| Satan's Children (1974) 84 min |
| This little oddity has an especially dirty feel to it. For me, both the positive points and negative points of the film are greatly overshadowed by what must have been a very bizare filming experience. What sticks in my head long after the film was done was not any one particular scene, but the collective impact of several of them. There is so much sexual deviance thoughout this film, and the most upsetting part is that it all seems very casual. The dominant themes throughout are pedaphelia and homosexuality, but they are never dealt with head on, only as what appears to be afterthoughts. I couldn't tell if director Joe Wiezycki was simply going for the shock value that's inherent with such taboo themes, or if there might be more to it. Perhaps I'm looking into this too much in light of today's creatively stifling wave of political correctness, I mean this was 1974. Regardless, I'd like to think that this film would make me somewhat uncomfortable no matter what context I was viewing it in. |
| Since my introduction to this sleazy little film was so cryptic, I won't waste anymore time in getting to the specific details. We start off with young Bobby being picked on at home by his promiscuous bratty stepsister and his domineering and unfair stepfather. He's continually forced to do backbreaking chores while his sister lounges around the pool. It isn't long before we get our first peculiar scene in the movie. The young actor goes inside to clean off and struts around in his tighty whiteys for what seems like more than enough time to get across any point that was to be made. From there his sister barges in and harrases him about the size of his goods. After a while he threatens to show her how much bigger it gets, but the scene mercifully ends there. After being ratted out by sis over a bag of pot found in his closet, Bobby decides he's had enough and storms out of the house telling ol' stepdad to go to hell on his way out. |
| From here, it looks like things are looking up for young Bobby, but man, that just couldn't be further from the truth! At a small town diner he runs into some molester looking old guy that wants to know about his problems. Some guy breaks it up pretty quickly and kicks the 'queer' out of there. The man offers Bobby a place to stay, and later that night pulls a knife on him. |
| POSSIBLE SPOILERS Click and drag mouse over text below to read... |
| After unbucking Bobby's belt we cut away, but as I soon found out - we were far from out of the woods. Bobby has been strapped down on his stomach naked as a jaybird. The guy makes a few quick phone calls and the next thing we know Bobby is getting brutally sodomized by a group of gay biker looking guys. It wouldn't be nearly so upsetting if Bobby didn't look almost prepubescent. After this whole ordeal is endured for a short amount of screen time (which feels much, much longer), Bobby is dumped off behind a fence and presumably left for dead. |
| END SPOILERS |
| From here, Bobby is found by a group of charitable young satanists. Apparently the leader is away and two of the youngsters are having somewhat of a power struggle. There's good news and bad news for Bobby. The good news is that they rescued Bobby and the female who's assuming control in the master's absense has instantly fallen in love with him. The bad news is that the Satan apparently hates homosexuals and victims, and the girl who he's caught the fancy of is accused of indulging in some lesbianism with another female cultist. The rest of the plot specifics aren't as important to this review, and I think they would only serve to spoil the movie for anyone interested in seeing it. Whatis worth mentioning though, is how dirty the film feels, with the camera leering in an ever more perverted manner at very young looking actors. I get the feeling the really were young too, not just young looking legal performers. As sick as it sounds to say this, I would have been more comfortable with this film if there were actual nudity instead of the techniques employed here to barely hide it. Before you report me, let me try to explain myself a little. In House on the Edge of the Park, the blonde girl that David Hess gleafully slices at with a razor at the end looks frighteningly authentic in her youth, but atleast I can comfortably assume that she's of legal age and maturity to decide to do this scene. With Satan's Children, I really felt like I was watching a dirty old man exploit several youngsters in various states of undress. Now, I fully understand that I could be jumping to unfair conclusions, and that all the actors could just have that 'young look'. There is also the obvious fact that none of them were really nude, but I wonder what the reasons for that are. Was is Wiezycki's intention to make this look like a movie aimed at pedophiles? The main reason I wonder is because there is no apparent reason for this. The issues that came to my mind in this film were never addressed in the movie. That's what made me think this looked like an afterthough, which is quite unsettling to me. To back this up, I should point out that our lead spends an awful lot of time towards the end running around swampland in his tighty whiteys again. There are some terribly suggestive leering shots of him throughout. |
| To be fair, there is a horror movie style plot unraveling in the mean time. As far as this is concerned, it's fairly standard zero budget exploitation fare. The chase and action scenes are decent, the dialogue and acting are pretty poor even in this realm. It's not entirely unwatchable on this level, but anyone not familiar with real shoestring budget horror of the 70s probably won't find much to enjoy here. In short, the direction is very by the numbers and the acting is quite ametuerish. This isn't enough to sink the film entirely, but none of this stood out to me on a comparable level with the eerie feeling of watching something that really shouldn't be happening. I don't want to give people the wrong idea, I don't think this film is an abomination and that it shouldn't be seen. I just think that much of the was filled with naturally taboo subject matter that warranted discussion in this review. |
| Aside from all that, this film is included as the second feature on a fun disc from Something Weird Video that is headlined by William Girdler's Asylum of Satan. The disc has plenty of satanic themed goodies and even a commentary for the Girdler film (obviously not with Girdler himself). The print Satan's Children is in really good shape, all things considered. I imagine it never looked especially striking to begin with, but the print on this DVD looks far better than I would have expected. |
| I give this on 3 Victor Salvas out of 5 |
| (I know I'm tasteless, but hey, it's exploitation we're dealing with here...) |
| review by Joe Canistro 11/5/02 |
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