Shot in Wisconsin in September and October of 1982 on a budget of around $165,000, The Devonsville Terror grapples with some serious ideas –– small-town bigotry and close-mindedness, the misogyny of patriarchal religions, conservative mistrust of education, hostility towards feminism and environmentalism –– themes that are even more topical now than they were in the early 1980s.

The film is also distinguished by gorgeous location photography and a strong sense of rural atmosphere. The small Wisconsin settlement of Irma is used for Devonsville, providing many of the exterior locations: Jenny, for instance, disembarks from a bus on the highway just outside the village, and walks down leafy Munro Avenue, past houses that are still recognisable today. St Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Irma is used for the schoolhouse exteriors, while other location shots were picked up in nearby Harrison. Studio filming took place in Gleason, Wisconsin, at a newly constructed studio called The Shooting Ranch belonging to independent director/producer Bill Rebane, best known for his 1977 film The Giant Spider Invasion. Rebane, who provided all the technical requirements for the production, watched closely as Lommel made his movie: after the Devonsville team returned to Los Angeles on the 14th of October, he shot his own quite similar film The Demons of Ludlow in December 1982 (several local cast members appear in both films).

The big name this time round is Donald Pleasence as Doctor Worley. Fresh from Jack Sholder’s Alone in the Dark and Rick Rosenthal’s Halloween 2, he’s every inch the star, and although his scenes were clearly filmed later, back in Los Angeles, he gives the film the benefit of his seasoned gravitas and that remarkable voice. Shots of him using tweezers to pull maggots from a wound in his arm give the film some queasy nightmare imagery, but the real horror comes from the constant undercurrent of misogynist hostility exuded by male residents of the town. The three independent women in the story – schoolteacher Jenny (Suzanna Love), radio DJ Monica (Mary Walden) and environmental scientist Chris (Deanna Haas) – find themselves hemmed in, lusted over, sneered at and harassed by the Devonsville menfolk, and thanks to strong performances all round, a palpable aura of dread develops. Paul Willson in particular does great work with his character, storekeeper Walter Gibbs, whose creepy passive-aggressive romantic overtures towards Jenny become increasingly oppressive and embarrassing. Impressive too are local actors William Dexter and Priscilla Lowe as Ralph and Myrtle Pendleton. Lowe is good as the nervous wife attempting to stand her ground against the dominance of her hostile husband, and Dexter is chillingly plausible as the terse, tight-lipped traditionalist who thinks women should stay at home and mind their mouths. (The two of them also appeared in the aforementioned Demons of Ludlow.)

The Devonsville Terror was initially scheduled for an August ’83 release via Motion Picture Marketing (MPM). This, however, fell through and the film instead opened for the very briefest of ‘runs’ (possibly just two or three days) at the Anco Theatre on 42nd Street, from the 2nd of December 1983. This blink-and-you’ll-miss-it booking, and the appearance of an advert for just one day in the New York Daily News, suggest that the purpose was not so much to launch the film as to satisfy suspicious investors that it really was playing in theatres…

Olivia aka A Taste of Sin