3 star psychedelic seventies horror.
The Brotherhood of Satan was written and produced by L.Q. Jones (Casino, The Mask of Zorro), who also stars. Directed by Bernard McEveety (Wild West, The Incredible Hulk) it was originally released in 1971, and is unmistakably of the golden era of Satanic ritual films. It is presented here on Blu-ray following a 1080p restoration courtesy of Arrow Video.
“For a man with a heart condition, you sure picked one heck of a place to retire.”
The film opens magnificently, with a dramatic and completely unexplained scene featuring a car being turned into a pancake by a tank, or a toy tank, we’re not sure which.
Ben (Charles Bateman – Cannon, The Green Hornet) is a widower of six years. Together with his new girlfriend Nicky (Ahna Capri – Enter the Dragon, Piranha) they are driving across country to take his eight year old daughter K.T. (Geri Reischl – I Dismember Mama, The Meat Puppet) to her Grandmother’s home to celebrate her birthday.
Their plans are rudely interrupted when they come upon the scene of an accident, a squished car full of dead bodies, ahh that looks familiar. Horrified, they head straight to the nearest town of Hillsboro to report their findings. They are met with an unexpected response, the Sheriff Pete (L.Q. Jones) and his assistant Tobey (Alvy Moore – A Boy and his Dog) pull their guns on them.
When the townsfolk come running towards them, they decide discretion is the better part of valour and drive off. They don’t get far however, as they see a child in the road and the car crashes, leaving them no option but to return to town.
Once there, they find out the reason for the paranoia, no-one has been able to enter or leave the town for three days, people are being murdered and children are going missing. Little do they know that there is a house in town full of old people filled with sinister satanic intent, with a crazy leader (Strother Martin – Cool Hand Luke, True Grit) whom they all adore.
Can the townsfolk work out what’s going on before it’s too late? More to the point, can we?
“I have nothing which is not thine…”
The Brotherhood of Satan is a very enjoyable film, clearly very low budget but nevertheless not lacking in enthusiasm. It is obviously of the era, with some crazy psychedelics dream sequences and plenty of unnecessarily scantily clad female action.
It’s a good idea for a story, but it does suffer a bit from being vague, and some of the plot elements are not quite as well explained as they might be. The ending especially, although possibly quite clever, is ambiguous enough to leave you wanting more explanation.
All in all though, this is a really nice package, the film has been brought up to modern standards ready for Blu-ray and there are some great special features too. Good fun and well worth adding to your collection.
“Alright, if we can believe that it’s this thing, I don’t know what good that gun will do you Jack, but good luck.”
The Brotherhood of Satan is available to buy on Limited Edition Blu-ray from 30th August 2021.
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Original uncompressed mono audio
• Optional English subtitles
• Brand new audio commentary by writers Kim Newman and Sean Hogan
• Satanic Panic: How the 1970s Conjured the Brotherhood of Satan, a brand new visual essay by David Flint
• The Children of Satan, exclusive new interview with actors Jonathan Erickson Eisley and Alyson Moore
• Original Trailers and TV and Radio Spots
• Image Gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Richard Wells
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated booklet featuring new writing by Johnny Mains and Brad Stevens.
| Director | Bernard McEveety |
| Genre | Horror |
| Starring | L.Q. Jones, Strother Martin, Charles Bateman, Ahna Capri, Charles Robinson |
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