Quentin Tarantino praised 11-year-old Leif Garrett's performance in The Devil Times Five. I had tried to watch the movie several times over the years and never made it very far. It was never as interesting as it seemed like it should have been. Five dangerously deranged children escape when the van they're riding in crashes in the snow. Naturally, they start killing middle aged people on a ski trip staying in a house in the mountains. One of the victims is played by Garrett's mother, Carolyn Stellar. One of the other children is played by his sister, Dawn Lyn.
The bulk of the movie was filmed before Garrett appeared in Macon County Line. That movie was set in the 'fifties so the poor little fellow had his long hair cruelly hacked off. THEN he had to go back to film additional scenes for Devil Times Five. They show him in a scene with short dark hair killing somebody, then he puts on a bad blond wig implying that he was wearing a wig in the scenes of him with long hair. He appears in drag a couple of times and sort of flirts with Sorrel Brooke (Boss Hogg from The Dukes of Hazzard). He has a stunt, falling off a ladder.
"My face!" he cried. "Look what you've done to my beautiful face!"
One kid thinks he's a soldier, Garrett's character thinks he's a movie star, one of the girls thinks she's a nun.
The first director on this film reportedly botched the job which is why they had to bring everyone back. Bizarre content can sometimes save a middling production.
Free on Tubi as The Horrible House on the Hill.
No comments:
Post a Comment