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Devil’s Den (2005)

REVIEW: Devil’s Den (2005): Reviewed by BRYAN SCHUESSLER

Devil’s Den (2005) is a cool, campy, horror film with tons of action and some good blood and guts. It is nothing too serious, full of one-liners and tons of hot strippers running around naked. I hate watching a movie that takes place in a strip club without seeing some tits bouncing around. My only complaint I had throughout the whole film was Karen Maxwell (Zombie Nation (2004) ) was not ever naked in one single scene. They even talked about how big her breasts were in the dialogue, but we were never privy to seeing them displayed. That part of the film was a total fu**ing tease!

In addition to Karen Maxwell, we get to see the beautiful but highly dangerous Kelly Hu (Caitlin) (X-Men 2 (2003) and The Scorpion King (2002) ) strut her martial arts skills on every single one of the GHOULS…Did I forget to mention that all the strippers turn into flesh-eating ghouls? Sorry, my mistake! Yeah, this film really reminded me of From Dusk ’til Dawn (1996), but instead of vampires taking out everyone, it is done by ghouls. I really was not sure what constituted one to be classified as a ghoul, but whatever. I am not going to complain.

Devon Sawa plays the part of the joke-telling goofball in the film, Quinn. Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead (1978) , The Devil’s Rejects (2005)) joins the cast as the ghoul-slayer, Leonard, and he plays it well. Arming himself with a Samurai sword and cut off sleeves baring his “guns”- he shows you what a veteran actor in the horror genre still can do after all these years! I really only picked up this film for the performance of Ken Foree (and the naked women turn ghouls- blood and boobs are always a very nice mix!).

The film starts out with Quinn (Devon Sawa of Idle Hands (1999) and Final Destination (2000)) and Nick (Steven Schub) traveling back from Mexico to the States with their box of Spanish Fly that they bought ther With intent to sell and make a profit from it to buyers back home, they think that they ought to try the merchandise out. On their way back, they decide to stop at a strip club (I’m sorry- I meant Gentleman’s Club!) to test out the product on unsuspecting females. Thinking that the club is going to be a dive with toothless women that are ugly and run-down they are very pleasantly surprised at just how gorgeous the women are, but little do they know just how much trouble awaits them.

The film is filled with attractive women in varying degrees of undress, and with a cameo by FHM and Deal or No Deal model Dawn Olivieri who bares some skin during an ultra-sexy dance. And with the addition of Karen Maxwell as Candy, a ditzy, blonde-haired waitress with breasts about to burst out of her top that one wishes were let out to breathe- this makes for a great film!

The fight scenes were well choreographed. The gore was decent and plentiful and the film as a whole had a very “light and playful” vibe to it. I really personally appreciated the fact that they payed homage to Zatoichi and even threw in a segment with stuntman Ken Ohara, who originally was just going to train an actor in doing the stunts, but who ended up just being cast as Zatoichi since he was so adept at doing the martial arts, fighting, and his own stunts, as the infamous swordsman in a dreamlike scenario. (If one has not seen any of the Zatoichi films, go out and rent some now!)

But when I read on the back cover that strippers and ghouls would be running around, I knew it was a recipe for success if done right. Director Andrew Dunt (although IMDB lists Jeff Burr as the director, even though the physical dvd has Dunt as directing it…hmmm) did do the film right. They had some nice extra features on the dvd as well. Be sure to check out the “making of” segment.

All in all, nice performances by all involved with a nice amount of flesh- living and dead, and plenty of action-from Samurai sword fighting, dual-fisted gunslinging, and makeshift log swinging fights. Definitely worth a watch when wanting some lighter fare in the horror genre.

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