It would be reasonable to assume "Death Times Five" might attempt to explain why creepy horror movie children feel the need to murder, maim, and generally be little terrors that keep us "adults" second guessing the true intents of kids everywhere. Unfortunately, it never really does - it doesn't explain a lot of anything really - but what it does do is deliver a group of five psychologically disturbed children participating in a range of creative homicides that might please fans of this specific sub-genre, depending on their standards of quality.Like the classic "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" which was made in the same year, "Devil Times Five" revolves around a group of unsuspecting characters falling prey to a bunch of crazy people out in the sticks. Those crazy people just happen to be a little younger and a little less redneck, but the parallels are definitely apparent. Both films are low budget, genuinely disturbing, and managed to push the limit of their subject matter for their time. Where the comparison ends is that TCM was beautifully shot and tightly edited. This film is the complete opposite.Reportedly a troubled production, "Devil Times Five" is incompetent in just about every single way. Huge continuity errors abound, and every single shot seems to be framed just a little too low, leaving bizarre dead space above all the actor's heads. What are we supposed to be focusing on up there? The ceiling? It's not very interesting. That wall is lovely, but pan down, would you? The cinematographer seems to have been in a drug haze - it was the 70s after all. In fact, the original director (who had to be replaced half-way through production) turned in a final cut that only ran for 38 minutes. He is said to have been placed in a rehab or psychiatric facility shortly after. All hearsay, but the film is definitely the product of a damaged brain.The cast is strange mix to say the least. Boss Hogg from "The Dukes of Hazzard" makes an appearance, along with Shelley Morrison who went on to star in "Will and Grace". Future teen heartthrob Leif Garret plays one of the children, his hair giving one of the film's best performances, metamorphosing wildly from scene to scene as a result of re-shoots due to the departure of the film's director. His real life mother and sister round out the cast. It's a real family affair.Fans of 70's horror will find a few things to enjoy here. Beyond the distinct atmosphere of the era, there's a bizarre psychedelic murder scene (that goes on for a little too long) where the children take turns beating a man to death. There's a random cat fight that obviously results in exposed breasts. There's a psychotic albino who dresses like a nun. Also, there's death by piranha. But even with that, it's impossible to recommend the film to anyone but enthusiasts. It's just too sloppy and strange for anyone but the most hardened horror buffs to enjoy.

Five extremely disturbed, sociopath children escape from their psychiatric transport and are taken in unwittingly by a group of adult villagers on winter vacation.Very 70s, complete with direction that looks like it's for TV, not the movies, weird whistling music that bares no understanding why it was chosen. And poor over dubbing of sound effects -- even simple stuff like cars driving.A main character is named Papa Doc. When they call him it sounds like Papa Duck! And believe it or not, Lief Garrett is in this flick! No wonder he turned into an addict!The movie is poorly acted the way many are, only it's not a fun ride the way some are.

This is one of them seventies horror films your grandfather would tell you about while settling you down to sleep when you were a toddler. Five crazy kids escape from a mental institution and play the scared kid card at the house of Papa Doc, who is currently playing host to all sorts of unlikeable adults, so, basically, you can tell where this is heading. What got me about the Devil Times Five is the way that the first hour passes almost lightheartedly, before heading for Grimsville. When the kids start wasting the cast, a kind of darkness settles on the film and never let's up. I don't know if it's just the playful way the kids massacre people (hence the title: Peopletoys), but I was left with a bizarre bad taste in my mouth after watching this. I guess that's the whole point though. You don't really get that from watching modern splatterfests. This is seventies horror in a nutshell, this film.Plus, for UK viewers, check the name of one of the producers of this film (the IMDb won't let me use his second name here). I bet he's glad he didn't go to school in Glasgow!

In the 1970's, Conservative America was afraid of the young. The counter culture, the civil rights/anti-Vietnam protesters, all added to this underlying fear, perpetuated like the communist '"threat" in the 1950's. "kids" weren't towing the line. They were "sticking it to the man". Or in the infamous case of the Charles Manson lead "family", they were killing the rich - "The Man", so to speak. They were also giving it a little closer to home, and this of course meant the family. In the cinema this was reflected in the horror genre. From the time in 1968, - when the little girl kills her parents with a trowel and eats them in George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead, and Mia Farrow quite literally gives birth to the Devil in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby - the movies began to depict children and adolescents as quite evil, untrustworthy 'elephant's in the room'. In the '70's, this trend was reflected in two large budget, Hollywood 'blockbusters', William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973), and Richard Donner's fun but flawed The Omen (1976). Sat somewhere between these two studio efforts is Sean MacGregor's Devil Times Five (also known as Peopletoys).A group consisting of work colleagues and family, headed by self-evident pack-patriarch, Papa Doc (Gene Evans), have congregated in an isolated house. The snow is falling heavy and thick. A group of kids escape a van that has crashed in the wilderness, that was transporting them from a state mental facility. The kids make their way through the forests until they come across the vacation home. They infiltrate with the image of innocence, but one by one, the occupants are murdered. After trapping one victim in animal 'Conibear' traps, the kids skip around him, mocking his death, with the xylophonic music of 'Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush' on the soundtrack.The film is no missing gem. It is however, quite a well-made movie. The 'devil' kids are not too bad. The nature of the adults in the film, - arrogant, pessimistic, and odious - only make you happy that these calculated (and clearly more hauntingly intelligent) kids will kill the lot of them. Whether this was intentional is not clear. I never really enjoyed the company of the adults. The kids are playful, spiteful, and a little fun. And they act better. It's no masterpiece, but it has charm, and is more sophisticated than many of the same sub-genre of exploitation films of the time. It does have a slightly chilling end, (not exceptionally so, but on thought, it could be perpetually cyclical) the kids stand round all the dead adults sitting round tables, and on sofas, they complain of the loss; the game is over; but they are comforted by their leader, Sister Hannah (dressed as a nun), when she advises that they will soon have some new 'toys' to play with.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com