Brotherhood
of Satan
1971
Director- Bernard McEveety
Cast- Strother Martin, L. Q. Jones, Charles Bateman, Ahna
Capri, Charles Knox Robinson, Alvy Moore, Geri Reischl
This odd
Satanic thriller was written by, produced by and stars L.Q. Jones, an actor you
may recognize from numerous westerns including his excellent performance in Sam
Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch (where
acts opposite of Strother Martin, his costar in this film). Like other Satanic
films of this era (The Devil’s Rain, The Car, Race with the Devil) it takes
place in a generic town in the American west and features another common theme
of this era, a family stumbling upon a Satanic conspiracy.
A family
(dad, his little girl and dad’s girlfriend) get stranded in a remote town that
is in the middle of a crisis. Children are missing, adults are being murdered,
and anyone who tries to escape ends up brutally killed. The family tries twice
to escape and is unable. The town sheriff (L.Q. Jones) is at his wits end. As
it turns out, the town is beset by a coven of Satanists, led by Strother
Martin. Now that’s not really a spoiler. If you know Strother’s resume, he
would have been your first suspect anyway.
The
Satanists are kidnapping the town’s children to use in a ritual to maintain
eternal youth. The coven members are all elderly and they plan to transfer
their souls into the children’s bodies. The Satanists are presented rather
theatrically with red cloaks and lots ritual and ceremony. The best part is when Strother Martin is chastising
a wayward member who didn’t want to sacrifice her child to the group and he
yells “Not your baby! Our baby! Satan’s baby!” Strother Martin (as he often
did) played the part completely over the top but that’s OK, that’s what makes
it enjoyable.
Not a
great movie, but an original movie. It wasn’t put together very stylishly but
it’s got heart. In addition to Storther and LQ, look for Ahna Capri as the
girlfriend. She is best known as John Saxon’s main squeeze in Enter the Dragon.
No comments:
Post a Comment