Satan's Children (1975)

Runaway teen Bobby is given shelter by a cult of Satanists, but his presence and questionable sexuality leads to conflicts within Satan's Children.

Director:

Joe Wiezycki

Writers:

Gary Garrett, Ron Levitt

Stars:

Stephen White, Eldon Mecham, Joyce Molloy

Cast

Credited cast:
Stephen White	...	Bobby Douglas
Eldon Mecham	...	Mr. Douglas
Joyce Molloy	...	Janis Douglas
Kathleen Marie Archer	...	Sherry (as Kathleen Archer)
Rosemary Orlando	...	Monica
Bob Barbour	...	Jake
Robert C. Ray II	...	Simon
John Edwards	...	Joshua
Harry Williams	...	Old Man
Mike Yeager	...	Driver
Frank Morse	...	Escort
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Elaine Consales
Caren Davis
Nora Denison
David Harrington

Storyline

Runaway teen Bobby is given shelter by a cult of Satanists, but his presence and questionable sexuality leads to conflicts within Satan's Children.

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Plot Keywords:

underwear | torture | satanic cult | revenge | rape | 

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Taglines:

Devil worshipping has changed them into ...

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Genres:

Horror

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Did You Know?

Trivia

The "quicksand" in the quicksand scenes towards the end of the film was made out of Quaker Oats.

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Quotes

Simon: You're weak. You're a loser. Satan wants winners!

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Connections

Featured in The Cinema Snob: Satan's Children (2007)

User Reviews

Completely inept but uniquely bizarre

This film was marketed as one of those Manson family exploitation/satanic cult flicks that were so popular in the early 1970's (i.e. "The Night God Screamed", "The Deathmaster"), but its really a much stranger animal indeed, managing to combine virulent homophobia with a strong undercurrent of homoeroticism as if the filmmakers themselves were struggling to stay in the closet. A young orphan is sexually teased by his step-sister and abused and neglected by his step-father. He runs away from home, but ends up being gang-raped by a bunch of "queers". Dumped by the side of the road, he is taken in by a gang of erstwhile satanists whose cruel, tyrannical acting female leader falls hard for him. This proves to be a problem when the real male leader returns because, you see, "Satan doesn't like a loser". His disgraced lover ends up buried up to her neck and being VERY slowly devoured by ants, and its up to our hero to rescue her by taking belated revenge on all his various tormentors.

This movie has a very homophobic plot complete with a gay rape-revenge device. The message seems to be that its better go to bed with a cruel, murderous satanist as long as she is of the OPPOSITE SEX than it is to come to terms with your own obvious homosexuality. But not only is the sexuality of the protagonist highly questionable, the crusading heterosexuality of the filmmakers is even more suspect as they show a disturbing number of shots of the protagonist (who like many of his female equivalents in these kind of 70's exploitation films is somewhere between barely legal and hardly legal)naked and bound, or running through the forest in his tight-whities. I suspect the unintentional irony in this film would go over well in a gay film festival.

I would even suspect that the film is being knowingly subversive if it wasn't so completely incompetent. Check out the scene for instance where two guys slowly "drown" in "quicksand", which looks more like a hole filled with Malt-O-Meal, with the drowning even less convincing than the infamous scene Bela Lugosi being eaten by a giant octopus at the end of "Bride of the Monster". So does all this mean I wouldn't recommend this? Hell, no! Most of the entertainment in this film may be completely unintentional but it sure is entertaining. Check it out for yourself. Whether you like it or not, I GUARANTEE you've never seen anything like it!

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 June 1975 (USA)

Also Known As:

Satan's Children

Filming Locations:

Gibsonton, Florida, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Florida International Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1