Helen Black (Shirley L. Jones) is a devoutly religious Plain Jane who goes shopping in an antiques store one day. There she spots a rastafarian ventriloquists' dummy; she's given warnings about the nature of the dummy, but she's quite taken with it and goes ahead and buys it anyway. Soon after she's taken it home, it comes to life and reveals a salacious nature, having its way with her and leaving her wanting more.Auteur Chester Novell Turner tackles the subjects of sexual repression and awakening in a "Holy expletive, I can't believe what I'm seeing" style. Suffice it to say, those people who thought that the 'Prey' segment of 'Trilogy of Terror' wasn't cheap enough or crass enough are treated to this mind-boggling, jaw-dropping no budget oddity. It's painfully slow, and extremely crude, but damn if it isn't fascinating in spite of itself.The acting is by and large atrocious, the effects quite primitive, and the persistent keyboard score is by turns aggravating, hilarious, and even kind of catchy. The main attraction is the Devil Doll itself; operated and voiced by Keefe Turner, it's an incredibly horny and nasty little demon who actually demands that Helen *beg* to be taken. This character is so memorable, and priceless, that one really does miss it when it's gone.This is the kind of thing a dedicated B movie enthusiast should see at least once, even if only to say that they *have* seen it.Five out of 10.

Black Devil Doll from Hell (1984) * (out of 4) Visiting the one and only Wild and Woolly store in Louisville, KY, you always come across some sort of weird, forgotten flick. On my latest visit I came across this one here and the weirdness certainly lived up the hype brought on from the title. The storyline is fairly simple and unoriginal as a deeply religious black woman (Shirley L. Jones) buys a doll in an antique shop and of course it turns out the doll is possessed and soon starts to make the good woman bad. This forgotten film was one of many movies that were shot on video and released straight into rental stores across the country. There's no doubt the horror genre got most of these type of releases but we've gotten some decent stuff like VIDEO VIOLENCE but we also got many, many horrid titles and this one falls into that group. However, there's a catch to this one here because while it's true that the thing is unoriginal, poorly shot, poorly acted and poorly directed, somewhere in your heart you must admit that it's hard to make a movie and on that level this low-budget horror film has some charm. There were a few things I was shocked about. I thought Jones was actually fairly decent in the film considering she didn't have too much to work with. I also thought she was rather brave to do her nude scenes, which included some sequence where the doll was sexually attacking her. It appears this was her first film and she only made one more, again with the director of this one. If you're a movie snob or someone who can't get a laugh out of something bad then there's not a single reason in the world to view this thing. If you enjoy all of what cinema has to offer then this one here is a must see just because of its low-budget roots as well as some of the decent things it does do. The music score is downright awful and obviously done on some keyboard bought at a small store so keep ear plugs near by.

WARNING: The following comment doesn't not only contain a spoiler or two, but also content of a frank and explicit nature that shouldn't be read by easily offended folks with no sense of humor. There are bad movies, even worse movies, truly wretched movies -- and then there's this gloriously ghastly no-budget shot-on-crummy-video abomination. Don't get me wrong, I really love this lousy hunk of junk, but let's face it this one on every conceivable technical level is beyond shoddy. The terrible acting, dreadful sound, annoyingly redundant score, eye-wateringly ugly cinematography, ludicrously absurd plot, meandering pace, and especially that amazingly awful theme song ("Ohh ohh baby, you've been bad!") -- all are sublimely stinky. But what definitely makes this baby a genuinely unforgettable viewing experience is the infamously mind-numbing protracted and surrealistic rape scene. The devil doll not just has his wicked wanton way with our devoutly religious and sexually frustrated homely heroine; he also makes the dumpy lady beg for it prior to doing the evil deed. I can't precisely write what she says, but I can state with absolute certainty that one particular word that she doesn't hiss through clenched teeth sure ain't "fudge." I love this movie just for this sequence alone -- and so should all true fans of supremely sick mondo wacko dimestore deviant cinema. Fortunately, this wondrously woeful abortion has been issued on DVD for future generations to watch and relish in all its appalling ineptitude.

Brilliantly sincerely evil and naive. It could be compared to John Waters work in it's disregard for societal racial, drug and sexual taboos even tho I think they were going more for a PUPPET MASTER vibe. The plot is less convoluted than that of PUPPET MASTER (nice lady goes to open air market, buys cute rasta dummy/puppet, takes it home, puppet raises hell, smokes pot, is mean and gives her oral sex.) This movie is worth seeing - if you can find it. The soundtrack is Phillip Glass minimal and the sex scenes with the puppet are shockingly bad/funny. Beyond so bad it's good, so crinchingly terrible it's wonderful. Laugh your way through scenes never intended to be funny while you groove to the fumbled 2 finger synth sound track.