Very well executed

Too many fans seem to be blown away

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

No. 13 Demon Street--sounds likes a nice place to visit & maybe I would want to stay. But seriously, folks, is there anything here of note beyond the presence of Lon Chaney as Satan. As far as Satan on the big-screen, what could have more fitting during this time than Mr. Chaney--who, unfortunately at this point in his career was probably getting by more on name value than anything else. Not to say the man couldn't anymore, but I'm sure all the serious Lon fans know about the live tv drunk incident that sent his career to B-movie hell.At any rate, Chaney does make a great Satan (shocker, I know). At's that is pretty much the big draw for this film. Satanya is nice to look at, the stories in between Satan's segments passable entertainment & the closing reel is pretty good. Basically this is for the hardcore Chaney purists who will watch pretty anything the man did--even dreck like "La Casa Del Terror."

Apparently "The Devil's Messenger" was pieced together by joining three episodes of a "lost" one-season TV show called "13 Demon Street" with some newly-shot linking footage. The concept of that new footage needed a little more work ("Satanya" is supposed to be delivering objects to people, but they already seem to have them!), and the production values are pretty shoddy, but I would be interested in seeing more episodes of the original series if they were more easily available, because the stories themselves are intriguing, especially the first (which contains the genuinely surreal idea of a person moving inside a photograph) and the third (which is about a man trying to escape his fate and features a clever twist ending). Lon Chaney Jr. is fun as The Devil. **1/2 out of 4.

Lon Chaney Jr plays Satan - the devil himself - in this fun, often funny, little film. There are 3 segments and in-between them you will see Satan (Chaney) giving Satanya (Kadler) her next assignment which leads to the next segment.The first segment is about a photographer who is a sex pervert. He commits murder and a woman that helped him regrets helping him. There is a photograph that will "haunt" the photographer... he becomes literally scared to death.The seconded segment is of some miners that discovers a whole and well preserved prehistoric woman frozen in ice. They get her out with ice still surrounding her. One man falls in love with frozen woman, he believes he was with her in a past life... he becomes crazy. (An excellent segment).The third segment is of a man who keeps having a reoccurring dream, tells his psychiatrist and the doctor has the man to sorta play out the dream. The man ends up at a fortuneteller who sees his fate in her crystal ball - he will die at midnight by her.The film is not scary but it is fun to watch in it's way.8/10

What on paper might have seemed like a good idea for a television series fortunately never made it that far, possibly playing in some second rate movie theater as part of a double bill with another piece of schlock. The premise has Satan himself (Lon Chaney Jr., that brilliant thespian of 1950's and 60's horror crap) sending the latest arrival in Hell back to earth to bring him more souls and ultimately go back one last time with the plan of obtaining more room, since hell is obviously running out. Looking like your local garbage man or mail deliverer, Chaney speaks his lines with an eternal grin, like the cat who swallowed tweetie bird with one gulp, seeming more like the prince of annoyance than the prince of darkness. The individual segments when Chaney isn't on actually rise this film's ratings up a bit and show a bit of creativity.First, there's a segment involving a camera man who is being stalked by a picture of a mysterious house with a woman he is having a strange affair with seemingly getting closer and closer. When she does appear, she's strangely obsessed, but as she realizes that he's getting nuttier and nuttier by her presence, she prepares to go. Why this premise would lead him to a life of damnation makes no sense, but the plot line surrounding her picture shows that at least someone was thinking simply beyond the shock value of having a film of people being damned.Next, is a tragic story, quite sad actually, concerning the discovery of a girl from millenniums in time found in a block of ice in a cave, and the efforts of a love-starved man to rescue her from her icy tomb. Finally, there's the story of a man who learns that he is to be murdered by a gypsy fortune teller at midnight and his efforts to prevent it from happening. Each incident has its own level of spookiness and certainly are better than any of the segments which feature Chaney at his most horrible. Chaney does of course get a twist at the end, and he overacts with relish. Filmed very cheaply, this has moments of gripping fear, but not everybody will be taken with the idea of Satan using an innocent woman (named Satana, no less...) to bring him more souls pretty much against her will.