| Land of the Minotaur | |
| Director: | Kostas Karagiannis |
| Producer: | Frixos Constantine |
| Starring: | Donald Pleasence Peter Cushing |
| Music: | Brian Eno |
| Studio: | Getty Pictures Corp. Poseidon Films |
| Distributor: | Cathay Films (United Kingdom) Crown International Pictures (United States) |
| Runtime: | 95 minutes |
| Country: | Greece United Kingdom United States |
| Language: | English |
| Gross: | $1,020,000[1] |
Land of the Minotaur (UK title: The Devil's Men; also known as Minotaur, The Mask of the Demons and The Devil's Men ) is a 1976 horror film directed by Kostas Karagiannis and written by Arthur Rowe.[2] Land of the Minotaur is the name of the shorter [86 minutes] U.S. edit of the movie. When seen as The Devil’s Men, it is the full 94 minute European cut.
Tourists visiting a Greek archeological site are kidnapped and killed by a strange cult as sacrifices to their god, a demon in the form of a statue of the Minotaur. Irish priest Father Roche enlists the help of Milo Kaye, a private detective, and Laurie Gordon, an archaeological student, to find what has happened to them. They learn of the cult and struggle with it.
TV Guide scored the movie one out of four stars, describing it as "[a] distinctly silly effort".[3]
HorrorNews.net found the movie enjoyable despite its contrived plot, commending its soundtrack (by Brian Eno) and the interaction between its two main characters.[4]
According to John Stanley, it is "a dreadful British-Greek production...Bereft of logic, characterizations, suspense and anything else that makes watchable cinema."[5]
Del Vecchio and Johnson write that "The film itself is a preposterous labyrinth of false starts and dead ends. It's tediously predictable and gleefully flaunts scripter Arthur Rowe's total lack of imagination. None of his characters, unfortunately, were ever able to escape the first dimension and one becomes painfully aware that a five-minute plot cannot be stretched into a 94-minute running time. Technically [the film] fares even worse. The sound quality is literally a disaster and dubbing is so poorly done that even though Pleasence and Cushing are speaking English on film, their lip movements are off synch on the soundtrack! Editing is even worse, with scene changes cutting into dialogue...Both Donald Pleasence and Peter Cushing are hideously squandered..."[6]
David Miller terms the movie [a] "muddled story of ancient rites and blood sacrifice...The sound in the film is hollow and indistinct, the photography clumsy and the script feeble...far too much is made of the pagan idol, a pint-size statue of a minotaur with two gas-burners up its nose..." [though Peter Cushing] "looks formidable striding through the caves in his crimson robes."[7]
Praising the "suffocating ambiance and dream-like atmosphere", as well as Brian Eno's electronic score, Chris Alexander argues that the movie is underrated: "Make no mistake, it's a lowbrow exploitation film, but it's one that’s filtered through a very stylised art house sensibility. Don't be swayed by the negative mainstream reviews and general fanboy silence."[8]
Emanuel Levy rated the movie three out of five.[9]