The Demons of Ludlow (1983)

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

The film is not a bad ghost/haunting story - the Ludlow demon is more like a really mean ghost but I'll call him a demon - lol. The film did hold my interest to a degree, it's not great but I did find it watchable.The haunted piano (harpsichord really) houses the Ludlow demon - a man that used to play it all the time but had his hands cut off and vowed revenge on the descendants of those that did this to him. Each person he's killed over the years has become his ghostly helpers in his evil diabolical revenge plan! Muahaha!! Fun movie. Somewhat entertaining and watchable. I would have rated this film slightly higher but I don't understand why the ghost demon Ludlow didn't get back his hands at a much earlier time period - why did he wait 200 years to do it? He could have done it well before 1983. Oh well, still kind of a fun film to watch.4/10

Nonsense about an old, haunted piano being brought to the small town of Ludlow, population: 47, and it causes all sorts of murder and mayhem there. The plot is obviously rather thin.A surprising, although slightly silly, killing in a barn is a highlight. Snowy photography is well done, film has the look and feel of a small town in the middle of winter, to great effect, but interior photography is unmemorable; the special effects are variable: sink catches fire (already done in Boogeyman, three years earlier) and a girl is attacked by a roll of toilet paper? Did I see that correctly? An overlong, dumbass sequence with a girl trimming her doll's hair and being attacked by people in white wigs and dressed like it's the 1700s was seemingly trying to be so-bad-it's-good, but ended up just trying this viewer's patience.The first half hour was pretty good, and there is a bit of atmosphere throughout, but it's a downhill after that first third.

Really, really terrible, even for Rebane. I don't think I've ever seen a sink burst into flame in any genre of film, for starters. In keeping with Rebane's "style" in this movie, this review will mostly be full of rambling comments. Ludlow is apparently in New England, but it looks like Wisconsin and the accents are Wisconsin-y. Characters are ripped apart by demons but later found intact and the cause of death is ruled as strangulation. The reporter girl has flashbacks of things that haven't happened yet. Vampires??? Bill, 49 minutes in and you introduce vampires??? I think it's trying to be a mystery that gradually unfurls, but it's so badly done stuff just jerks along from one plot point to another. One hour and 19 minutes into the movie, the Three Musketeers show up to have a swordfight and kill a character. "Efrem Ludlow's ghost is in the piano...he wants his hands!" The laughing, floating piano that explodes about ten times without damage is a riot though. The shocking revelation of the stumps hardly looks like the actor playing Efrem is wearing socks over his hands, huh? Hell, I don't even know what happened at the end.You may think this is a "so bad it's good" movie. Don't think that. It's so awful it made me angry. Avoid.

Yet another low budget effort from Wisconsin's legendary low budget filmmaker Bill Rebane, this one involving ghosts, a cursed town and a haunted piano.It reminds me a lot of Carpenter's "The Fog" only with a cursed piano instead of a ghost ship, which would look pretty stupid in an inland town anyway. There's even a preacher who is the last to die just like in Carpenter's film.The effects, (especially the beheading), are weak but, like most of Rebane's films, it's still an enjoyable way to kill some time. And since it's in the public domain should be available cheap on a bargain DVD.