Satan's Slave (1976)

Director:

Norman J. Warren

Writer:

David McGillivray (screenplay)

Release Date:

August 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

A young girl is caught up in a devil cult run by her evil uncle and cousin. She can trust no one and...

Plot Keywords:

Cult | Devil | House | Carnage | Sexual Assault

Cast

Michael Gough	...	Uncle Alexander Yorke
Martin Potter	...	Stephen Yorke
Candace Glendenning	...	Catherine Yorke
Barbara Kellerman	...	Frances
Michael Craze	...	John
Gloria Maley	...	Janice (as Gloria Walker)
James Bree	...	Malcolm Yorke
Celia Hewitt	...	Elizabeth Yorke
David McGillivray	...	Priest

Also Known As:

Evil Heritage (USA)

Runtime:

UK:86 min (cut version) | USA:86 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Fujicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

France:-12 | UK:18 (cut) | USA:R | UK:18 (video re-rating) (2004) (uncut) | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Pirbright, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

Monumental Pictures

Trivia:

The DVD commentary reveals that Gloria Maley's body stood in for Candace Glendenning's in the scene where snakes are seen wriggling over her

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Terror (1978/I)

Disappointment from the usually interesting Warren and McGillivray

The works of Norman J Warren and David McGillivray can be likened to the little girl with the little curl - when they're good (FRIGHTMARE, TERROR) they're very very good, and when they're bad, they're horrid. SATAN'S SLAVE completely lacks the edgy, tense, paranoid atmosphere of foreboding doom that marked Warren's later work (including the unfairly maligned INSEMINOID) and the gleeful nastiness that made McGillivray's collaborations with Pete Walker memorable, and the result is a tedious experience indeed, with a sub-standard Michael Gough performance, several sequences that make little sense (though the version I saw was probably hacked to pieces by the sensitive souls at the BBC - good of them to leave the eyeball gouging intact though!) and a central premise that just seems corny to our modern sensibilities. The opening credits should give you your first warning that something's amiss, because no fewer than FIVE directors of photography are credited, which is probably why the overall look of the film is so muddled - for every sequence that musters a degree of low-budget atmosphere, there are several that have the over-lit, barrel-scraping feel of a cheap public information film. Warren seemed remarkably unconcerned about coaxing decent performances from the cast at this stage, and the number of alternate versions suggests he wasn't too bothered about creating a definitive director's cut either. In all, a sad disappointment and a missed opportunity - I much prefer Warren as an unsubtle misanthropist to his mantle here as a bargain basement Roman Polanski.

One other thing - the ident at the beginning for the film's distributors Brent Walker is pretty good, with a great synthesizer fanfare, like the old Cannon movies ident from the eighties, only cheap-looking. Catch it if you can!