My quick rating - 3.5/10. Talk about a story that sounds far more epic than the movie itself ever manages to be. That was my immediate take on The Devil’s Disciples. A forgotten prophecy threatens Lucifer’s dominion, Hell is on the brink, and his elite council must race against destiny to save the infernal balance. On paper, that’s prime supernatural horror territory. In execution, it’s more like a soap opera wandered onto a low-rent soundstage, found some fake blood, and decided to call itself apocalyptic.
I’ll give the film this much. The cast list absolutely did its job. Seeing names like Tony Todd, Bill Moseley, and Angus Scrimm pop up is enough to make any horror fan sit up a little straighter. The opening credits feel like watching a trailer, rattling off familiar faces as if daring you to bail out early. Even when Tony Todd shows up, and for a moment I was thinking, “Okay…maybe we'll get something here.” Then the movie starts, and that hope slowly packs its bags.
The screenplay, penned by writer-director Joe Hollow, is just so generic, so boring, for a premise that could be so thrilling. For chrissakes, prophecy, demons, and fate all offer so much fertile ground to plow, but instead, what we're left with is dialogue that sounds like it was written by a middle-school English class, action that could only be described as "meh, it gets the job done," and, worst of all, a film that never gets any flow, any momentum. The special effects, of course, were limited, at least confined mostly to the gore elements. To be fair, the gore is serviceable, doing just enough to remind you this is technically a horror film.
The real hook here is pure horror history. Beyond the big three, you’ve also got Brinke Stevens, Linnea Quigley, and Elissa Dowling rounding out a cast that reads like a convention guest list. Add in Felissa Rose, and you may have nailed everyone in recent horror. Performances across the board are mostly fair, as in, no one’s embarrassing themselves, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that this is a “paycheck is a paycheck” situation for everyone involved. Strip this movie of its horror icons, and you could comfortably knock another two points off the score without hesitation.
It almost hurts to mention that the score comes from Harry Manfredini of Friday the 13th fame. That’s a serious name attached to a movie that doesn’t earn it. There’s a ton of horror pedigree baked into The Devil’s Disciples, which only highlights how underwhelming the final product is. The film does at least tick off the B-budget horror checklist with ample blood and a generous dose of nudity, so fans of classic exploitation will find the expected comforts.
In the end, The Devil’s Disciples is a curiosity rather than a recommendation. It’s worth a look strictly for the cast and the novelty of seeing so much horror legacy crammed into one forgettable package. Sadly, all that history can’t save a movie that never quite figures out what to do with it.
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