Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

To me, this movie is perfection.

A Masterpiece!

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Grave robbers supply a doctor (Timothy Dalton) with bodies to test on.Coming from a screenplay by Dylan Thomas with modifications from playwright Sir Ronald Harwood, directed by experienced horror director and cinematographer Freddie Francis and produced by Mel Brooks.Now let us mention the cast: besides Dalton, we have a pre-Trek Patrick Stewart as a higher-up doctor who suspects Dalton of doing something wrong, and Julian Sands as Dalton's assistant. Sands actually has a rather large subplot of being romantically involved with a prostitute before he starts to think his boss is a little shady.Coming from Francis' background with Hammer, there should be no surprise this has some Hammeresque qualities to it. And thank goodness!

I wonder if this movie was made the same time as Jane Eyre. Timothy Dalton (I LOVE HIM!) had the same character type as Edward Rochester (only some of his lines in this movie were hysterical). Not that this is bad....BUT it's weird because the two movies are so different. I love Timothy's performance enough (LOVE Jane Eyre BETTER) to buy the movie.It was also a pleasant surprise to see Patrick Stewart, though he wasn't in it very much.The movie wasn't as "horrific" as I thought it'd be, which again was a pleasant surprise. Fans of Timothy, Patrick, Stephen Rea and Jonathan Pryce should check it out.

For my money THE DOCTOR AND THE DEVILS is a worthy horror film for several reasons. It has a good cast, including Timothy Bottoms, Jonathan Pryce, Twiggy, Sean Rea, Patrick Stewart, Sian Phillips, Beryl Reid, and Patricia Neal (whose name I did not note in the cast - she was the mother-in-law of Dr. Rock). Secondly, it had a screenplay that was legendary for decades as one of the great unpublished screenplays by a prominent writer (Dylan Thomas, of all people). Finally, for the only time in his career comedy king Mel Brooks decided to produce this work. Despite the occasional dab at horror that was in some of his spoofs (the Holacaust in THE PRODUCERS - both versions; anti - Semitism in "the Inquisition" segment of HISTORY OF THE WORLD, PART I; the monsters in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and Dracula, DEAD AND LOVING IT; the murder conspiracy in HIGH ANXIETY all come to mind), Brooks always showed the spoof or satire behind the familiar sequences. Here, for the only time, he showed the grimness of serial killings.Those points said I have to limit the success. One misses Brooks' humor which leavens even the worse of his films. Still one can excuse it because Brooks did not direct the film (or at least it is not apparent if he did suggest anything). His production standards are high - he is creating the Edinburgh of 1828 - 29. For THE DOCTOR AND THE DEVILS is the retelling of the Burke and Hare story.As such it lacks the conciseness and tensions of the fictional retelling via Val Lewton and Robert Louis Stevenson of THE BODY SNATCHER (still the best version of the story), and the best historical account, MANIA. Also it lacks the blank verse approach of Thomas' original screenplay (which was never totally completed). It has been retouched here to make it more approachable as a movie project - which explains why it finally made it to the screen.The story does show how the murders were committed by Burke and Hare (Fang and Broome: Pryce and Rea), and even goes in greater detail about the luring of the victims and the method of suffocation used. But the variety of the victims seemed better shown in MANIA, and the chilliness of the killings were best shown in THE BODY SNATCHER in the sequences where the blind street singer and the blackmailing Joseph were both killed. Also here the capture of Fang is tied to his attempted rape of Jennie Bailey (Twiggy), a good set piece but not historically truthful at all. But the betrayal of Fang by Broome is correct - and here we see Broome smilingly getting away with it (not like the blinding of Hare - Donald Pleasance - in MANIA, which is not proved as true as of yet). Still, with all the changes, the story is still compelling enough, and the acting still first rate. It is a respectable attempt (as I said earlier) if not the best version of the horrible tragedy of the West Port.

"Up the alley and down the street Fallon and Broom sell bones and meat. Fallon's a butcher and Broom's a thief. And Rock's the boy that buys the beef."At the film's closing, Dr. Thomas Rock(Timothy Dalton)proclaims that he has become a ghost story that frightens children and questioned how it had gotten so far.A revisionist take on "The Body Snatcher"(..a marvelous film produced by Val Lewton), this film has Dalton portraying a scientist whose skills in anatomy are unsurpassed thanks to his intense study of dead bodies. The law prohibits Rock from using fresh corpses for his research so all he has to use are rotted corpses brought in by grave robbers or criminals hung or animals. He soon enlists the aid of graverobbers Fallon and Broom(Jonathan Pryce and Stephen Rea)to bring him fresh bodies for proper research not knowing they are supplying him with victims they murder. Julian Sands plays Dr. Murray, Rock's assistant, who falls in love with a prostitute named Jennie(Twiggy)and discovers when he goes to see her how Broom and Fallon get their corpses so fresh.The whole business of delivered bodies provides a special moral dilemma within the story(..which worked quite well in "The Body Snatcher"). Also, the film is quite an indictment on the plight of impoverished "squalor" who lie slowly dying in the streets and alleyways or drift slowly into the abyss of alcoholism. Director Fisher's camera doesn't shy away from the less fortunate as the film seems to show us first-hand their suffering. Dalton's doctor is actually the sympathetic figure in the film in regards to his recognizing the poverty that his colleagues and peers seem to either ignore or just care not to acknowledge. He honestly desires fresh bodies so that he can make a difference in the advancement of the medical profession moving it from the dark Ages to the 19th Century. It's just unfortunate he has to resort to paying graverobbers for specimens. But, the film does recognize(..like in "The Body Snatcher")that Rock knew very well that some of his specimens may've been attained beyond reasonable means. Thomas' sister provides a detrimental problem to the furtherance of his work as she believes his ways are the works of the devil. His wife is also seen as immoral by the sister for she artistically portraits anatomical charts of the human body. Others question Thomas' work as well, specifically Prof. Macklin(Patrick Stewart, whose role and character is underwritten)who wishes for his unusual methods to be grounds for dismissal.The major moral crisis, though, comes when a deranged Fallon attempts to murder Jennie and is sought after by Dr. Murray where Rock's illegal researching in accepting bodies murdered might soon be discovered. While he only wishes to advance anatomy to save lives, his accepting murdered bodies is indeed considered immoral and unlawful.While the material of the film might seem familiar, considering it just really feels like a remake of "The Body Snatcher" and is just difficult not to think of the previous film while watching "The Doctor and the Devils", Fisher's marvelous direction makes up for it. Unlike his Hammer years, Fisher doesn't have to hold back. He isn't held down by restrictions and can display the cruel realities of life such as the squalor in the streets as the epidemic it was. The period cinematography feels fresh and completely genuine. It is quite grim and bleak which might put off many with no hope seemingly in sight for many in this film. Fisher keeps the film, for most of the way, on the dreaded streets so that we have a hard time looking away from the truth.