Satan's Slave

source: Satan's Slave

I'm really puzzled about one thing…HOW is it possible to take such an intriguing and exciting topic like Satanism and make such a BORING movie out of it??? Because that's exactly what happened with this `Satan's Slave'! Bad writer-director combination, I guess. Norman J. Warren already annoyed the hell out of me with `Inseminoid' (a.k.a. Horror Planet), while author David McGillivray previously was responsible for stinkers like `House of Whipcord' and `Schizo'. Although I have to admit his `Frightmare' was quite enjoyable! The premise of `Satan's Slave' contains more than enough potential but it completely lacks feeling and it's so damn sloooooooow! It's about a young, beautiful girl (Candy Glendanning from `Tower of Evil') who goes to stay at her uncle's mansion, along with her parents. Before they even arrive there properly, her parents are killed in the lamest car-accident ever. The girl stays to recover from a shock at her uncle's, only to discover he actually is the leader of a satanic cult, out to achieve the rebirth of Camilla – an ancient priestess (or something, I don't really cared). Candace Glendanning is a beauty to look at, as well as Barbara Kellerman who plays the mansion's secretary. Uncle Alexander is played by Michael Gough who's known best for his on-going role of the annoying butler Alfred Pennyworth in the Batman films. The last 20 minutes of Satan's Slave are fairly entertaining, with some gruesome horror effects (even though they're still very cheap) and enough nudity to let this film pass for a softcore sleaze gem. Too bad you already categorized this film as `awful' by then.

This is actually quite a bright spot in the late 70's Brit Horror Film Industry breathing its last few gasps. It comes in a few different versions, some bloodier and sexier than others. It actually works in either the softer or hotter versions. The grue-- including a * woman threatened with scissors, a head crushed in a door, a gory fall of a ledge, a woman slashed with a jagged piece of glass, and a nail driven into an eye-- is lively, but the central story about the traumatized heroine being cared for by her malevolent uncle and his murderous son is strong enough to stand on its own. There are also the expected scenes of black mass and * female worshipers. The film plays nicely on our expectations and manages to surprise. With all the garish colors and hazy turn of events, we're never quite certain if everyone is off their rocker, the heroine especially possibly going off on some flight of fantasy triggered by the accident and exacerbated by the legend of the ancestress witch. Plus, characters you expect to play a pivotal role die suddenly, it's hard to tell who is trustworthy and who isn't, and Martin Potter as the cousin vacillates so perfectly between being a morose companion to the girl and a frenzied monster to everyone else that I found myself just as lulled in by him. The violent scenes are shocking and unpredictable, while the talkier sequences have a weirdly cold atmosphere to them. For me, this one gets unfairly written off far too often.

Pretty nineteen-year-old Catherine (Candace Glendenning) travels to the countryside with her parents to visit the home of her Uncle Alexander (Michael Gough) and cousin Stephen (Martin Potter). As they approach the house, the car crashes into a tree. Catherine gets out of the car out to seek help, but both her mother and father are killed when the vehicle suddenly bursts into flame. Catherine spends the next few days in the country, convalescing, unaware that her uncle and cousin are planning to use her in a Satanic ritual that will see her body becoming the vessel for the spirit of a long dead sorceress. David McGillivray's screenplay for Satan's Slave is a mess of hoary old genre clichés and director Norman J. Warren conducts proceedings with very little finesse, but this mid-'70s Satanic horror is still one hell of a fun film thanks to an excess of those basic horror ingredients, gratuitous female nudity and graphic gore. Barely a few minutes go by without one of the film's females stripping off for the camera (there's more bush here than Kew Gardens), while the frequent violence is surprisingly nasty in tone and excessively bloody, which makes one wonder why this wasn't one of those titles hounded by the authorities in the '80s. Assorted gory stabbings, a man falling to his death from a tower block with a satisfying splat, a woman pinned to a door by a knife through the mouth, a naked blonde being flogged and branded, a nail file in the eye, and Michael Gough with a massive moustache: this might just be Warren's most entertaining movie.

In the 1970s, someone involved in the production of British horror movies realised that gore sells but sex sells better. A whole host of dismayingly similar horror titles were trotted out in quick succession, all of which were distinguishable by their reliance on graphic blood-letting, full frontal nudity and soft-core sex scenes. The Fiend, Tower Of Evil, House Of Whipcord, Frightmare, Expose and Satan's Slave stand out as just a few examples of this regrettable trend. The latter of these titles is perhaps the worst of the lot. A tedious, slow-moving, frequently absurd bloodcurdler, Satan's Slave is a true test of willpower to sit through. Its final three minutes are actually quite surprising, but few will have the energy or the inclination to sit through the previous 83 minutes just for the promise a neat twist ending. Catherine Yorke (Candace Glendenning), a young woman plagued by visions and premonitions, goes with her parents to visit her long-lost uncle. Along the driveway leading to the uncle's remote country mansion, her father loses control of the car and crashes into a tree. Catherine offers to get help, but as she heads away the car explodes and her mother and father are engulfed in the ensuing inferno. Following this traumatic ordeal, Catherine finds herself in the care of her Uncle Pete (Michael Gough) who shows great kindness and tenderness in supervising her recovery. Present in the mansion are her cousin Stephen (Martin Potter), and her uncle's secretary Frances (Barbara Kellerman). Initially everyone seems eager to help her through this difficult time, but gradually strange events begin to unfold. She suffers from recurring visions about whippings, burnings and satanic masses within the grounds of the house; her creepy cousin Stephen makes sexual advances towards her; she even gets the feeling that something terrible has happened to her boyfriend John back in the city. Eventually, Frances reveals to Catherine that her uncle is preparing to use her in a Satanic ritual to bring back an ancient witch. Satan's Slave is an example of film-making at its most inept. Director Norman J. Warren demonstrates little sense of cohesion or craft. There is no gradual build-up of suspense, no logic in the story, no generation of intrigue to add interest to the muddled development. Instead, the film wriggles along at a snail-like pace, punctuated occasionally by pauses for nudity and sudden bursts of gore. Amongst the grislier scenes, we see the splattered remains of a man who has leapt from a tower block, a female corpse pinned to a door by a knife through the mouth, and a truly nasty nail-file-through-the-eyeball demise for one of the villains. These unpleasant flourishes may please gorehounds but they do little for the film as a whole. Long periods of absurd dialogue and unpersuasive plotting can hardly be forgiven by tossing in brief moments of bloodthirstiness. The performances range from hammy (Gough, Potter) to wooden (Glendenning, Kellerman), and the film has a cheap, amateurish feel to it throughout which merely accentuates the utter lack of taste and finesse. In the very last scene the film produces one genuine (albeit far-fetched) surprise, but it's a long and unjustified wait for this momentary flash of ingenuity. Satan's Slave is a dire film - avoid it if you value your time.

Every once in a while I discover an obscure Gem that reminds me of what film is about. This is one of those Gems. I procured a copy of this through a gorehouse collection which consists of 12 other equally obscure films and this is amongst the best of the collection. Sure it contains 'aspects' of sexploitation, but nothing really extreme, and very tastefully done I might add. The way the film portrays the female body, even in the scenes of sadism, is as an art form, a vehicle of expression, not an object to be manipulated, at least not by the viewer. The story of a girl who is about to turn "the proper age" to assist in a necromancy ritual is portrayed quite naturally. I also find the acting exquisite and very theatrical, which the British are well known for. The female actresses come across as majestic and feminine, but with a soft, inner resilience as well. I really love this about these British actresses. The hallucination scenes are intimate and sensually sadistic. In them we get a hint of the potential fate of Catherine and we get to look through her beautiful eyes as she unravels her own possible outcome. The only thing slightly holding this great film experience back is the fact that it could use a clean up and decent digital transfer to capture all its atmospheric beauty. But this is an incidental problem and not necessarily a problem of the filmmakers themselves. Which is why I still give it a full 10. I cannot blame the old film transfer problems on the filmmaker or the actors. This is a great jewel of a film and I really love it a lot. Highly recommended.

Seems I'm not the only person who stays up late watching horror movies judging by the comments on this page . It is very reassuring to know that I'm not alone in doing this and it's not surprise at all that I'm not alone in thinking SATAN'S SLAVE is a really crap horror movie After the not unimpressive credit sequence we're shown a human sacrifice where the satanic worshippers wear animal heads which instantly reminded me of a Goldfrapp music video and there's another problem : Since the actor playing the satanic priest carrying out the sacrifice is fairly well known and has a distinctive voice you'll know instantly when his character appears sans goat head who he is and what he's up to therefore there's no real surprises where the story is going and where he fits into it . The story itself is one of those boring tales of a disturbed young woman going to live in a country mansion where things aren't what they seem . Now where have I seen that plot before ? Everyone else has noticed a problem in the directing and it's very difficult not to notice how bad it is . Much of the camera work seems to have been carried out by a bunch of not very talented film students straight out of film school . To give you an idea how bad the directing is there's a lot of T&A which makes absolutely no impression which is always a very bad sign . The cast aren't up to much either with one male character more camp than a row of pink tents . Again another bad sign for a horror movie Talking of the cast leads me to Michael Gough . Can there be any British character actor alive today with a more inconsistent resume ? He's appeared in some of the most highly regarded British television productions of the last 40 years but has also appeared in some really bad movies : KONGA , THEY CAME FROM BEYOND SPACE and TROG . Add SATAN'S SLAVE to the list

Charming psycho Stephen (Martin Potter) gets a blonde girl drunk, ties her to the bed and then threatens to do naughty things to her naughty parts with a pair of scissors before she decides she's had enough. On her way out, Stephen smashes her head in the door and then stabs her death in charming close-up. Meanwhile, pretty London teen Catherine Yorke (Candace Glendenning), who is plagued by some odd premonitions, heads out on a week long vacation with her parents to visit some distant relatives she's never met before. Unfortunately, as soon as the car pulls into the secluded Yorke family country estate, the car crashes into a tree in the front yard. When Catherine gets out to get help, the car blows up and kills both dad and mum. Though she's only slightly distraught by the bizarre accident, uncle Alexander Yorke (Michael Gough), who immediately announces he's not only her uncle but also a doctor, decides it would be best if Cathy stayed for a few days to re-coop and get to know him and his son, her cousin… Stephen (the nut from the opening sequence). Also in the house is a bitter "secretary" named Francis (Barbara Kellerman), who is also Stephen's part-time lover. Catherine's premonitions continue, including a strange dream where she's stripped naked by (naked) female cult members, has a pentagram carved into her stomach and a metal staff shoved where the sun don't shine. In another dream, a blonde is stripped naked, branded and whipped by a priest, who is played by writer David McGillivray. A few days after the shock of her parent's death, Catherine feels well enough to screw Stephen (the fact they're first cousins doesn't seem to phase anyone and is never even commented upon once). Francis gets jealous and bitchy ("I won't be rejected for good!") and then decides to get revenge on Stephen by helping out Catherine and explaining the devious plans her uncle and kissin' cousin have in store for her. See, there's a family ancestor named Camilla who is powerful witch that can only be revived by the blood of a direct female descendant. Guess who that is? Shot in Surrey, England, this OK exploitation jumble has gobs of full female nudity (that the cameraman doesn't hesitate to get close-ups on), some gore (sometimes employing an obvious dummy) and surprisingly good acting from the four leads. The script stinks to high heavens and the ending is poor, but it's lively enough to keep you watching for an hour and a half.

On the eve of her 20th birthday, "Catherine Yorke" (Candace Glendenning) is going with her parents to visit her uncle, "Alexander Yorke" (Michael Gough). Unfortunately, just as they arrive within sight of Alexander's house, the car hits a large tree and explodes killing her mother and her father. Her uncle takes her inside the house so that she can recuperate. While she is there she begins to have premonitions that include flashbacks to Satanic rituals which happened hundreds of years before on the very grounds where her uncle lives. Throw in a mentally unstable cousin, "Steven Yorke" (Martin Potter) and a jealous secretary, "Frances" (Barbara Kellerman) and the result is a devilish tale with a couple of surprises along the way. I thought Candace Glendenning put on a superb performance as did Michael Gough as well. Likewise, both Candace Glendenning and Barbara Kellerman were also quite attractive. On the minus side though, there were some parts which were rather dry and other parts didn't seem to transition very smoothly, causing me to suspect that there was some cutting and splicing which tended to give the film a choppy feel. But I liked the Gothic atmosphere which added to the dark ambiance necessary for a film of this type. One warning though, it does have some nudity which some people may find offensive. Be that as it may, this wasn't a bad film but because of the criticisms I mentioned earlier I have to rate it as average.

Satan's Slave is a derivative of the good British horror films such as The Wicker Man. However, while The Wicker Man managed to entice the viewer with its interesting, enticing and original plot; Satan's Slave only succeeds in being boring. The plot of Satan's Slave follows the story of a young girl (Candace Glendenning), who goes with her parents to stay with her uncle at his home. Upon arrival at the house, her father crashes the car into a tree, which escalates into a full-blown fire, which kills both of her parents. Despite this tragic and shocking event, there is little emotion towards the loss of her parents whatsoever on the face of Glendenning. The loss of her parents is barely noticed by the young girl; spend all day crying in bed, is something she does not do. Cry at all, is also something she does not do. See a policeman about the accident? Nope. In fact, if it hadn't have been for the fact that we saw the car explode a few minutes earlier; we would never have known that her parents had died. This lack of emotional response is carried on throughout the film, and none of the actors really give their characters any feeling or depth whatsoever. The cast is mainly made up of unknowns, or actors that would later vanish into obscurity, with just one exception; Michael Gough, who would go on to gain himself a solid role as Alfred in the Batman films. The acting in the movie is bad throughout. In fact, it almost seems like you're watching your local theatre put on an amateur production for the vast majority of the movie. Satan's Slave tries to be shocking at times by putting in things such as a girl on girl sex sequence, and a couple of murders; but basically, the film is very boring with most of it just following the young lady round her uncle's house. The film doesn't get going until the last ten minutes, and it is really too late by then as the movie has already bored you to death. The ending of the film does feature two nice twists, even if the second one is rather predictable. The twists at the end do save the movie from absolute rock bottom marks, albeit only just. Basically, you could do something better with this part of your life.