Satan's Slave (1979)

Best movie of this year hands down!

To me, this movie is perfection.

Thanks for the memories!

Fantastic!

Satan's Slave is a cult film, a horror pic for those with a bent for occult based euro trash made on a small budget. Plot has a young woman played by Candace Glendenning caught up in a devil worshipping cult run by her uncle Alexander Yorke (Michael Gough).It's full of the familiar tropes of such movies, plenty of nudity, violence and blood, and of course some interesting attire - gotta love those goat head masks! But it's all so tediously ridiculous and acted accordingly. Yes the violence is cold and nasty, and there's shock value here, including attempted rape, making this one that for sure would have had the censors of the time looking nervously through the print. But the interim passages of dialogue, of which the pic is predominately built, are borderline yawn inducing. Director Norman J. Warren is guilty of overdoing the horror cliche's, and the garish luridness of it all wears thin by the midpoint, but in the plus column is Les Young's intense colour photography.Cult fan base for it does exist, understandably so since there is a big call for this type of cinema, but with that comes the fact that it's an acquired taste and obviously not for all horror buffs. 4/10

Every once in a while I discover an obscure Gem that reminds me of what film is about.This is one of those Gems. I procured a copy of this through a gorehouse collection which consists of 12 other equally obscure films and this is amongst the best of the collection.Sure it contains 'aspects' of sexploitation, but nothing really extreme, and very tastefully done I might add. The way the film portrays the female body, even in the scenes of sadism, is as an art form, a vehicle of expression, not an object to be manipulated, at least not by the viewer. The story of a girl who is about to turn "the proper age" to assist in a necromancy ritual is portrayed quite naturally. I also find the acting exquisite and very theatrical, which the British are well known for. The female actresses come across as majestic and feminine, but with a soft, inner resilience as well. I really love this about these British actresses.The hallucination scenes are intimate and sensually sadistic. In them we get a hint of the potential fate of Catherine and we get to look through her beautiful eyes as she unravels her own possible outcome.The only thing slightly holding this great film experience back is the fact that it could use a clean up and decent digital transfer to capture all its atmospheric beauty. But this is an incidental problem and not necessarily a problem of the filmmakers themselves. Which is why I still give it a full 10. I cannot blame the old film transfer problems on the filmmaker or the actors. This is a great jewel of a film and I really love it a lot. Highly recommended.

Enjoyable British horror garbage about a girl who is to be use as a vessel for the return of an evil witch by a band of satanists that are lead by her uncle and cousin.Violent in a very graphic way (one character has a nasty thing happen to his eye) this is the sort of British horror film that seemed to be popping up on double feature bills in the late 70's before turning around and having a occasional screenings on late night TV. They were violent and uncomfortable affairs that made you squirm at the unpleasant things going on (the cousin is a sadist who abuses women). They were a bit more intelligent than many American horror films and got you in the head as well as in the viscera. Here the film is constantly disorienting you since we are like our heroine not sure of what is and what isn't real, though to be honest we do have a good sense that all is not well.I've seen this film a couple of times over the years and I've enjoyed it for the most part though its not something I've ever really sought to see the second third or fourth time, it was just something that happened. To be honest one one memory of the film is Michael Grough's mustache which is this big fluff affair and every time I see the film again I remember I saw it because of facial hair. Not a ringing endorsement I know but I should add that I do end up watching the film to the end.Worth a look

This is actually quite a bright spot in the late 70's Brit Horror Film Industry breathing its last few gasps. It comes in a few different versions, some bloodier and sexier than others. It actually works in either the softer or hotter versions. The grue-- including a nude woman threatened with scissors, a head crushed in a door, a gory fall of a ledge, a woman slashed with a jagged piece of glass, and a nail driven into an eye-- is lively, but the central story about the traumatized heroine being cared for by her malevolent uncle and his murderous son is strong enough to stand on its own. There are also the expected scenes of black mass and nude female worshipers. The film plays nicely on our expectations and manages to surprise. With all the garish colors and hazy turn of events, we're never quite certain if everyone is off their rocker, the heroine especially possibly going off on some flight of fantasy triggered by the accident and exacerbated by the legend of the ancestress witch. Plus, characters you expect to play a pivotal role die suddenly, it's hard to tell who is trustworthy and who isn't, and Martin Potter as the cousin vacillates so perfectly between being a morose companion to the girl and a frenzied monster to everyone else that I found myself just as lulled in by him. The violent scenes are shocking and unpredictable, while the talkier sequences have a weirdly cold atmosphere to them. For me, this one gets unfairly written off far too often.