Black Devil Doll From Hell... Some deep thoughts, and a slight retrospective on the films of Chester Novell Turner

"You wooden headed bastard..."

There is something truly disturbing about "Black devil doll from hell". At first glance it's easy to toss this movie into the bad movie shitpile and never give it a second thought. I imagine that is probably why most people have never seen, let alone heard of this movie. Most viewers will watch it and will not be able to get past the retail store ventriloquist doll which is supposed to scare us, or the casio keyboard produced soundtrack. If they could, they would see a genuinely disturbing story unfold onscreen. The main female character "Helen" begins the film a religious woman who is heard talking to a friend about her purity and how it is sacred and how she should come to church with her on sunday. By the end of the film she is literally begging a  satanic doll to fuck her.

"I long for you..."

The journey from saint to sinner is a rather quick one for Helen. She walks into an antique store one day and finds the doll for sale. The shopkeeper tells her about the doll and how it has been purchased four separate times and how it has made its way back to the store each time. First of all, this would be a red flag for me. If someone told me that I was purchasing a possessed doll I would pull a 180 and run away as fast as I could. But...for whatever reason she decides she must purchase the doll. It is easy to say that this is a big hole in the films logic. But, let's look at it from a different perspective. Everything that Helen did that day, led up to her entering that store and finding that doll. 

She never had any other choice. It was destined to be

They were destined to meet. If that is true, then her beliefs about being a good woman and preserving her purity never mattered... as they were only there to eventually be broken. Following this train of thought, it is easy to see how Helen only ever existed to be destroyed. She is the victim of a cosmic prank played on her by the forces of evil. In this scenario, Evil forces are the prankster, she is the victim, and the doll is the Whoopee cushion. I don't see this movie as being about the doll, as much as I see it being about the presence of evil and its ability to bend the will of the unsuspecting. The doll itself does not matter. It is just the on screen representation of evil. It is just the thing that is put there for us to follow the transfer of evil... from Hell, through the doll, into Helen. See what I am saying? The doll doesn't matter. She could have stuck her foot in the wrong fucking shoe and wound up possessed and longing for Satan, instead she bought the wrong doll.

As awesome as it is, this doll doesn't matter in the end...

The real story is about the breaking of the human will. It is about the presence and power of evil in ones life and the depths that ones desires can drive them to. Much like Chester N Turners other film "Tales from the Quadead zone", there is a powerful statement being made. You just have to look really hard and pay really close attention to see it.  It's also completely possible that I am imagining things, and all of this is just nonsense. Maybe Chester Turner really did just make a shitty movie about a doll, but I have a hard time believing that. I think Chester Turner was both a Victim and Champion of low budgets. His films have become sought after by collectors, and fetch hefty prices online. However he never achieved any sort of commercial success. His films are only remembered now for the most part because of how poorly produced or "bad" they are..I find his two films to be genuine works of art. They are the perfect example of "Camera and a dream" film making.  These people really wanted to make a movie, and they did just that. With whatever little bit of resources they had, they produced a film that is still remembered, still has a fanbase, and is somewhat of a legend in the horror community. Not much is known about Chester N Turner. He released two movies... "Black devil doll from hell" released in 1984 and 1989s horror anthology "Tales from the Quadead zone", and has no other credits to his name. His whereabouts are unknown and it is in the air as to whether  he is dead or alive. Some say he passed away back in the mid 1990s sometime, while others say he is alive and well but does not want to be associated with his films any longer. Either way, his two contributions to low budget cinema are greatly appreciated and admired by many. It confounds me as to why there has not been a legitimate release of this film outside of Chester Turners home pressed VHS tapes. It would seem to me that this movie is ripe to be tossed onto the DVD market, yet to date no legitimate release exists...and that is a real fucking bummer.