The Brotherhood of Satan (1971)

This is a very original production in all its surrealistic absurdity for its fantastic imagination and imagery - there is a tremendous dream sequence in the middle of the film, a nightmare, of course, but very efficient, credible and well done - exactly like that real nightmares tend to haunt you. The horror is not ridiculously exaggerated, like in most later horror films, but actually creeps into you with some efficiency and manages to present a spectacle that gets more fascinating all the time, until the grand finale, which offers some additional surprises. The actors are all unknown, its a budget film with no pretensions, but it certainly deserves some attention, together with other odd films of some uniqueness, for instance "Wild in the Streets" from 1968 about a stipulated flower power world revolution. This belongs in almost the same category for making the absurd credible enough to catch your interest, which is the element of cinematic magic: the art of making the impossible credible and surrealism as a visually acceptable reality. Of course, it's a B-feature and not on par with professional standards, but it certainly is better than most B-features and well worth seeing at least for once. The idea in itself is timeless: the problem of old age to renew itself, its longing for the lost youth, and the wishful thinking of the possibility of renewing it, a theme which also dominates a later and much more refined horror thriller, "The Skeleton Key" from 2005. Here the question is left open - did they succeed, or did they not? The door is left open for any possibility and impossibility.

"The Brotherhood of Satan" is a singularly creepy movie. I'm surprised I haven't heard more about it. The opening sets the tone. A toy tank clicks and spins. A car is crushed flat by a very real tank, the family inside screaming. The two are cut together, no explanation provided. After the car is reduced to burning wreckage, a little boy in a cowboy hat calmly walks away, soon joined by a group of other quiet children. There is no music and the whole sequence is shot in either extreme close-ups or wide long shots. The effect is deeply creepy."Brotherhood of Satan" is actually packed with spooky imagery like that. A little girl is awoken by her baby doll. Downstairs, her father reads solemnly from the Bible, unaware that his wife is having silent seizure-like spasm right next to him. On its own accord, the doll enters the room. It doesn't spring to life and attack the man. Instead, the toy simply stares him down, shaking with glee, the man bleeding from the mouth. After the parents are dead, the little girl joins a group of other children, walking off into the foggy night. The doll cries a murky tear.The movie is disinterested in plot. There is a story. A stout-chinned man, his girlfriend, and eight year old daughter are on a road trip. While stopping through the town of Hillsboro, California, they are attacked by crazed locals. After escaping, their car breaks down outside the town, forcing the three to return. Over a nightmarish pace, we are made privy to a plot by the town's devil-worshipping elderly to kidnap children, sell their souls to Satan, and take up residence in the now lifeless young bodies. The dad and town priest realize this slowly, unaware that the kindly old doctor is the ringleader of the cult. The story is purely functionary and the film outright ignores it at times, focusing instead on eerie imagery. Like a man decapitated in shadow by the sudden a black-clad rider. A child's birthday party cut together with pictures of dismembered bodies. The red face of a painted devil appearing slowly over a man reading a book. So on and so forth.The satanic lodge reminds me of "Suspiria," with its checkered floors, and "The Masque of the Red Death," with the way the camera glides through the '70s puke-green painted walls. The movie is largely without music. Actually, there might not be any music before the fifty-five minute mark. The direction is frequently intentionally askew, creating an otherworldly feeling. There's even a sick sense of humor, when an elderly couple enter the lodge, pledge allegiance to Satan, and then chit-chat and tell jokes like this is an after-church bingo party.Like many of the Satanic cult films that followed, and "Rosemary's Baby" before it, "The Brotherhood of Satan" has a downbeat ending. Character actor Strother Martin screams madly about the devil while his cultists are stabbed to death by black-robed men with flaming swords. Evil triumphs and good arrives too late to stop it. It's hard to decide if the loose plotting was intentional. Either way, the film sustains a freaky atmosphere of seventies dread and packs a visual wallop.

An ambiguous and confusing beginning leads to a very creepy, effectual, and disturbing Horror Movie that despite its very low budget manages to maintain an aura of surrealism and tension. The most disturbing element is probably the Children in Peril aspect as these Devil Worshipers use the Souls of the Innocent to reincarnate.After the confounding first few scenes that in retrospect make more sense as things get going, it is one menacing and maniacal happening after another. There is a Post-Sixties Drug hangover that lingers here and it is quite unsettling.The ending is shocking as is some of the hallucinatory, dream-like imagery and the indoor ritual Scenes have a setting of plastic-ism and play as a Children's demented Clubhouse. This is an underrated, undiscovered, and ultimately quite the quirk that helped issue in the Screen's Satanic Seventies.

Neither the best of horror films nor the worst. Viewers expecting a traditional narrative will be disappointed. The story is told indirectly such that demands beyond the ordinary are indeed made. Instead of building the story conventionally from one scene to the next, essential plot elements are scattered throughout; at the same time, with some narrative help, it's left to the viewer to assemble them. Not surprisingly, the effort can be both puzzling as the elements unfold and rewarding as they come together. By and large, I think the technique works, though some patience is required.It's a good thing the filmmakers know they're challenging the audience. As a result, they position horror images throughout in order to keep audience interest. The girl's sudden appearance before the speeding car, the sword-wielding horseman, the dripping "blood" on the kissing couple—are arresting and well done. They should be, because in my book, at least, way too much time is spent on Strother Martin's satanic mumbo-jumbo. These are static scenes bordering on parody and padding. Then too, the grisly morgue cadavers are neither well done nor necessary. Imagination can sometimes fill in the blanks more powerfully, as the great Val Lewton well understood, e.g. Cat People (1942).WARNING spoiler ahead: The ending hasn't been commented on, but it's a surprising one, given movie conventions, especially from the earlier studio era. The "rescuers" unexpectedly arrive too late. Transmigration of souls from the old to the young has already occurred. The fade-out is abrupt. But I think it's safe to infer that the angelic-looking youngsters now possess satanic souls, and the relieved adults won't suspect. In my book, it's a really sinister and disturbing upshot. With a little more work, this little indie could have qualified as a genuine sleeper.