Jess Franco at his very best can compete with the best of the cult filmmakers; but catch a bad effort and you'd never believe it in a million years. Les Demons represents a really bad effort for the prolific Spanish director, and that's really putting it lightly. The film would be best be described as demonic horror involving witches. The plot has something to do with a witch being burned at the stake, but really it's all so boring that I spent more time concentrating on my desire for it to finish than the actual plot. Luckily the version I saw was the chopped down seventy eight minute version, and although maybe they cut all the good bits out; I have to say I'm glad I saw the short version as I don't think I could have stomached almost two hours of this nonsense! As is usually the case for films like this; Les Demons is packed with sex scenes and most of them appear to serve no relevance to the plot whatsoever, and they're not even well filmed. The only thing that this film has going for it is that it's well shot at times and the music creates an effective mood. My opinion of Jess Franco changes according to which version of the director I'm watching; if it's good Franco then I'm a big fan, but if it's the Franco that made this film; I usually wish I hadn't bothered. Not recommended!
Review of The Demons
