Expected more

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

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.

I got this movie in a pack of twelve movies called gore house classics or something. I figured they would all be total crap, but as I like watching horror movies and reviewing them I had to buy it, especially seeing as how I had never seen any of the movies on it. This is the first one I have watched on it and while not a good movie by any means it had its moments and did entertain me for its run. The movie does have gore in it, nothing that looks all that great at times, but it is the 70's, a time for the red paint to come splashing out. It also had a good deal of nudity too, I always enjoy seeing 70's ladies nude from time to time as they have a natural look that is just hard to find these days. The story has its moments as I really enjoyed the beginning of the movie and the end quite a bit. It is the middle that at times muddles the movie down as there is a strange love story going on between the female of this tale and her cousin that really seems to be added to pad the film. Basically, she is visiting this uncle that until recently she did not even know she had and there is tragedy shortly after she arrives with her parents. The rest of the film is watching her try to figure out and realize what you the audience already knows, she is in deep trouble. So while not great it was entertaining, rework the script a bit and this one could have been a classic. Though Michael Gough's performance in this one does help the more talkative scenes seem more tolerable.

Satan's Slave (1976)* 1/2 (out of 4) A young and naïve Catherine (Candace Glendenning) travels with her parents to the countryside to visit her Uncle's house. As soon as they arrive, the parents are killed in a strange accident, which leaves Catherine in the care of her uncle who she believes is a doctor but the truth is that he runs a sect for Satan worshipers. A cousin tries to warn Catherine that she's in danger because the sect is looking for a new victim to sacrifice.Director Norman J. Warren (Terror) tries to make a U.K. exploitation and from what I've read, the BBFC cut this to shreds before allowing it to be released. Apparently these cuts were done without the director knowing but it still hampers the film since it's apparent that the director was going for a more violent spin on the witchcraft genre. Even without the gore however, there's really not much to recommend in this film, which like many others, does nothing but talk and talk.The screenplay is very weak and it's one of those where everything has to be explained by one of the characters. We get long scenes where nothing happens and the viewer doesn't know what's happening and then we get a dialogue scene that tries to tell us what was going on. This gets very boring and tedious quickly. Another problem is that the film was shot in a deliberate slow pace, which doesn't benefit anyone. Glendenning is decent in the lead but isn't oo interesting but we do have Michael Gould (Alfred in the Batman films) to keep some interest going.

Satan's Slave starts with a human (naked) female sacrifice during a Devil worshipping ceremony... Jump to present day London where Catherine Yorke's (Candace Glendenning) 20th birthday fast approaches, she, along with her father Malcolm (James Bree) & mother Elizabeth (Celia Hewitt), has been invited to stay at the country estate of her uncle, Dr. Alexander Yorke (Michael Gough). Just as they arrive at the property Malcolm loses control of his car & crashes into a tree, Catherine is unhurt & runs for help as Malcolm stays in the car to look after the injured Elizabeth unfortunately before Catherine can obtain any help the car explodes & her parents are toast. Her uncle Alexander comforts her & offers her his every assistance & insists that she stay with him, his son Stephen (Martin Potter) & his personal secretary Frances (Barbara Kellerman) who all make Catherine feel very welcome. Despite seeing her parents burned alive Catherine feels OK & decides to take a walk through the woods with Stephen where she experiences a disturbing vision of human sacrifice, torture & her own death. However, this is just the beginning as Catherine discovers her uncle has a sinister plan for her which involves murder, satanic rituals & the resurrection of an ancient witch...This English production was directed by Norman J. Warren & like the rest of his trashy horror exploitation films that have recently been given a new lease of life on DVD I really rather enjoyed it. The script by David McGillivray, who has a small cameo in the film as a Priest in the scene when the woman (Monika Ringwald) is flogged & branded, moves along at a nice pace has a decent story with a few nice twists & turns &, thankfully, never forgets it's sleazy exploitation roots, just the way I like them. I mean Stephen brutally kills women for no other reason than for sleaze value & to bump up both the body count & gore quotient, there's no logical reason for him to kill women totally unconnected with anything else but Warren & McGillivray correctly knew this is the sort of thing us horror fans want to see! The character's are OK but no one is going to watch Satan's Slave for it's dramatic qualities, are they? Some of it's a bit silly like the elevator scene but overall Satan's Slave worked for me on many levels, was entertaining & was a good way to spend just over 80 minutes of my time.Director Warren does a good job here, Satan's Slave has that unique, & frankly priceless, 70's sleazy grimy feel throughout. From the satanic rituals where every female in sight has to be naked to the sexual violence & the free flowing blood & gore, good stuff Norman. The nasty stuff in Satan's Slave is pretty extreme & exploitative, someone has their head bashed in & then is gorily stabbed, a woman is tied to a tree, flogged & then branded, more people are stabbed with blood splattering results, a knife is stuck through someone's mouth & a scene in which someone has a nail file stuck into their eyeball, luckily Warren doesn't skimp on the blood or the close-ups in these scenes either. I also just love the whole 70's look of the film, the fashions, the decor like the horrible orange wallpaper for instance & the cars.Technically Satan's Slave is well made with nice period flashback scenes, good widescreen cinematography, decent music & a great looking central location. On the down side it does look a bit cheap occasionally though. The acting is alright & I quite fancy Glendenning in this although I thought she took witnessing her parents being burned alive rather too well. Michael Craze's acting in the silly elevator scene is just plain embarrassing.Satan's Slave is a bit of a British exploitation film gem that I really liked. The whole look, the feel & atmosphere & the story impressed & entertained me. I think this is a must for exploitation & horror fans, definitely well worth a watch although those with sensitive dispositions may want to give it a miss.