LITTLE DEVILS: THE BIRTH *** Canada 1993 Dir: George Pavlou 100 mins
An early 90’s B-movie level horror that many haven’t seen since its initial release but now earns its rightful place on DVD. LITTLE DEVILS: THE BIRTH follows Ed Reid (Marc Price, TRICK OR TREAT) as he struggles to become a well known writer. Life at his apartment is nothing much but writing erotic stories helps pay the bills and most importantly the rent to his sex starved landlady (Stella Stevens). Wanting to get out of the erotic writing game he is persuaded by his doctor friend to write a real story about the homeless. This is where Ed meets exotic dancer Lynn (Nancy Valen) who helps the doctor with the homeless, this is also where Ed falls deeply in love with her. All is going well for Ed, that is until his next door neighbour Lionel creates gargoyles from a hellish mud he got from the local cemetery. Now with Lionel’s creations on the loose and killing anyone he commands them to, Ed must now stop the murderous little monsters before its too late.
Originally conceived as a T.V. pilot for a new anthology series which would have Brian Clemens (CAPTAIN KRONOS: VAMPIRE HUNTER) on as a writer as well. Unfortunately the deal fell through and LITTLE DEVILS: THE BIRTH became a feature length movie, which is fortunate for genre fans. Right from the start the film is full of humour and charm which says alot about the writing and the cast bringing it to life. RAXHEAD REX director George Pavlou keeps the pace going full throttle with little room to relax, which allows the film to run smoothly and hit no speed bumps along the way. The creatures are well designed and are manipulated through use of puppetry and animatronics. They are very much in the GHOULIES style of things but when they get killed they melt like GREMLINS. Often compared to GREMLINS, but unlike other mini-creature films such as HOBGOBLINS which tried to cash in on the success of GREMLINS, this film gives you a good intentional laugh. If you like the mini-creature films mentioned here then this one is for you.
Review by Peter ‘Witchfinder‘ Hopkins