THE DEVIL'S ROCK is a little-known but more than effective Kiwi horror flick set during the dark days of WW2. It's one of those films that links the Nazis with the occult, exploring their penchant for black magic with a very dark storyline, although unlike most it doesn't go down the obvious route and just real with Nazi zombies. This time things are a lot odder, and dare I say it, more effective.

The film is oddly set on the Channel Islands, as a couple of soldiers infiltrate a Nazi bunker and discover that a massacre has just taken place. What soon unfolds is a plot involving devil worship, black magic, and the summoning of a powerful demon with a taste for human flesh. For a low budget movie, this is decent: for most of the running time we're trapped with three actors in a single location, and yet it never feels stale or boring.

I'm not saying that THE DEVIL'S ROCK is a masterpiece, because it isn't. The acting and script are only average. Matthew Sunderland gives the best performance as the conflicted Nazi colonel, and it's a shame when his character turns out to be far more ordinary than you expect from the set-up. Still, there's plenty of flowing gore on offer here, alongside effective demonic scenes that bring to mind the best of the Dennis Wheatley classic, THE DEVIL RIDES OUT. Horror fans should enjoy themselves.

In 1944, the New Zealander's soldiers Captain Ben Grogan (Craig Hall) and Sergeant Joseph Tane (Karlos Drinkwater) are assigned to explode a German military facility in a occupied Channel Island to create a diversion far from the Normandy on the eve of the D-Day. They hear screams inside the installation that is apparently unprotected and they prepare the explosives. When Grogan overhears a woman scream, he decides to seek her out inside the bunker and the reluctant Joseph follows him. Grogan is captured by Colonel Klaus Meyer (Matthew Sunderland) and Joseph is murdered. Grogan sees mutilated corpses and he escapes from Meyer. When he meets the woman, he finds that she is his deceased wife Helena (Gina Varela),who died in a airborne bombing. Soon Grogan learns that Helena is actually a demon unleashed by Meyer, who is researching the occultism expecting to create the ultimate weapon to win the war. Now Grogan is forced to team-up with Meyer to save his life against evil that is using Helena appearance to seduce him.

"The Devil's Rock" is a worthwhile gore B-movie, with a reasonable story and good makeup. The idea of Nazis exploring occultism is not original but this movie is supported basically by three actors and an actress, all of them unknown but with good performances. There are brains, flesh, bones, eyeballs and lots of gore and Gina Varela is a seductive woman. There is one last scene in the credits, with the demon and a German soldier. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Rocha do Diabo" ("The Devil's Rock")

The Devil's Rock start on June 5th 1944 on the eve of D-day as two New Zealand soldiers reach the shore of Forau Island about 5 miles from north east of Guernsey, allied forces have been sabotaging German held Channel Islands in order to distract Hitler's attention from the upcoming D-Day invasion. Captain Ben Grogan (Craig Hall) & Sergeant Joe Tane (Karlos Drinkwater) make it to the beach of Farau & head straight for a German bunker in order to knock out it's large gun emplacement's, approaching the bunker the men hear horrible screams but try to concentrate on their mission. After setting several explosives they hear the screams again & Tane insists on investigating but is killed inside the bunker. Grogan is taken prisoner by the sole remaining German officer, Colonel Klaus Meyer (Matthew Sunderland) who has been dabbling in occult rituals in order to harness the power of Satan for Hitler & the German army. The results of his work is chained up in a room & feeds on human flesh...

This New Zealand production was co-written, executive produced & directed by former special effects man Paul Campion who apparently re-mortgaged his own house to raise funds to get The Devil's Rock made & while I wasn't expecting that much I did find myself enjoying quite a lot. The script treads the same sort of ground as other horror films such as Shock Waves (1977),The Keep (1983),The Bunker (2001),Deathwatch (2002),Hellboy (2004) & Dead Snow (2009) as it sets it's horror around Nazi's & the war, The Devil's Rock leans towards the supernatural side of things & once again suggests that Hitler wanted to harness magical powers for his own evil ends & the script throw's in a nice reference to Raiders of the Ark (1981) & Hellboy as the fact that Hitler had within his grasp the Ark of the Covenant & tried to reawaken the Great Old One although The Devil's Rock does take itself pretty seriously overall so don't expect any other genre referencing gags like that. At just over 80 minutes The Devil's Rock is a fairly brisk watch, it manages to build tension & suspense quite well & the story draws you in, the relationship between the Kiwi commando & his German counterpart is well handled but I couldn't get the idea out of my head that Grogan should have hated Meyers a lot more than he did after he shot & killed his mate Tane. There's some myth & legend exposition as you would imagine but the film never becomes bogged down in it, I am not quite sure what the red Demon thing is other than it's called a Witch but if it's so powerful I am surprised that a simple chain around her ankle is enough to imprison it.

The Devil's Rock looks great which helps a lot, from the authentic bunker setting (although it does look a lot like the Londer underground at times) to the props, costumes & special effects. There's a fair amount of gore here, torn apart bodies, ripped out brains & intestines, lots of blood splatter, a homage to Cannibal Holocaust (1980) in which a dead German soldier is seen with a large rifle sticking out of his mouth in the same position as the girl with the wooden stake through her in Cannibal Holocaust. The make-up effects on the Demon creature are also good, it's maybe a bit red & the front fang like teeth seem a bit big but overall it's an effective monster & looks good. Keep watching once the end credits start, there's a extra little scene which includes a bit more gore as we get to see Meyers decapitated corpse from another angle. The film manages to build tension & suspense quite well, while not every question is answered there's enough story here to keep most watching.

Probably filmed on a low budget The Devil's Rock looks great, the production values are strong & it's very well made. Filmed in Wellington in New Zealand, some scenes were shot at Wrights Hill Fortress in Wellington which was real World War II bunker.

The Devil's Rock is a really effective supernatural horror film that uses it's World War II backdrop to good effect & doesn't get bogged down in black magic mumbo-jumbo, the whole film is very good actually & is certainly one of the best low budget horror films that I have seen recently. Well worth watching.