|
Satan's Slave
[Deimos]
1976; color
Directed by Norman J. Warren
Starring: Michael Gough, Martin Potter, Candace Glendenning, Barbara Kellerman & Michael Craze
|
|
Satan's Slave is a somewhat slowly paced British horror film made during whatever period of the 1970s it was when the biggest threat to a college aged woman's life was death by serial killer, biker gang or Satanic cult. This one obviously deals with the latter, although I suppose Catherine's crazy cousin Stephen could be considered a serial killer. His main hobby is menacing and murdering random women he brings back to his family's vast estate. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. I mean, we haven't even met your young heroine yet. Plus, first we have to go through some somewhat plot establishing Satanic shenanigans and a heavily edited example of Stephen's unique style of seduction. (According to other reviews this scene involves some kind of sexual scissor play before the woman's death by door. At least I think the door killed her. Honestly this scene was so choppy I couldn't quite figure it out.) Only after witnessing these strange series of events do we get to meet the lovely Miss Catherine and learn she is on the cusp of two things - turning 20 and taking a trip with her parents to meet her father's brother, aka her uncle, at his remote gloomy location where he lives unhappily ever after with his sadistic son (the already mentioned Stephen) and his disgruntled sexy secretary, Francis. (Who is screwing Stephen, but for whatever reason, has been allowed to live.) Poor Catherine's family decreases by two shortly thereafter when her father experiences a blinding headache and literally drives right into their destination; or rather a tree on the grounds right outside the house. She jumps out of the car to get help from her distant relatives for the ones bleeding to death in the car only to hear it blow up the minute her back is turned. Shocking! Sadly, this is just the tip of the iceberg as far as her problems go - she hasn't even found out about the whole let's slaughter the girl on her 20th birthday in order to bring her powerful ancestor back from the dead thing yet. On the bright side, she seems to recover from the trauma quickly and moves right into the part where she has visions and makes out with her cousin and sees her dead parents very much alive etc. Anywhoo, sometimes I like to do a little research about a film before I watch it. (You know, to see what I'm in for.) This particular round of web stalking garnered the following information - Satan's Slave is rather gory and gross; and the version contained on this DVD is highly edited. At first this seemed like a good thing but, in retrospect, the editing is so poorly done I would have preferred to watch the unedited version and just cover my eyes when something nasty happens. (Even though I'm not sure it would have helped me make more sense of the plot.) I also read a few comments on the IMDB implying people watched this film on TV, which I gather is the genesis of the edited version; although I'm not a hundred percent sure what the BBC's policy is on eyeball gouging. Perhaps there's another reason for the edit. But there is certainly no excuse! Fortunately, Michael Gough (of Konga and Trog fame) plays the uncle, and sports a ridiculous mustache for the film's entirety, and the two female leads are hot. I don't think this movie is as bad as some of it's press but I didn't think it was that great either.
—Bunny
[Read the Kommandant's previously published review of Terror here.]
|
|
