Taking its cue from '50s shockers like Village of the Damned and The Bad Seed with a more explicit '70s twist, the cult video favorite Devil Times Five charts the havoc unleashed when a small bus load of psychologically unbalanced children en route to an institution crashes in the snow, leaving the twisted tots free to roam the countryside at will. Accompanied by a slightly older psycho in nun drag, Hannah (Smale), they find refuge at a nearby cabin where some twisted adults are busy getting drunk and acting out psychosexual parlor games of their own. Soon the kids -- including wannabe child actor David (future singer and tabloid fodder Garrett) and firebug Susan (Thompson) -- have wormed their way into the grown ups' confidence and can murder at will with any tools they find handy, never raising suspicion until it seems too late.

Of course, none of the adults are all that sympathetic. They consist of three couples of varying ages as well as a mentally impaired handyman, played by Durren, the film's screenwriter. Since the film never feels compelled to offer any motivation for the kids' behavior (apart from the obvious-- "They're nuts!") or sketch out the adults with any dimension whatsoever, the best way to approach this film is as an extended E.C. Comics story with plenty of nasty violence inflicted on schemers who deserve what they get. Garrett gives the standout performance of the young cast, though his real-life sister (Lyn, who appeared in the complete Walking Tall trilogy) does a fine job as well; their mom, Stellar, appears as well, which must have made for an uncomfortable set at times given some of the sleazier moments in the script. The murder scenes are quite brutal and protracted, but more startling is the heavy dose of sex and equal opportunity nudity, which is more uncomfortable than titillating. Perhaps most startling, though, is the film's odd connection to Spanish director Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, whose The House that Screamed gets a nod here with a slow-motion murder sequence similar to that 1969 film; Serrador must have noticed, since his unsettling cult classic, Who Can Kill a Child?, was made two years later and acknowledges this film from its basic premise to the very similar ending. While the killer-kids theme is still potent (obviously), one aspect that really makes this film stick in viewers' memories is the isolated, snowy setting, which is effectively used and offers a legitimate excuse for keeping the potential victims from simply running next door to call the police.

One of the earliest horror films released on VHS back in the ancient days of Meda (later Media) Home Video, Devil Times Five went out of circulation for many years and earned an even bigger following by virtue of its unavailability. Code Red's very welcome 2006 DVD features a good (for the time) anamorphic transfer that obviously blows past versions out of the water; even the occasional 35mm revivals don't look this clean and clear. As with many independent horror films, the production history for Devil Times Five was quite difficult and rocky, almost ridiculously so in this case. Originally titled People Toys (or Peopletoys-- the spelling seems to vary), the film came in at only about half of feature film length in its original version under director Sean MacGregor who, according to the supplements here, didn't exactly set the producers on fire. David Sheldon was brought in to shoot more footage to beef up the running time under the supervision of producer Michael Blowitz, and both men cover the strenuous production history on their audio commentary with moderator Darren Gross, who as usual does a solid job of keeping the conversation fact-filled and quickly paced. Lyn also joins in and offers her own perspective as a child performer drawn in to a most unusual project. All three are joined by Tierre Turner for the other big extra, a 22-minute featurette that offers even more stories about the shoestring filming in a less-than-optimum setting with enough continuity problems to fuel months of nightmares. Other extras include the theatrical trailer, some additional Easter eggs involving the interviewees, an alternate opening title sequence, a promotional gallery, and vintage trailers for other Code Red releases.

A decade later in 2016, Code Red revisited the title as a Blu-ray release sold via Diabolik; in this case the difference in image quality is very substantial, taken from a shockingly immaculate source that looks better than anyone had a right to expect from this film. The source actually bears the clunky alternate title of The Horrible House on the Hill, so don't be surprised when that pops up. The DTS-HD MA English mono audio is also in excellent shape. Apart from the unrelated trailers, all of the extras from the DVD have been carried over here (commentary, featurette, trailer) with the bonus interview bits presented as a 7-minute reel; no hunting around required this time.

In 2024, Vinegar Syndrome inherited the film for its first significant physical media release in several years, this time as a UHD and Blu-ray dual-format edition. Again scanned from the 35mm camera negative, it improves on the already excellent prior Blu-ray with better grain structure and more image info in the frame; the UHD also has a rich and frequently eye-popping range of colors thanks to HDR. Again this bears the Horrible House title on the source, not surprisingly. The DTS-HD MA 2.0 English mono track sounds pristine and features optional English SDH, and the prior commentary has been ported over here. You also get a brand new commentary by the great slasherholics from The Hysteria Continues!, who put this in context with other '70s and '80s killer kid movies and cover its odd theatrical and home video release history as well as background on all the principals. The previous featurette turns up here as well along with the trailer, bonus interview snippets, and alternate Devil Times Five title card. The three new featurettes here kick off with "Puppeteering" (20m11s) with second assistant director Walter Dominguez about some of the films he worked on before this (like The Andromeda Strain), meeting his future wife on this film, and the various backstage chaos that almost made him walk. In "Daddy’s Home" (8m49s), Bruce Wank, son of executive producer Jordan M. Wank, starts with a Tarantino plug for the film and looks back at his dad's career in Hollywood starting as an entertainment attorney and doing an earlier film with MacGregor that led to this turbulent one. Finally in "Holiday from Hell" (26m16s), regional horror expert extraordinaire Stephen Thrower provides plenty of detail about MacGregor's background (some of it very dubious and including some bit parts in Hollywood movies), including his work on Brotherhood of Satan and the path leading to this film and some of its more amusing continuity curiosities.

Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray

Code Red Blu-ray

Updated review on September 27, 2024.