hyped garbage

disgusting, overrated, pointless

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

I like to sometimes think of myself that I've seen a large share of horror, cult, Sci-Fi and exploitation movies from all eras and from all over the world, but the truth is that these genres are simply an inexhaustible source of material. I never even heard of "She Demons" before, for example, even though it sounds right up my alley with crazed monsters, cuckoo scientists and bizarre make-up effects! Not that this film is a great discovery or anything, but it's interesting and ahead-of-its-time 50's shlock. "She Demons" is more or less a trashy variation on H.G. Wells' classic tale "The Island of Dr. Moreau", albeit expanded with malignant Nazi doctors and their relentless experiments as well as some really weird but typically 50's environmental research regarding new energy sources. Following a devastating hurricane at sea, four castaways (the spoiled daughter of a wealthy industrialist and three of her employees) wash ashore a tropical and seemingly uninhabited island. However, the place soon turns out to be the private resort of an escaped Nazi doctor and a handful of his soldiers. Unaware that the Third Reich doesn't exist anymore since more than 10 years, the doctor continues his work and even invented a super intelligent new way to generate energy by extracting heat from the volcano underneath the island. This discovery would pretty much make him the most genius and celebrated man on earth, but he's a Nazi and – on top of that – also a dangerous psychopath who replaces the beautiful faces of kidnapped women with animal DNA in order to attempt saving his own horribly mutilated wife. It's up to the courageous shipwrecked to stop the doctor's vile experiments and at the same time not to fall victim to the soldiers and/or creepy female mutations. This all may sound like a lot of potentially fascinating story lines and more than enough excitement for a relatively short (slightly under 80min) movie, and than I haven't even mentioned the obligatory and totally implausible developing love-story between the lead characters yet, but "She Demons" is actually a rather boring viewing experience with far too many 'nothing going on' moments. The plot ideas are effective and the make-up effects are definitely quite nasty considering the time of release and the lack of budget, but the pacing is just intolerably slow. The dialogs seem to last forever – particularly the Nazi dude's explanation regarding what he does on the island – whereas other extended parts a little too obviously serve as time-filler, like the She-Demons ritual dance act. What is up with that? Did filmmakers back in the fifties automatically assumed that ridiculous ritual dances were obligatory in movies that are set on tropical islands? The cast is terrible and lead starlet Irish McCalla is hugely annoying and unattractive despite her extremely positive and promoting self-image. One to avoid if you have good taste, but worth a look if you like silly demonic masks, demented speeches and messed up science guys with hideous German accents.

This low budget horror attempt ( the teeth of the she-demons is the kind you get out of bubble gum machines ) is never the less entertaining because of its campiness and bad acting .The stunt doubles are about a foot shorter in height and have different hair color , and the so called Nazi guards are as sadistic as school teachers but its all good fun .Spoiled Jerrie learns about sincerity and how great it is to be boring from her leading man , who's a true hero .The acting is really bad here though , Irish McCalla's big crying scene is not even soap opera caliber , but it matches Tod Griffen's level of being convincing . It is fun though so give it a try .

The top grade on my nostalgia meter doesn't help this film's overall rating very much. Until recently, I had not seen She Demons since it was televised often when I was a kid in the early sixties. It was much more watchable then. Although made in the late fifties, this film's villains are Nazis, feared more in the forties, complete with a gestapo-protected disturbed doctor bent on restoring his wife's face to its former beauty using a not-yet-perfected procedure which involves transferring the pretty pusses of his inventory of captive wild women (oops - that's another epic of the era). Nice thing about it, however, is that - aside from permanent memory loss - one's looks return in a few days, allowing for repetitive service. The scientist inhabits a volcanic island used for bombing practice and terminates any accidental visitors, the latest of whom is a trio from a hurricane-capsized boat. It is typical of the decade's low-budget (black-and-white, short running time, dialogue-dependent, cheesy make-up) tactics. Don't misunderstand my use of the word "classic" here: As a noun, my definition contains nothing but good-ness. A synonymous ADJECTIVE, however, is "total", as in "This movie is a classic example of how to construct a classic, inferior product."

**Possible Spoilers Ahead**Four people marooned on an island discover a Nazi doctor who specializes in turning winsome women into the ugly monsters of the title. The hideous "demons" retain their beautiful bodies even after the evil experiments make their faces look like shredded papier-mache. The film starts off slow, action-wise, but entertainment is provided by mild ethnic humor and constant bickering between doofus hero Todd Griffin and blonde, tall, leggy Irish McCalla. The good guys eventually duke it out with the Nazis–who have some of the worst German accents ever–and nearly knock down the sets in the process. The action is fairly bloody for the late 1950s though one flogging sequence may have been cut down before SHE DEMONS was released. The director is often tarred with the same brush as Ed Wood Jr., whose Midas touch in reverse automatically turned celluloid into crap. However, to make a film as goofy, schlocky and oddly endearing as SHE DEMONS, Cunha obviously lacked Wood's pathetic self-seriousness and everyone concerned seemed to have fun making it. Fans of LeBad Cinema have been having fun with it ever since.