Three people stranded on an island find it is also inhabited by Nazis and, you guessed it, she demons. Released in 1958, this movie is largely the standard "white American folks stuck on an exotic island" fare of the time (though in this one, they are joined by Sammy Ching, played by Victor Sen Yung, who, while American, was of Chinese descent), complete with a sort of tribal dance. There is also a lot of unexpected comedy, especially from Sammy, who seemingly got paid by the one-liner for this one. The she demons are not, in fact, demons, but...actually, we'll get to them later--for now, we'll just say they add the slight bit of horror in this movie. Oh yeah, the movie also is an early entry into what would become known as Nazisploitation, or Nazi Exploitation films--this subgenre hit the peak of its popularity in the 1970's, so She Demons, while not the first film to feature such elements, was certainly ahead of its time.
We eventually find out that Nazi Col. Karl Osler (Rudolph Anders) has created the she demons in an attempt to restore the beauty of his wife, Mona (Leni Tana), who was scarred during an accident and wears bandages around her face and head. Once we find this out, we naturally stick around to see what she looks like under those rags, and wow, that payoff is executed well. As for the she demons, they are just women who Osler has experimented on, using heat from lava...or something...and the earth's core and perpetual motion play a role...if you've seen these 1950's sci-fi flicks, you know to expect this sort of scientific nonsense--anyway, the experiments leave the women disfigured.
The acting in this movie is abysmal--our lead, Fred Maklin (Tod Griffin), is as wooden as it gets. With his fake radio announcer voice and lack of any emotion, one would swear he was pulling a parody of actors from similar films from the era--Irish McCalla of Sheena, Queen of the Jungle is only slightly better as spoiled rich girl Jerrie. The film itself features favorites such as stock footage and superimposed shots--the scene of the heroes in front of the flowing lava near the end is especially amusing. There is a lot to sit through to get there, but once the shipwrecked trio discover the Nazis and she demons, the movie does become entertaining. While not a feature I would search out again, She Demons turned out to be a slight bit better than I expected it to be.
On A Scale Of One To Ten: 5
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