Black Devil Doll from Hell (1984) on Netflix
Helen Black, a church-going Christian, has decided to abstain from sex until marriage. In a shop called Road's End she buys a puppet that its proprietor claims holds strange powers.
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- Netflix1.7/5
- IMDb3.3/10939 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Helen Black is a devout Christian who goes to church and has resolved not to have sex until she is married, even though a friend presses her to seek it out. In her neighborhood she crosses paths with a man who sells stolen goods out of the trunk of his car, and she tells him his behavior is not Christian. Then she walks into Road's End, a store advertising treasures, and is drawn to a puppet that resembles a black man. The proprietor warns her that it came from East India and that it has powers to give its owner what the owner wants. She does not believe the warning and buys the puppet, then takes it home.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Black Devil Doll from Hell (1984)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Chester Novell Turner wrote the script for Black Devil Doll from Hell in three and a half days, but filming stretched over several years on a budget of about $10,000. Most of that money went to the cast and crew, because Turner did not know that independent-film performers often work for free.
- Hollywood Home Video released Black Devil Doll from Hell in 1984 and made extensive edits, removing seventy minutes of footage and Turner's original soundtrack. Turner called the relationship exploitative and got only $6 in royalties on each VHS.
- Turner first intended the story to be one segment of the anthology Tales from the QuadeaD Zone, and turned it into a feature-length film after the script grew too long to be part of an anthology.
- The devil doll was modeled after Rick James, and Turner's young nephew portrayed the doll in the walking scenes. Turner had no filmmaking experience and took a correspondence course to help him with the film.
- Black Devil Doll from Hell became an underground hit after its release, with legal and bootleg copies circulating widely, and within a few years critics called the film "fabled" and "immortal."
