Desires Of the Devil Review

Distributor: ARI Productions Edition Details: Standard DVD Movie Specs: Genres: Classic (1970s Shot on Film), Feature Film, Gay, Horror Also known as: Dirty Devils Run Time: 60 minutes Rated: X Release Year: 1971 Director: Sebastian Figg Written by: uncredited Director of Photography: uncredited Cast: Rick Cassidy (as Jim Cassidy), Brian Johnson, Jerry Stevens, Flint Camden, J.J. Berwyn Release Specs: Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono Subtitles: none Video: Full Frame, 1.33:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1

Desires of the Devil is an early gay adult feature film that kind of dabbles in being part of the horror genre that was directed by Sebastian Figg and stars heterosexual and homosexual crossover star Rick Cassidy utilizing his gay stage name Jim Cassidy. Desires of the Devil has a ton of problems and is a hard sell for any viewer — be them gay or straight.

The story for Desires of the Devil is almost nonexistent. A voodoo practitioner sees hustler Frank (Rick Cassidy) wandering on the beach. He sets out to lure Frank to him utilizing voodoo rituals. The plot shows up toward the beginning of the film and then is set aside until the end of the film. The rest of the film just shows Frank picking up and servicing various johns. However, the lack of a story isn't much worse than the attempts at adult hardcore horror films that the straight side of the industry was churning out at the same time.

Desires of the Devil is a truly odd film as far as the sex scenes are concerned. Bear in mind, this reviewer is straight, so it is hard to completely judge the sex scenes. That being said, it is doubtful that any viewer will be overly impressed with the sex scenes in Desires of the Devil. The film contains graphic hardcore blowjobs and handjob action in the sex scenes, however, all of the anal sex penetration portions of the scenes are entirely softcore. As to why Figg designed the sex scenes this way is unknown.

The acting in the film is rather bad and the dialog isn't much better. Most of the dialog, if not all of it, appears to have been dubbed into the film after it was originally shot. The dialog doesn't add much to the film at all causing the film to slowly meander from sex scene to sex scene, never really going anywhere causing the short hour long run time to seem far longer than it really is.

Overall, this reviewer isn't sure that there really is an audience that would enjoy Desires of the Devil. The lack of any plot or coherency in what is occurring within the film negates the straight audience. And the oddly shot sex scenes that don't show any penetration would seemingly negate the gay audience. Desires of the Devil is an easy film to pass on.

ARI Productions has done an acceptable job with their DVD release of Desires of the Devil. Desires of the Devil was shot on film and it looks like ARI Productions actually utilized a film print for this release. Desires of the Devil is presented in the academy aspect ratio of 1.33:1 in 480i. The print that was utilized for this release isn't in that horrible a shape. There are artifacts, print damage, and grain present. There are some jumps in the picture and some of the footage looks a little washed out. The colors are good otherwise. Overall, the video quality isn't bad.

Desires of the Devil is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural audio track. Sadly, the audio isn't is as good a shape as the video is. There is a pronounced hiss throughout the entire film along with crackles and pops galore. The dialog often sounds muffled and there are places where what is being said is very hard to discern. It also appears like some points the audio is missing with previous audio looped to cover for the missing audio. The audio presentation is disappointing.

The only extra that ARI Productions has included on the release is a photo gallery.

Desires of the Devil is an early gay hardcore (kind of) feature (kind of) film. The film tries for a horror type of plot but manages to fail at that and really fail as far as the plot goes in general. The sex scenes are also partially softcore as well making the intended audience for the film a question. Desires of the Devil isn't really worth watching at all. ARI Productions has done an acceptable job with their DVD release of Desires of the Devil with decent video quality but poor audio quality.

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