Devil Times Five (Peopletoys) Reviews
AJ V
Super Reviewer
September 5, 2010
A bunch of crazy kids start killing people! What a great horror story. Okay, it's not fantastic, but I really enjoyed this crazy movie anyway.
EightThirty .
Super Reviewer
August 8, 2010
Such dreadful children! But why do I like them?? If you were to hook "The Little Rascals" up with the "Orphan", you would end up with this lot.
In a weird way I enjoyed the way they were still being kids among themselves but what I could see is that innocence fused with darkness is not entirely wicked when you think you are the good guys.
It's quite an awful thought but it is a suitable plot for this flavor on interest. I wonder if there is a sequel? I would definitely check it out.
08/08/2010 (ONLINE)
Such dreadful children! But why do I like them?? If you were to hook "The Little Rascals" up with the "Orphan", you would end up with this lot.
In a weird way I enjoyed the way they were still being kids among themselves but what I could see is that innocence fused with darkness is not entirely wicked when you think you are the good guys.
It's quite an awful thought but it is a suitable plot for this flavor on interest. I wonder if there is a sequel? I would definitely check it out.
August 22, 2009
Really good movie about five psychotic children who escape from their doctors and terrorize a nearby cabin. It has good acting, the children are creepy, and the story had me guessing until the end. On the downside some of the children over act as well as some adult actors, and some of the death scenes are not realistic. Other than that it's got child actor Leif Garret in it and the character he plays is very interesting. So I'd recommend it if you into 70's horror flicks.
zman47240
September 13, 2008
Pretty cool old school 70's horror starring Sorrell "Boss Hogg" Booke, and Leif Garrett. Not extremely gory but more psychotic and demented.
September 16, 2007
Contrary to popular opinion on Flixster, the film deserves points for being a unique story (no devil/supernatural element), having some pretty well-acted child performances, some graphic and explicit kills, and a pretty satisfying ending. Fun stuff. Deserves to be remade for once.
November 27, 2012
This film was from 1974 not 2003! It's a deeply flawed chiller about murderous kids who pick off their hosts one by one. Not terrible and has one or two very disturbing moments.
peter h.
September 6, 2012
DEVIL TIMES FIVE / PEOPLE TOYS [1974]: Originally titled PEOPLE TOYS which for a horror film obviously didn't attract that many box office goers, which explains the re-issue title the DEVIL TIMES FIVE is a truly odd early 1970's Low-Budget American horror film. For painfully obvious reasons has slipped through the cracks of time to only find a small audience of bad movie nuts. With over-the-top killings, DEVIL TIMES FIVE is a schlocky mess of a horror film.
PLOT: The plot to the DEVIL TIMES FIVE sees a bus load of Asylum bound Children crashes into a snow covered hill side. This allows the five children are free to start their demonic killing spree starting with one of the surviving doctors from the bus. The group moves onto a resort home where a group of Adults takes them in from the weather. And in good old horror mythology the adults are picked off one by one by the kids.
THOUGHTS: With some odd moments like the surreal slow- mo killing of the doctor that turns into Sepia film from colour footage, and takes close to seven entire minutes to end. A woman is killed in a bath tub of piranhas and the fact that two of the kids dress like a Solider and a Nun. This film cannot be view as scary but more as a campy trash fest. Despite alright performances from the adult cast members; it is the cast of kids that steal the show who seem to be having more fun than the adults. So I'm going to award DEVIL TIMES FIVE / PEOPLE TOYS a 50% rating for all of these reasons (plus the snow on the camera lenses at some points).
Mill Creek's 50 Movie Pack: Chilling Classics Reviews
DEVIL TIMES FIVE / PEOPLE TOYS [1974]: Originally titled PEOPLE TOYS which for a horror film obviously didn't attract that many box office goers, which explains the re-issue title the DEVIL TIMES FIVE is a truly odd early 1970's Low-Budget American horror film. For painfully obvious reasons has slipped through the cracks of time to only find a small audience of bad movie nuts. With over-the-top killings, DEVIL TIMES FIVE is a schlocky mess of a horror film.
PLOT: The plot to the DEVIL TIMES FIVE sees a bus load of Asylum bound Children crashes into a snow covered hill side. This allows the five children are free to start their demonic killing spree starting with one of the surviving doctors from the bus. The group moves onto a resort home where a group of Adults takes them in from the weather. And in good old horror mythology the adults are picked off one by one by the kids.
THOUGHTS: With some odd moments like the surreal slow- mo killing of the doctor that turns into Sepia film from colour footage, and takes close to seven entire minutes to end. A woman is killed in a bath tub of piranhas and the fact that two of the kids dress like a Solider and a Nun. This film cannot be view as scary but more as a campy trash fest. Despite alright performances from the adult cast members; it is the cast of kids that steal the show who seem to be having more fun than the adults. So I'm going to award DEVIL TIMES FIVE / PEOPLE TOYS a 50% rating for all of these reasons (plus the snow on the camera lenses at some points).
June 7, 2011
Known also to some drive-in venues as The Horrible House on the Hill, I can only wonder the references to Last House on the Left.
A Horror movie with Leif Garrett...that truly does sound horrifying!
Known also to some drive-in venues as The Horrible House on the Hill, I can only wonder the references to Last House on the Left.
thirdman
June 9, 2009
The movie takes a twist on the old cliche of a bunch of mental institute patients breaking free by making the characters children, rather than adults. Unfortunately the movie poorly balances these five characters, and doesn't dig deep into their mental illnesses. The movie has a few moments that made me think these kids were off their rocker, like when David (Leif Garrett) is dressed up in woman's clothing and looking at himself in the mirror. But the film never explains what that was all about, or any other moments where the kids got a little weird, so I imagine it was in the film simply because it was weird and would convince us this kid was crazy.
When the children start to kill the adults, the deaths are among the most brutal to get through. No, I don't mean brutal as in so shocking it is hard to watch, but rather that they are just so aggravating that it was hard to care about the scenes. And all of them are done in slow motion, which is a filming technique I hate. The very first murder in the film probably would have taken about 15-20 seconds in actual time, but it felt like it dragged on forever because of the slow motion.
The adults in the film aren't very interesting either. So it was hard to care for these people as they were getting picked off by this group of children. And if the film didn't have such an awkward hurried pace to it, maybe it could have developed them a little better, and I might have felt bad for them when each met their demise.
Devil Times Five is just a silly movie that isn't well thought out. I have the feeling that the filmmakers behind this movie came up with the film's story, and put it into production too quickly. It is a decent premise, and one that could have had more promise to it than it ends up having. This could have been one of the most shocking horror films to emerge out of the 70's. But, alas, it is one of the more forgettable.
After seeing Eden Lake a while back, I got interested in seeing more films that featured youths terrorizing adults. After some of the ratings I did on Netflix, Sean MacGregor's Devil Times Five came recommended to me. It's a little horror film from the mid-70's, a time period where a lot of great hidden horror gems have emerged from. So I checked it out to see what it was like.
The movie takes a twist on the old cliche of a bunch of mental institute patients breaking free by making the characters children, rather than adults. Unfortunately the movie poorly balances these five characters, and doesn't dig deep into their mental illnesses. The movie has a few moments that made me think these kids were off their rocker, like when David (Leif Garrett) is dressed up in woman's clothing and looking at himself in the mirror. But the film never explains what that was all about, or any other moments where the kids got a little weird, so I imagine it was in the film simply because it was weird and would convince us this kid was crazy.
When the children start to kill the adults, the deaths are among the most brutal to get through. No, I don't mean brutal as in so shocking it is hard to watch, but rather that they are just so aggravating that it was hard to care about the scenes. And all of them are done in slow motion, which is a filming technique I hate. The very first murder in the film probably would have taken about 15-20 seconds in actual time, but it felt like it dragged on forever because of the slow motion.
The adults in the film aren't very interesting either. So it was hard to care for these people as they were getting picked off by this group of children. And if the film didn't have such an awkward hurried pace to it, maybe it could have developed them a little better, and I might have felt bad for them when each met their demise.
Devil Times Five is just a silly movie that isn't well thought out. I have the feeling that the filmmakers behind this movie came up with the film's story, and put it into production too quickly. It is a decent premise, and one that could have had more promise to it than it ends up having. This could have been one of the most shocking horror films to emerge out of the 70's. But, alas, it is one of the more forgettable.
jazza923
July 25, 2008
Rather interesting low budget horror film, interesting characters, a bit ahead of its time. A bit provocative at times, some smart dialogue and interesting character interaction.
SteveMiller
February 20, 2007
Starring: Sorrell Brooke, Gene Evans, Leif Garrett, Gail Smale, and Dawn Lyn
Director: Sean McGregor
A bus carrying five incurably homicidal children on their way to a high-security institution crashes, allowing them to escape. They make their way to a resort hotel where they proceed to murder just about anyone they come upon. (Not that this is necessarily a Bad Thing; those people were for the most part in need to some killin')
"Devil Times Five" is a disturbing slasherflick, due to the fact that the murderers here are innocent-appearing children. It's also disturbing because the director had a real talent for staging the murder set-pieces and because some of the murders are sure to make you squirm (like the pirahna in the bathtub).
This is definately one of the better "Killer Kids" movies that's been released, and it's heads-and-shoulders above the dross that is being passed off as slasherflicks in the theaters today as far as the horror factor goes. (And you can watch people getting murdered in horrible ways with almost no guilt, because the victims are mostly pretty repulsive.)
Devil Times Five (aka "Peope Toys" and "The Horrible House on the Hill")
Starring: Sorrell Brooke, Gene Evans, Leif Garrett, Gail Smale, and Dawn Lyn
Director: Sean McGregor
A bus carrying five incurably homicidal children on their way to a high-security institution crashes, allowing them to escape. They make their way to a resort hotel where they proceed to murder just about anyone they come upon. (Not that this is necessarily a Bad Thing; those people were for the most part in need to some killin')
"Devil Times Five" is a disturbing slasherflick, due to the fact that the murderers here are innocent-appearing children. It's also disturbing because the director had a real talent for staging the murder set-pieces and because some of the murders are sure to make you squirm (like the pirahna in the bathtub).
This is definately one of the better "Killer Kids" movies that's been released, and it's heads-and-shoulders above the dross that is being passed off as slasherflicks in the theaters today as far as the horror factor goes. (And you can watch people getting murdered in horrible ways with almost no guilt, because the victims are mostly pretty repulsive.)
