Review of The Devil Commands (1941) by Brett B — 03 Sep 2014

An atmospheric horror yarn in the vein of Universal's spook cycle but from rival Columbia Pictures. The pseudo-scientific backbone of the the mad scientist hokum is admittedly a little silly (okay, VERY silly), but there's an earnest charm to it that is very enjoyable.

Plus, you've got a wonderful assortment of genre tropes: raging thunderstorms, eerie and mysterious houses, whizzing and buzzing laboratory equipment, angry mobs of townsfolk, seances, and a side helping of Gothic melodrama.

It's kind of a strange mixture (what with its attempt to fuse science and the supernatural), but director Dmytryk holds it all together as best he can, and with a straight face. It's also a treat to see Boris Karloff begin the tale as a relatively normal and sincere guy, rather than a weirdo, which probably would have been the more expected route.

THE DEVIL COMMANDS is a very slight film, and it's not even close to the level of the Universal greats, but as a cheap knockoff from a rival studio, it's definitely an entertaining (in an non-ironic way) little chiller.