Three hundred years ago, in 1683, three women, Jessica Morley, Mary Pratt and Rebecca Carson were condemned as witches. Jessica is fed, alive, to the pigs, Mary is killed by the use of a breaking wheel set on fire and Rebecca is burned at the stake. The main perpetrators of the Devonsville inquisition were the Pendleton family, the Gibbs family, and the Warley family. During the execution of the final witch, a curse is laid on the ancestors of the families responsible for the killings.
Three hundred years later, in 1983, Walter Gibbs (Paul Willson) runs the local grocery store. His wife, Sarah Louise (Joanna Andruss) has been ill for quite some time. Walter, tired of taking care of his invalid wife, suffocates her will a pillow. The next day Jenny Scanlon (Suzanna Love) comes to town. Jenny is the town’s new schoolteacher. Immediately she is propositioned by Ralph Pendleton (Michael Accardo) and Walter Gibbs (Paul Willson). Matthew Pendleton (Robert Walker Jr.) is also interested in her but is not nearly as ham fisted about it as others in town.
Dr. Warley (Donald Pleasence), the local physician is aware of the curse and of his ancestor’s role in the witch hunts. Finding some old diaries in his attic he has become familiar with the curse.
In addition to Jenny there are two other new residents to Devonsville. Monica (Deanna Haas) works at the radio station and Chris is an environmentalist doing research on the nearby water outlets. The gossip in town about the three new women spreads quickly. The fact that there are three emancipated women in town who don’t have husbands, and don’t seem to be interested in acquiring them, makes some of the men in town believe that the women represent the return of the curse. After all, if they are not interested in some red-blooded American males, then they must be either weird, or witches. It doesn’t matter that the men are not exactly the pick of the litter.
Jealousy and male ego supersede common sense. Some of the townspeople whose ancestors were involved in the original killings are ready to repeat the mistakes of the past.
“The Devonsville Terror” was released in 1983 and was directed by Ulli Lommel. It is an American supernatural horror film. Director Lommel and his wife Suzanna Love co-wrote the film. Much of the film was inspired by the Salem witch trials. Suzanna plays Jenny Scanlon in the film. The movie never had a theatrical release but went directly to home video.
The plot is standard. Someone is killed as a witch, this time three women. Centuries later they come back for revenge. Plain and simple. For the most part, the film is nondescript. There is some nudity but not enough to make it totally smutty. What the movie does have that keeps it from being boring is a rather cool melting sequence, similar to what you saw in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” 1981. These cool special effects were done by Matthew W. Mungle.
Suzanna Love was a member of the prestigious Dupont family. She grew up in Manhattan and attended Vassar College. When she was a child, she was entered in several beauty pageants in London.