈HORRORx52 (2020)😈
43. Paranormal Horror (Ghosts, Haunted House, Possession etc.)Leave it to Rollin to make what has to be the horniest pirate movie I've ever seen. Like this is hot and bothered even for one of his flicks. Timbers get shivered (eww!), booties get plundered (arrr!), many lasses walk the plank (😑), and this gives all new meaning to blow the man down (I'm so sorry...). ALL HANDS ON DECK!
The actual movie, y'know story and stuff, is more of the same for Rollin fans — beautiful scenery (love that ship graveyard and the…
-
Coming directly after Jean Rollin’s first two outright sex films, The Demoniacs almost feels like his attempt at coming to terms with and reconciling his newfound Michel Gentil persona. Opening with our gang of pirates being introduced Love Boat style and then assaulting our ubiquitous Rollin twins on a beach (not THE beach), the first half of the film plays out more like a sex film, a Gentil film, than anything that’d come before. The lead pirate, a stand-in for the director, feels guilt almost immediately after the exploitation and would-be murder, haunted by the ghostly visages of those he’d violated and used, but unable to do anything about it or to appear weak before his gang.
It’s not until…
-
It happened on a windy night…
There's a particularly captivating image at the end of Jean Rollin's THE DEMONICS (Les démoniaques, 1974), where one of the film's victims is strapped in a Christ-like pose to a section of wreckage from a ship, seemingly dead, as a religious precision looks on. As her attacker swims to free her, after repenting his crimes against these beautiful (devilish) virgins, as he attempts to free her, he falls into the merciless ocean, drowning him, as she awakes, but dead, but alive, with her virginity possibly still intact. In the audio commentary from Tim Lucas, he mentions this in its ambiguity could have been the start of a new religion to the onlookers. But for…
-
-
Plundered, raped and left for dead at the hands of a ragtag team of ‘professional’ shipwreckers, two young women are transported into a new future. An existence that’s bent on revenge and the infliction of madness on those responsible, now aided by supernatural gifts bestowed on them by their new pixie-clown girl friend and her demonic master.
Jean Rollin’s Les Démoniaques is an angry and violent equal opportunity body parts exploitation joint that manages to retain a somewhat coherent narrative among its acts of pain and suffering.
Inspired by the director’s childhood viewing of pirate movies, the acting prowess on show is mixed to say the least but does, as always with Rollin’s work, look really rather lovely.
-
Devastating and beautiful.
,,The Demoniacs‘‘ is basically a rape revenge story but also very artsy and different compared to others of its kind.
I especially liked the characters, the aesthetics, atmosphere and settings of this films.
Director Jean Rollin manages to create dreamlike and surreal horror films that feel like fairytales.
All three of his films that I’ve seen so far have been highlights to me. This one is no exception.
I love these little Arthouse horror films!
Next up: Either ,,Fascination‘‘ or ,,Requiem for a Vampire‘‘