This is not a review of the surreal film from Chester Turner titled Black Devil Doll From Hell – that’s coming later. No, this is a review of the Lewis Brother’s Black Devil Doll. An extremely offensive, hilariously sleazy chunk of blaxploitation about a girl named Heather (Heather Murphy) and her ventriloquist puppet. A doll that happens to be possessed by Mubia Abul-Jama, a Black Power Revolutionary Party leader who was recently executed for murdering 15 Caucasian women. Heather’ s troubles began when she started screwing around with her Ouija board, unwittingly allowing Mubia to escape Hell and inherit the body of the puppet – transforming it into a black devil doll sporting a beret and afro. Heather falls in love with Mubia but ultimately is unable to satisfy his insatiable desire for white ass. So she agrees to invite four of her friends over under the guise of hanging out; the ultimate goal being a way for Mubia to seduce the women and have sex with them. But Heather is in for a big surprise when she learns Mubia’s ways of seduction are not quite…normal. In fact, they are downright depraved. Black Devil Doll is a film chock full of rape, crude humor, shit, puppet cumshots, golden showers, tossed salads, necrophilia, homosexual necrophilia, puppet sex as well as cold-blooded murder. In other words, everything you could want in a film, or for some of you, everything you want to avoid.
I mean really, what else can I say about this movie that you could not already gather from the trailer? Either you are immediately turned off by the silliness of it, or you are on Amazon getting you a copy before reading any further. Be warned if you are one of those politically correct types, as Black Devil Doll will consistently offend you all to hell. The film goes much, much, further than even I expected. Inspired by a slew of films including Black Devil Doll from Hell, the Child’s Play films and the exploitation genre in general, the entire time I was watching Black Devil Doll I was reminded of the first time I ever watched films like The Toxic Avenger or Street Trash. It reminded me of just how much I love independent horror – when you can tell that the film was made strictly for the fans of the genre by fans of the genre.
The acting is non-existent and the plot as bare as the scarred breasts of some of the women in the movie, but at times Lewis really captured that sleazy feel of early grindhouse films. You wont forget that this is a recreation of 42nd Street cinema, especially with how unabashed it is in its self-awareness along with the nifty visual effects used in some of the “Negroscope” scenes. But still, the way the film is edited – with ’70s techniques like split screens and zoom-ins – give the film that retro vibe.
The humor is of the toilet variety. It is politically incorrect, juvenile and obscene. So if you are not a fan of offensive humor, again, stay away from this one. Some of the jokes are repeated a bit and lose their effectiveness, but there are some hilarious lines in the film ( a few I have happily repeated on the phone to my friends, much to their dismay) and the absurdity of some of the scenes were no different than watching uncensored Dave Chappelle skits.
But you cannot have blaxploitation without sex and violence and luckily Black Devil Doll features gratuitous amounts of both. I am pretty sure that not a minute goes by in which a pair of naked tits are not on the screen. Naked car washing, breast comparisons, naked Twister, showers, baths and of course – puppet sex. Adding to the bucket of sleaze is that the women of Black Devil Doll are not your normal horror movie variety. These are not your typical Hollywood starlets looking for that one, big break. They are more akin to what you see in the other strip club in your town. You know, the one without BMW’s in the parking lot. But considering what some of these women do with this puppet, including a woman tossing the puppet’s salad, they are exactly what you’d expect.
The violence includes beatings by baseball bats, stabbings, throat slashing, electrocution and strangulation. Most of these effects are crudely done, but fit the overall style of the movie. I also want to point out the excellent score by The Giallos Flame. I friggin’ loved it. This horror funk and jazz band, known for remixing popular horror scores into tracks that sound like Fabio Frizzi, Franco Micallizi and Goblin collaborated together. You can check out a few of their Black Devil Doll titles through their Myspace page. If I could find any fault with a movie that has a scene of a black puppet shitting on a door and having sex with dead white women, it would simply be that some of the scenes went on a bit too long. Not sure if it was on purpose for effect or for padding out the run-time, but regardless, some of these scenes had me checking my watch.
Black Devil Doll is like those films that acted as a proverbial middle finger to Hollywood – except Lewis and crew use that same finger to give Hollywood a Dirty Sanchez. I agree with the above trailer when it states, “If the thought of a wayward white woman having sexual relations with a demonic jive ass black puppet offends you, DO NOT SEE Black Devil Doll…” but if that sentence alone has piqued your interest, then you are probably a twisted fuck like myself and will have a good time with it. Overall I found it to be a very entertaining and succeeded in getting a laugh or three out of me – but I do have an extremely warped sense of humor so different strokes and all that. For best results, watch with friends…and beer. I’m giving Black Devil Doll 3-and-a-half tossed salads.
Rating: 
Official Page | Myspace Page | Soundtrack
Tags: black devil doll, blaxploitation, Film, grindhouse, Horror, jonathan lewis, puppet, review, shawn lewis
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