She
Demons was the first film from director Richard E. Cunha. It’s pretty rough in spots and doesn’t have
the wacky charm of his later work. It
lacks the endearing silliness of Missile to the Moon and the flat-out fun of
Frankenstein’s Daughter. However, there
are faint glimpses of what the man was capable of, and for that, it’s (almost)
worth watching.
A
quartet of castaways wash up on an uncharted island. After getting their bearings, they head off
looking for the legendary creatures that supposedly inhabit the island. They soon discover the place is crawling with
Nazis. Their leader is performing
experiments on the native girls, turning them into hideous she demons in an
effort to keep his ugly wife beautiful. Naturally, it’s up to our heroes to thwart the
Nazis’ devious plans.
She
Demons starts off just fine, but it gets awfully talky in the middle section of
the film. Although you have to wait
around quite a while for something to happen, the dance routines of sexy ‘50s
babes wearing loincloths and bone necklaces gyrating wildly around a fire pit
are amusing. The big reveal of the
doctor’s wife’s face is effective too. The
final escape sequence isn’t bad either, especially when you consider Cunha had
to stage an eruption of lava using little to no money. It also contains a bit more blood than you’d
typically see at the time.
If
anything, She Demons is memorable for its inclusion of minority actors as half
of our heroes are non-white; a rarity in a ‘50s horror flick. While the African
American character (Charles Opunui) is kind of cliched and superstitious (not
to mention the fact that he’s the first to die), the Asian sidekick is quite
funny. He’s portrayed by Victor Sen Yung,
a veteran of many Charlie Chan movies. He
easily gives best performance of the film, stealing every scene he’s in from
the dull romantic leads.
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