flapdoodle64 Fans of badfilm will want to check this one out. This schlock horror-comedy-burlesque hybrid doesn't take itself too seriously, although hero Tod Griffin appears to be taking himself too seriously. It is fascinating to hear his deep and earnest voice, resonating as it does from his skinny chest, as his skinny arms gesticulate.For counter-point to our under-whelming and over-acting hero, we are treated to the spectacular physical endowments of Irish McCalla, whose performance does not resemble thespian-ism in even the most theoretical sense.The most likable of our 3 heroes is comic-relief Sammy, played ably by Victor Sen Young, a veteran of many B-films and a former screen son of Charlie Chan. Shortly after this film, Young took the role of Hop Sing in Bonanza, playing a very distasteful stereotype...Young fares better in this film, as there is only one obligatory Chinese joke...the rest being non-denominational wise-cracks and general goofiness. He is a an early version of the Hipster Doofus...alongside Maynard G Krebs and Jughead Jones, paving the way for Cosmo Kramer.The Mad Nazi Scientist Commandant is fun to watch...very evil, very nuts, very lecherous...and the actor appears to have been drunk during most of the filming...good stuff all around.There's some fun cheap monster make-up, and for good measure it's worn by a bunch of burlesque dancers wearing grass skirts and bikini tops. Got to love that. The burlesque dancers are billed in the credits as the Diane Nellis dancers, and most of them thankfully are not wearing the monster make-up, so we see their lovely faces as well as their lovely bodies.Now here's a couple questions for the scholars: Who were the Diane Nellis Dancers and what became of them? Who was Diane Nellis and what became of her? They probably had interesting lives, all of them.The dancers play some kind of strange pale-skinned primitive women, and they perform a sleazy nightclub type 'jungle dance.' This dance lasts for several minutes and is the highlight of the film...this type of cheesecake stuff is incredibly tame compared to what our 12-year-old children can watch on MTV. The dance is a good thing because pretty girls in bikini tops and grass skirts will always be needed by our world.I have seen plenty of schlock-horror films from this era, and this is the only one I know of that contains an actual cheese-cake burlesque club type dance. It is this innovation to the genre, plus Irish McCalla's endowments and her very brief semi-striptease (a tease striptease, if you will) that she performs early in the pic, that distinguish this film. For surely the infusion of burlesque elements into this epic foreshadows the nudie-horror films that came in the 1960's.

Coventry I like to sometimes think of myself that I've seen a large share of horror, cult, Sci-Fi and exploitation movies from all eras and from all over the world, but the truth is that these genres are simply an inexhaustible source of material. I never even heard of "She Demons" before, for example, even though it sounds right up my alley with crazed monsters, cuckoo scientists and bizarre make-up effects! Not that this film is a great discovery or anything, but it's interesting and ahead-of-its-time 50's shlock. "She Demons" is more or less a trashy variation on H.G. Wells' classic tale "The Island of Dr. Moreau", albeit expanded with malignant Nazi doctors and their relentless experiments as well as some really weird but typically 50's environmental research regarding new energy sources. Following a devastating hurricane at sea, four castaways (the spoiled daughter of a wealthy industrialist and three of her employees) wash ashore a tropical and seemingly uninhabited island. However, the place soon turns out to be the private resort of an escaped Nazi doctor and a handful of his soldiers. Unaware that the Third Reich doesn't exist anymore since more than 10 years, the doctor continues his work and even invented a super intelligent new way to generate energy by extracting heat from the volcano underneath the island. This discovery would pretty much make him the most genius and celebrated man on earth, but he's a Nazi and – on top of that – also a dangerous psychopath who replaces the beautiful faces of kidnapped women with animal DNA in order to attempt saving his own horribly mutilated wife. It's up to the courageous shipwrecked to stop the doctor's vile experiments and at the same time not to fall victim to the soldiers and/or creepy female mutations. This all may sound like a lot of potentially fascinating story lines and more than enough excitement for a relatively short (slightly under 80min) movie, and than I haven't even mentioned the obligatory and totally implausible developing love-story between the lead characters yet, but "She Demons" is actually a rather boring viewing experience with far too many 'nothing going on' moments. The plot ideas are effective and the make-up effects are definitely quite nasty considering the time of release and the lack of budget, but the pacing is just intolerably slow. The dialogs seem to last forever – particularly the Nazi dude's explanation regarding what he does on the island – whereas other extended parts a little too obviously serve as time-filler, like the She-Demons ritual dance act. What is up with that? Did filmmakers back in the fifties automatically assumed that ridiculous ritual dances were obligatory in movies that are set on tropical islands? The cast is terrible and lead starlet Irish McCalla is hugely annoying and unattractive despite her extremely positive and promoting self-image. One to avoid if you have good taste, but worth a look if you like silly demonic masks, demented speeches and messed up science guys with hideous German accents.

bensonmum2 A small group of people become shipwrecked on a seemingly deserted island. When one member of their group is attacked by a hideous looking female, the others realize they are not alone. Following the sound of a drum, the groups stumbles upon a Nazi encampment where all sorts of experiments are performed on several caged females. The group is discovered and must fight for their lives if they aren't to become the next Nazi casualties.I found She Demons much better than its reputation would suggest. I can obviously see the problems with the movie, but much of it is enjoyable in a corny, cheesy, 50s sort of way. Any movie with Nazis on a tropical island in 1958 has to have some fun, goof-ball moments. And the production values are above average for a 50s B-quickie like this. Many of the stage-bound sets overcome their limited budgets.And then there's the cast. The survivors are as unlikely a group as you'll see. First, there's the rich, spoiled beauty played by Irish McCalla. She has a way of delivering lines as I would imagine a living statue might - very little real emotion. Second is our hero played by Tod Griffin. A more buffoonish lead I've never seen. He's one of those guys you see in older movies who insists on pulling up his pants to his armpits. He also is fond of spouting some incredibly silly dialogue. Finally, Victor Sen Yung is the flunky. He was annoying as Charlie Chan's Number 1 son and is equally annoying here. He has the same delivery and tries out some of the same lame jokes.One scene in She Demons warrants special mention. When our group of castaways comes across the Nazi doctor, they naturally ask about his fiendish plan. What follows is the usual Mad Scientist Reveals His Whole Plan Scene. But this one is more detailed that most. His response has to be the longest explanation a mad genius ever gave in a movie. It goes on and on and on... I found it to be quite a hoot.If you're a fan of silly 50s horror/sci-fi movies, you might find a thing or two to enjoy here.

KDWms The top grade on my nostalgia meter doesn't help this film's overall rating very much. Until recently, I had not seen She Demons since it was televised often when I was a kid in the early sixties. It was much more watchable then. Although made in the late fifties, this film's villains are Nazis, feared more in the forties, complete with a gestapo-protected disturbed doctor bent on restoring his wife's face to its former beauty using a not-yet-perfected procedure which involves transferring the pretty pusses of his inventory of captive wild women (oops - that's another epic of the era). Nice thing about it, however, is that - aside from permanent memory loss - one's looks return in a few days, allowing for repetitive service. The scientist inhabits a volcanic island used for bombing practice and terminates any accidental visitors, the latest of whom is a trio from a hurricane-capsized boat. It is typical of the decade's low-budget (black-and-white, short running time, dialogue-dependent, cheesy make-up) tactics. Don't misunderstand my use of the word "classic" here: As a noun, my definition contains nothing but good-ness. A synonymous ADJECTIVE, however, is "total", as in "This movie is a classic example of how to construct a classic, inferior product."