Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Beulah Bram A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

utgard14 Another version of the Burke & Hare grave robber story. On the surface, this one has quite a few interesting things going for it. For starters, the script was based on one originally written in the 1940s by poet Dylan Thomas. That alone would be worth checking any movie out. Then we have, of all people, Mel Brooks producing it even though it's not a comedy at all. Freddie Francis, famed cinematographer and Hammer director, directs this and gives it that sort of throwback Hammer style. That's the film's strongest asset, by the way. To top it all off, there's a nice cast with Timothy Dalton, Jonathan Pryce, Stephen Rea, Julian Sands, and...um, Twiggy.So, with all of this, why doesn't the movie work better? Well, the main problem is that it's all so drearily serious to the point of being dull. No excitement, no humor, no suspense. It's definitely not a horror movie, either, in case you were led to believe otherwise. Yes the attention to detail and getting the period right is to be acknowledged but it just reminds me why 'realism' is a double-edged sword in films. This looks realistic to the point of being depressing. I won't say you shouldn't see it because it's intriguing enough to warrant a look. But keep expectations low. If you're really jonesing for a grave robber movie, I would suggest you see the Val Lewton/Robert Wise classic The Body Snatcher starring Boris Karloff instead.

Spuzzlightyear Nice retelling of the Burke and Hare murder case, which was about 2 low- life lads in the early part of the 19th century selling off bodies to an all too eager Doctor Of Anatomy. They started off grave robbing, but realized they could get more money if they had fresher bodies.... Actually, this seems more of a remake of the excellent "The Flesh And The Fiends " movie from 1960.., They've made the right move by trimming the plot and getting rid of some characters, perhaps they put more of a cliff hanger ending in there, but that's OK. Of course, Timothy Dalton is no Peter Cushing, but we'll let that slide. Actually contains a great cast for it's time.

mlraymond This movie is well acted and literate, and boasts a regular Masterpiece Theatre cast. So why is it not more satisfying? The miserable lives of the poor and homeless of 1828 Edinburgh are vividly detailed. I have seldom seen a more alcohol soaked movie. Practically every scene has people drunk already, getting drunk, or scheming to get more liquor. The pervasiveness of alcoholic excess as a way of driving off the demons of poverty and hopelessness has seldom been shown in more graphic detail.The truly appalling characters of Fallon and Broom are portrayed with utter conviction by Jonathan Pryce and Stephen Rea, with excellent support from other British television and movie stalwarts such as Patrick Stewart and Sian Phillips. Former model Twiggy turns in a very moving portrayal of a young prostitute ,hardened by life at too early an age to accept the love of an earnest young medical student (Julian Sands.) Where the film falls down is in its mixed presentation of gruesome historical reality, lurid horror movie story telling, and the desire to have the film be a class act like something for the BBC.The nasty reality of the real life crimes of Burke and Hare is hardly something that could be overdone, in even the most Grand Guignol of horror movies. This film does not flinch from portraying the ugly reality of the sordid murders, including the two jolly killers getting an old woman drunk, so they can murder her more easily later on. These are matters of historical record.But there's a sense that the movie wants to be more respectable and holds back a little, unlike the all out Gothic horror of the 1959 Flesh and the Fiends, which conveys the genuine horror of the murders, its chiller movie presentation somehow working to emphasize, rather than diminish, the dreadful catalog of greed and brutality.Oddly, the more conventional horror movie presentation of Flesh and the Fiends tends to work better than its more respectable successor.One reason might be the large amount of gallows humor and absurdity in it, unlike the extremely serious Doctor and the Devils. The script is very witty, with George Rose and Donald Pleasence delighting in their ghoulishly humorous characters.The Doctor and the Devils is a well made, serious movie worth seeing. It is a bit long and flat at times, and arguably a little too real for its own good, with a bleak and despairing tone prevailing, rather than the Gothic horror of Flesh and the Fiends. This somber approach may work against the film, in the long run, but it deserves to be seen by a wider audience.

Coventry Unquestionably one of the most fascinating real-life murder cases in the history of mankind is the story of William Burke and William Hare; suppliers of fresh human cadavers for surgeon Robert Knox to study anatomy upon. The facts took place in the late Victorian era, in other words a strictly religious time where scientists could exclusively dispose of the bodies of executed criminals as study material. The lack of serviceable cadavers spawned the malicious business of "body snatching". For a good price, lowlife criminals would dig up newly buried corpses at night and deliver them secretly to the doctors' houses. Obsessed with the payments, which increased remarkably if the bodies were fresher, Burke and Hare quickly converted to murder and, even though Dr. Knox damn well knew about this, he didn't object because the bodies he got were perfect to experiment with. "The Doctor and the Devils" is no less than the fifth film version of this factual murder case and, for some damn reason, just as obscure and hard-to-find as the other four. Personally, I spent quite a few years finding Val Lewton's "The Body Snatcher" and John Gilling's "The Flesh and the Fiends" and I still haven't managed to pick up decent copies of "Burke & Hare" (1972) and "The Greed of William Hart" (1948). Purchasing "The Doctor and the Devils" was quite a difficult mission as well but, if you're also intrigued by the story, it's an absolute must-see! The screenplay was completed by poet Dylan Thomas (in the 1950's already), who changed the names of the characters but sticked truly close to the timing, setting and accurate little details of the murders. The whole depiction of the murderers as well as their victims (prostitutes, beggars, ill people and drunks) is depressing and raw, yet amazingly accurate and even truly disturbing without becoming explicit or gory.Despite being mainly an American production (with comedy legend Mel Brooks as the unlikely producer) and released during the flamboyant horror period of the mid-80's, "The Doctor and the Devils" truly feels like a good old-fashioned and solid British Gothic movie. Pretty much the type Hammer Studios used to be specialized in. Surely this is no coincidence, given the subject matter and the origin of the facts, but this feeling is also largely created by director Freddie Francis and his overall professional British cast. Francis actually did quite a lot of work for Hammer during the 60's and 70's and has some respectable classics on his repertoire, such as "The Evil of Frankenstein" and "Legend of the Werewolf". The cast, as mentioned before, is pretty great and that only makes it harder to understand why this film is still so under-appreciated. Timothy Dalton is terrific as the ambitious and stubborn Dr. Thomas Rock, constantly battling his superiors and being zealous for the evolution of his profession. But most praise goes out to Jonathan Pryce and Stephen Rea, both playing their roles of greedy and inhuman killers with amazing vigour. Perhaps a bit sad and redundant is the role of Julian Sands ("Gothic", "Boxing Helena") as Dr. Rock's assistant. His pointless romance with the local prostitute Twiggy is the only weak element in the movie. Other than this, the set pieces are very convincing, the cinematography is excellent and the music is downright enchanting. "The Doctor and the Devils" is a great and genuinely chilling movie that urgently deserves to be catapulted out of oblivion.