Review: Land of the Minotaur

Set in Greece, Irish priest Donald Pleasence and a bunch of students uncover a Satanic cult that worships a talking statue of a minotaur. Peter Cushing plays the cult leader, while Costa Skouras (aka Kostas Karagiorgis) is Pleasence’s P.I. friend who helps him out.

 

Also known under the more generic but more accurate title “The Devil’s Men”. Apparently Donald Pleasence was originally cast as the villain in this 1976 horror pic but wanted to change things up and play the hero. As directed by Kostas Karagiannis (seemingly his only non-Greek film) and scripted by Arthur Rowe (“The Magnificent Seven Ride!” and a lot of TV), he probably should’ve passed on the film altogether because it’s a pretty dopey affair. It might not be as bad as its reputation, but that may be because I’ve seen a lot of films that are even worse. There’s a moment or two that isn’t too bad, but a long, long way from being good.

 

Director Karagiannis has an annoying thing for Franco-esque zoom lens overuse, especially in just the opening 10 minutes. He’s also a fan of naked women, and I’m much less annoyed about that. I also had to giggle at the ‘secret tomb’ that was ludicrously easy to uncover. Meanwhile, whoever was in charge of casting here didn’t look nearly far enough or wide enough, because aside from the two big stars the rest of the cast here is beyond amateurish. They’re porno-bad. The two stars have been better elsewhere but are by far the best things here. Pleasence’s half-hearted Irish accent aside, he’s solid and adds a touch of class. Cushing does a kind of Christopher Lee ‘gentlemanly villain’ thing and is rather chilling at times, actually. Aside from the absurd fire-breathing minotaur statue and accompanying voice (it sounds like the voice box from “Police Academy 6: City Under Siege”), the biggest problem here is the dreadfully dull, charmless performance by a guy named Costa Skouras who isn’t anywhere near hot enough to be shirtless so often. The guy’s got zero business being here. At least the Greek scenery is nice, I guess.

 

Boring horror item, with poor direction and a dire supporting cast. It’s more dumb than truly execrable, with Cushing doing fine as the villain. He and Pleasence can’t come close to saving it, though. Listen out for the hilariously awful title song over the end credits.

 

Rating: D+

 

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