Demon Queen (Video 1987) Poster

(1987 Video)

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4/10
A nice and brief vampire effort
kannibalcorpsegrinder21 August 2022
After meeting an enigmatic woman, a small-time drug peddler finds that she's responsible for the trail of bodies left around him as a means of her vampire tendencies and must try to keep himself alive to stop her rampage.

This one wasn't that great but does have its moments. The movie's main focus here is spent on the series of random encounters she has with the thugs around his business which does lend itself to some cheesy fun at times. From the initial meeting of her breaking up the attempted mugging which brings them together, the disturbing dream he has of her tempting and then graphically killing him, or the scenes of her going around town picking up random victims, there are some generally enjoyable low-budget scenes here. Once the henchmen are turned and he goes on his own rampage against those he knows, this one manages some rather fun and brutal attacks as well with these running parallel to the other action scenes of her going through his friends. This all makes for a fun, fast-paced effort that doesn't have much downtime in this short, and along with the fun indie gore here for all the throat rips and blood-drinking which carries on throughout the film, gives this some generally fun elements for the most part. However, for as much fun as all this is, there are also the films' egregiously obvious origins on display. The constant haze and fuzz over everything simply scream out the shot-on-video setup, as characters become somewhat indecipherable blurs only to be made out by their voiceovers to let you know what's going on. Likewise, the admittedly over-the-top gore features numerous shots and angles giving away the prosthetics involved, and the guerilla-style shooting out on actual streets involving real settings furthers this notion completely. Given that the entire thing also contains the constant hum of the running camcorder in the background, the overall atmosphere here becomes unmistakable. That doesn't take into account the other flaws here, from how the vampires can survive in daylight, what the cutaways to the video-store employees mean in a film this short, or how the massacre doesn't alert the authorities which would've been obvious considering how public they are and the similarities to each other. These stand out as drawbacks but the other issues here are the biggest factors.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, a sex scene, and drug use.
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3/10
Demon queen!
BandSAboutMovies29 September 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Donald Farmer has forty credits as a director and they have titles like Cannibal Hookers, Red Lips, Shark Exorcist and Chainsaw Cheerleaders. This is an early SOV title from him that has a video store clerk that tries to get people to rent horror movies and a female demon - well, a vampire, but let's make the title work - who moves on in with a drug dealing couple.

It's also 46 minutes or so with 6 minutes of credit and sound that you can barely hear. So, you know, pretty great. It also has drone synth compositions of one long note, massive amounts of video effects that probably felt dated by 1987 and tons of actually pretty decent gore.

If this had better quality and was shot on film, I probably wouldn't care as much. There's just something about the beyond faded quality of Shot On Video that gives these movies a heart that they may not have had otherwise.
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3/10
She Is Not Happy!!!
guestar5718 August 2006
D Q - We recently interviewed Thee Donald Farmer and his Dorm Of The Dead wasn't ready to be critiqued. So, He mentioned his first Demon Queen was being released on DVD by www.b-movie.com The cover is very inviting to purchase, The acting is hit and miss,But the Demon Queen lead Mary Fanaro is great and unique in role. After DQ, She did a lot of TV and Truth Or Dare and Any Given Sunday is her last credit 7 years ago. The DQ is some kind of Vampirish Succubus, Who seduces and eats her victims. The film quality is quite good,The sounds is Very Horrific(Drop outs, Dialogue missing, shame really).This flick is entertaining and worth the purchase just for Mary and her gory liaisons.
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2/10
Camcorder Chillers 1: Demon Queen (1986)
capkronos12 January 2009
Warning: Spoilers
During the video boom era of the 80s, distributors were so desperate for new product to add to their catalogues they'd release just about anything they could get their hands on. Foreign films and made-for-TV movies were popular acquisitions, but thanks to access to affordable consumer grade camcorders, a whole new generation of "filmmakers" came into the picture with various no-budget releases. Johnn Wintergate's awful-but-hilarious BOARDINGHOUSE (1982) was the first notable camcorder effort to turn up on home video (on the short-lived Betamax format under the title HOUSEGEIST), though it apparently was also shown in theaters first! There was also SLEDGE HAMMER (1984), a slasher from David A. Prior, followed by Christopher Lewis' BLOOD CULT (1985), which proudly claimed to be the very first movie made specifically for the home video market. Just one year later, director Donald Farmer fired up his own trusty camcorder and gave us his first of many attempts at horror - DEMON QUEEN (1986), which was shot in both the Miami, Florida and Nashville, Tennessee areas and involves a seductive vampire-demon-succubus. I won't lie, this film is truly terrible in every sense of the word. Sloppy continuity errors, sound that frequently cuts out, opening and closing credits with misspelled words, actors grinning when they shouldn't and badly flubbed lines of dialogue are all allowed to pass into the finished product. It's also very badly padded out. If you cut out the opening and closing credits, the film runs just 46 minutes! There's also a pointless dream sequence of the the demon queen ripping out some guy's heart. That whole sequence lasts a gruelingly long 8 minutes.

The story centers around Jesse (Dennis Stewart), a lowly drug pusher in an unhappy relationship with bitchy, strung-out girlfriend Wendy (Patti Valliere). Jesse owes dwarf coke dealer Izzie (Ric Foster) six-thousand bucks and when Izzie has his henchman Bone (Cliff Dance) come to collect, a sexy and mysterious female in shades shows up to save the day. Jesse, who was temporarily knocked out, awakens to find Bone dead on the ground, his throat ripped out, and the woman who did it - Lucinda (Mary Fanaro) - in need of a place to stay. Jesse figures he owes Lucinda at least one favor since she saved his life and lets her come crash at his pad. Naturally, Lucinda turns out to be some kind of evil demon-succubus-vampire monster who likes to seduce men, rip out their hearts and then rub them on her bare breasts. Some of those killed by Lucinda return as flesh-eating zombies. To pad out the thin storyline, we get a succession of victims in random scenes getting stalked and killed. To pad out the thin storyline even more, there are several scenes that take place at a video store, where the horror-loving owner talks to a couple renting MAKE THEM DIE SLOWLY, and deals with a bitchy customer who only wants to rent Barbra Streisand movies.

Fanaro, who has some screen presence, is one aspect of the film they did manage to get right. She's tall, thin, has an alluringly husky voice and a short, spiky hairstyle that reminded me of LA FEMME NIKITA star Anne Parillaud (who got to play a sexy vampire herself in 1992's INNOCENT BLOOD). Fanaro went on to some other roles in higher-profile movies and television shows, and also got to star in Tim Ritter's TRUTH OR DARE around the same time. The less said about the rest of the cast the better.

There are topless scenes from the leading lady and another actress (who is killed in the bathtub), as well as a couple of OK ripped-throats-gushing-blood effects. The succubus in her demon form is only seen in a few brief flashes but looks like a torched Muppet. One hilariously botched effect occurs when the main actor is struggling with one of the zombies at the very end. Obviously he was supposed to reach up and tear off the zombie's skin to reveal a skull face underneath. Unfortunately, the layer of skin he grabs doesn't come all the way off on the first try, so he casually has to reach up a second time and pull the rest of the way off! To supplement the Casio Keyboard soundtrack, there are also several original cheesy pop-rock songs that I happened to love. They're sung by a female vocalist. One of them goes "Let me be your angel fire... Let me be your one desire..." and is listed as "AngleFire" in the end credits. Ha! You gotta love this kind of stuff, right?
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1/10
Sacrifices Story for a String of Dull, Gory Death Scenes
jfrentzen-942-2042111 February 2024
This vanity production was shot on videotape in Tennessee and Florida by ex-horror magazine editor Farmer, armed with about ten bucks, half a script and gallons of stage blood. Lucinda (Mary Fanaro), immortal witch with a lot of time on her hands, enjoys ripping out the hearts and necks of her victims. Some of her victims get back up again and run around Nashville looking for flesh to munch on.

Meanwhile, Lucinda hooks up with an obnoxious street-punk cocaine dealer (Dennis Webster) and beds down at his apartment. Webster's couch-potato girlfriend objects, for which she ends up in the bathtub with a tap in her neck. By the time Webster figures out what's up, Lucinda is attacked by one of her own victims and supposedly killed.

One of Farmer's early quickies, DEMON QUEEN sacrifices story telling for a series of dull but gory set pieces. Like many other regional horror films, the credits proclaim a "special guest star" no one's ever heard of. The make-up effects are so-so, and include lumbering, drooling zombies and a gooey monster mask that appears to slip off an actor's face in mid-shot.
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10/10
Loved it
bsvhs66622 November 2008
Let me try to paint a picture, the year is 1993, I'm in my early 20's and I here a blurb from some d.i.y horror zine talking about Donald Farmer and they brought up this film. There was no review to speak of so I was left hanging, I felt I needed this film being a fan of Mr. Farmer and being obsessed with S.O.V horror films. So, it entered my list and there it sat on top of it for years. Than I heard about the DVD release I was excited, sure VHS would have been better.. but a guys gotta take what he can take, unfortunately I was to late all copies were sold out. I felt very stupid for not acting faster on it. So, some more years pass but the need for this film always stayed with me I put want ads on any site I could think of but there was zero feedback.. Than one day it happen out of nowhere I got a lead for the DVD copy, it was a good price so I ordered it and the rest is history. Im sure any film fan has stories just like this, and I just wanted to point out what this film means to me..

The film it self is about a demon that presents itself in a beautiful ladies body, she needs to feed on human flush and so begins a creative killing spree with some very impressive gore.( some good t&a also ) The plot is thin and the acting is funny. But what you do get is a comfortable fast paced s.o.v film. It is much better than some others that I have watched, and I would recommend it to people who dig this kind of stuff. Others should stay away.

I will leave you all with the thought of if there is a film that you have been looking high and low for, don't give up cause one day,, when you least expect it YOU will find it... Now I need The BrainSucker 1988 I got my fingers crossed
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