Devil's Rock (2011 film)
Summary
"War is Hell" Set in the Channel Islands on the eve of D Day,two New Zealand commandos, sent to destroy German gun emplacements to distract Hitler's forces away from Normandy, discover a Nazi occult plot to unleash demonic forces to win the war.
Details
- Release Date: 2011
- Country/Language: New Zealand, English
- Genres/Technical: Horror, War
- Setting: Weird World War, 1940s Faroe Islands
- Runtime: 1 hr 23 min
- Starring: Craig Hall, Matthew Sunderland, Gina Varela
- Director: Paul Campion
- Writer: Paul Campion, Paul Finch, Brett Ihaka
- Producer/Production Co: Chameleon Pictures, Chameleon Pictures, Devil's Rock
- View Trailer: (link)
- IMDB Page: (link)
Ratings
MPAA Ratings
- Rated: (not rated?) (equivalent to a PG-13 or R for Violence, Profanity, and brief Nudity)
Tentacle Ratings
A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:
- SS___ (Two Tentacles: Barely Lovecraftian; vaguely similar in tone, could be a very loose adaptation)
I found this one sort of interesting from a "Lovecraftian" standpoint: the film isn't very "Lovecraftian" in tone but it's not far off in structure, the story could have been adapted with minimal changes into a Carnacki story with a slightly less cliche'd demon and the use of an "electric pentacle" or other occult-technology; the film seems to imply that it exists in the same universe as both Hellboy (2004 franchise) and Indiana Jones (1981 franchise); there's a Lovecraftian-style tome; occult scribbles that look like something from the ridiculous Simon Necronomicon cover the walls; near the end of the film there are references to the Great Old Ones right alongside the Ark of the Covenant and Spear of Destiny and "Lucifer himself!"; and during a ritual I believe I heard a character call upon Nyarlathotep among more traditional demonic names like Abaddon and Samael: in short, the film is sort of a supernatural horror chop-suey....
Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.
Reviews
Review Links:
- Author_andor_Location, (link) - "...The Devil's Rock starts well... The only complaint during these [early] sections might be that the score leaps off into cliche devil worship movie cues of atonal choirs the moment Craig Hall starts looking through the occult tomes... The major complaint might be that the film's low budget gets in the way of a more full-blooded film....."
Synopsis (SPOILERS)
Spoiler Section (Highlight to Read)
Two New Zealand commandos sneak onto a remote and deserted island in the path of the Normandy D-Day invasion to destroy German gun emplacements and disrupt communications, when they overhear hideous screams of tortured and dying men from inside a bunker. Going inside to investigate, they find the bunker in chaos, and one of the commandos is killed by the lone survivor of a massacre of the German occupants, an SS officer who is on the island to develop an occult wunder-weapon in the form of a shape-shifting demon conjured by witchcraft. The demon takes the forms of its victims' loved ones before tearing them to pieces and eating them, and the Commando and SS officer temporarily team up to perform a ritual to control and banish the demon, before the SS officer turns on the Commando at the last minute to prevent the occult knowledge from falling into Allied hands. The Commando barely survives the officer's back-stabbing attempt and subsequent attempts by the demon at seduction, and leaves the demon on the island as a distraction for a German rescue team....
Notes
Comments, Trivia, Dedication
Associated Mythos Elements
- TO DO
- fiction and film: compare/contrast to Carnacki the Ghost-Finder, Hellboy (2004 franchise), and Indiana Jones (1981 franchise)
- name-dropping: Great Old Ones and Nyarlathotep
- artifacts (briefly mentioned):
- demons: Abaddon, Samael, Lucifer
- setting: Weird World War
Keeper Notes
