Review of Devil Times Five (1974) by Christopher J — 20 Feb 2007

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.).