Brotherhood of Satan

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.

   

Highway to Hell

Highway to Hell 

1991

Director- Ate de Jong

Cast-  Patrick Bergen, Chad Lowe, Kristy Swanson, Adam Storke

            

    This movie is definitely not to be taken seriously. Calling it a horror comedy wouldn’t be accurate. Its more like a live action anime, if such things had existed in America in the early 90s. The premise is so outrageous, and the gags so obvious, that you have to enjoy the movie on face value.

            Charlie and Rachel (Chad Lowe and Kristy Swanson) are a young couple eloping to get married.  The take a wrong turn and pass through a portal to Hell. Rachel is taken by The Sergeant, the chief cop in Hell. Charlie chases after them to rescue his lost love. What follows is a tour through Hell (which happens to look just like the American southwest) as Charlie encounters various denizens along the Highway to Hell.

           

    The film boasts a surprising amount of early 90s star power. Patrick Bergan, as the devil, was at the height of his career and Kristy Swanson was only a year away from making Buffy theVampire Slayer. Adam Storke (Larry Underwood in The Stand) is a malcontent biker in Hell. Ben and Jerry Stiller have small parts as well as Lita Ford, Gilbert Godfrey (as Hitler!) and Kevin Peter Hall (the titular monster of the first 2 Predator films).

            Of course, the real stars of the films are the creatures. The make up by Steve Johnson is wonderful.  Johnson has, for some reason, never been as well-known as his predecessor, Rick Baker, but Johnson’s make up is top shelf and his work in the late 80s and early 90s was the best to be found in genre films. The centerpiece is the Hell Cop himself, who looks like Jason Stathum was horribly burned and then joined Judas Priest.

            The rest of the film is an excuse to try various sight gags; the road to Hell is clogged with VW bugs, the “Good Intentions” highway department chops of people and turns them into asphalt, a donut shop filled with undead cops etc.

            A movie like this would never get made today. It doesn’t take itself seriously enough for a modern audience. Only in the era of the video store could a movie like this get distributed and find an audience. Not a scary movie, but a fun movie, to be sure.

Race with the Devil

Race with the Devil

1975

Director- Jack Starrett

Cast- Warren Oates, Peter Fonda, Lara Parker, Loretta Switt, R.G. Armstrong

        Race with the Devil is marketed as a Satanic car chase film, though in truth, the car

chase doesn’t begin until relatively late in the film. A pair of motorcycle enthusiasts (veteran

actor Warren Oates and Peter Fonda, who would one day play the devil himself in another motorcycle film, Ghost Rider) take a much needed vacation in their new RV, accompanied by their girlfriends ( Loretta Switt, in a relatively small role considering she was also starring in the hit show M.A.S.H. at the time and Lara Parker whom horror fans may know from Dark Shadows).

            While exploring the great outdoors of Texas, the two fellows accidentally witness a human sacrifice (this scene is shown on TV in the Tom Hanks comedy The Burbs) in a Satanic ritual. From that point on they are hunted by the cult in an attempt to silence them. Most of this takes place in the form of warnings or traps (such as putting rattlesnakes in the RV). The final 20 minutes of the film finally culminates in the promised car chase, and to be fair it is a decent car chase, complete with a few daring stunts.

The film is billed as an action-horror film but I don’t think that car chases were the director’s forte. You most likely know Jack Starret from his acting roles in First Blood and Blazing Saddles. As a horror film, it doesn’t really work either, being more suspenseful than scary. This film begs for a remake from someone like George Miller or Quentin Tarantino.

Despite its short comings, Race with the Devil makes for a fun distraction and some people will be able to appreciate the unmistakable 70s feel.

The Car

The Car

1977

Director- Elliot Silverstein

Cast- James Brolin, Kathleen Lloyd, John Marley, Elizabeth Thompson, Ronny Cox, R. G. Armstrong

           

Lest you doubt the film’s bona fides it begins with a quote by Anton LaVey from the Satanic Bible. The titular car, which looks like a cross between a hearse and the Batmobile, terrorizes a small southwestern town. Standing in the way of the demonic sedan is James Brolin (who would go up against a demonic house a few years later in The AmityvilleHorror).  Coming to his aid are his fellow cops including Ronny Cox (Deliverance, Total Recall, Robocop) and the town’s resident wife beater played by R.G. Armstrong (who had starred in Race withthe Devil the previous year) who just happens to own a dynamite business (foreshadowing maybe?).

            The film is frankly ludicrous. The car doesn’t just run people down in the streets, it crashes through their houses and does side flips in the air. The car stalks people and sneaks around with the stealth of a ninja (even finding its way into a locked garage). However, as silly as the premise is, the film takes itself so seriously, it’s impossible to let your guard down and laugh. It has an ominous score and the car itself really is scary with his it’s staccato horn and high revved engine.

            One thing I like about the film is that it never explicitly explains the nature of the Car. No priest shows up to warn us. We never know why it picked this particular town to terrorize. The only clues to its diabolic origin are the fact that it can’t cross hallowed ground and the monstrous image we see rise from the flames of the Car’s demise.

            The Car is a product of a bygone era. The decade from the mid-70s through the mid-80s was filLed with movies and TV shows that prominently featured custom vehicles. Smokey and the Bandit, the original Mad Max trilogy, Blue Thunder, Knight Rider, The Dukes of Hazard, Airwolf, Damnation Alley, Maximum Overdrive and Christine are just some of the better known examples. By the way, if you are thinking The Car is a rip off of Christine, guess again. The Car arrived several years before either the Stephen King book or the John Carpenter movie.

            The star of the film is, of course, the Car itself. It was designed by George Barris, whose most famous creations are the Adam West Batmobile, Starsky and Hutch’s Torino and the The Munsters’ roadster.  He was a true master of this craft. The car was later homaged (at least as far as I’m considered) in the Futurama episode, The Honking.

            Don’t watch The Car for thrills and chills. Watch it because it has truly achieved the status of a “cult” film. Watch it as an example of a long lost genre of films. But mostly watch it because it’s a real weird film.