Viva VHS: Satan’s Blade (1984)
Satan’s Blade starts off with a bang, literally. A couple of bad girls rob a bank, kill the tellers after a little sexual humiliation, and run to a cabin in the hills. Ruth (Meg Greene) double crosses her partner but only after she’s talked the poor girl into taking off her clothes. When Ruth tries to hide the body an unseen killer stabs her in the back and paints bloody symbols on the wall. The next day, Tony (Tom Bongiorno), Lisa (Elisa R. Malinovitz), Al (Thomas Cue who also wrote the script), and Lil (Janeen Lowe) head to the same winter retreat the crooks visited. Checking in gets a lot more interesting when a gaggle of girls show up and request the infamous death cabin for the weekend. A crazy old lady tries to warn everyone about an evil mountain man who haunts these here hills but no one listens. Eventually, after a lot of talking and shots of characters roaming through nature, a killer armed with the titular weapon ruins everyone’s weekend.
Watching Satan’s Blade is like watching two different movies. The first half has plenty of bad movie charm but the second half has a very brutal, almost nihilistic tone. Director L. Scott Castillo’s nickname should be “One Take” considering the number of scenes with flubbed dialogue included in the final film. The actors/actresses know they’ve screwed the line all to hell but bravely soldier on until the words, any words, come to them. During the check in scene it’s obvious some of the cast, especially the crazy old lady, is reading lines from the pages on the desk. The check in scene is also memorable because Castillo tries to fit twelve characters into the same shot. The shot is a jumbled mess but it’s fun to watch all of the characters squeeze into frame.
All of the joking and laughing stops when the killer finally makes an appearance. The flubbed lines are forgotten when the actresses scream, beg, and writhe in agony while the killer stabs them. Castillo uses shadows on the wall for maximum effect here. His budget is too low to include gore so the shadows convey the killer’s brutality without splashing blood all over the furniture. A scene involving Tony fighting the killer by firelight also shows Castillo has some skills as a director.
Some of the bad acting in Satan’s Blade is sure to bring a smile to the faces of bad movie lovers but other performances are really good and give the characters a likability factor sometimes missing in low budget slashers. Tom Bongioro and Thomas Cue play the two buddies like they really are buddies. Their scenes together are pretty funny, especially when they get drunk. Cue has a natural chemistry with Janeen Lowe so it’s easy to believe these two have been married for a long time. Stephanie Leigh Steel is the best actress out of the group of girls looking for a goodtime at the resort. Meg Greene as Ruth the robber makes an impression when, dressed in lingerie and boots, she drags a naked dead woman across the floor. I can’t tell you anything about her performance but that one scene stands out in my mind. Scream fans should pay special attention to Ski Mark Ford’s performance as Deputy Ski. You’ll scream “Deputy Dewey” at the screen when Ford bumbles his way through the murder investigations.
Satan’s Blade is a bit uneven at times but it has some good performances and a terrifying second act going for it. Thomas Cue’s complex script offers up a couple of surprises that takes the story in a very different direction from what you expect. These days Satan’s Blade is considered a rare slasher due to its lack of availability on dvd. If you can find a copy of the TVC or Prism vhs for cheap, then grab it. Some dealers won’t let go of a copy for less than $100. The Prism vhs features a trailer for The Forest at the start of the tape. The TVC edition has better cover artwork.
Thank god VHS is still out there. Films like Satan’s Blade would not exist without it.
A really good one that you can only seem to find on VHS is Evil Judgement. The kills are good. the plot is original. The direction is tight and it’s pretty well acted. Honestly, it’s a class act. Code Red, track this movie down!
I just watched a short clip of Satan’s Blade on youtube. First off, I LOVE the score. The melodramatic synth melody is kinda good. Secondly, yeah the actress flubs her lines. Maybe the director knew he didn’t have much film to shoot with and had to just move ahead anyway lol
great review!
I own the Prism VHS. I LOVE the tone and atmosphere of the film. You mentioned “The Forest” trailer on the tape, I’m pretty sure there is a crummy “Satan’s Blade” trailer on “The Forest” VHS as well…;)
Yay! You guys took a look at this one! Lucky me, I happen to have this one.
I wonder if there are any other lost slashers, like this one or The Channeler ( the one with Grizzly Adams)
There must be hundreds of “lost” slashers.
I don’t think you can get Blood Song on DVD or Bloody Movie or Bloodbeat. Mortuary isn’t out. Curtains is only out as a VHS transfer. I suppose a lot of it comes down to who owns the copyright.
I don’t think Butcher Baker is out either.
Blood Song can be found on a double feature with Mausoleum on DVD, and Bloody Movie came out by Retromedia, I think.
Butcher Baker should be coming out in the next 2 years, if not sooner….at least, it better. >:(
Bloodbeat, Curtains and Mortuary would be awesome to have on DVD. All three are underrated, with BB being a unique, misunderstood experience.
Josh,
Thanks for the tip. I didn’t think to look at double features for Blood Song. I’ve got say it. Much as i like Mausoleum. I tend to glaze over when I see the title. It seems to the ubiquitous budget box set movie.
I’m glad someone else likes Bloodbeat. But really there must be tons of stuff only on VHS and more that were never released.
A lot of slashers were made well before their release date. The Final Terror, Evil Judgement, Satan’s Blade, Twisted Nightmare and even Girls Nite Out(According to Teenage Wasteland there were trailers for it in 82, but it looks even earlier to me) were all really made between 80-81.
another interesting one is Ghost Dance.
TWISTED NIGHTMARE is an excellent slasher, filmed at the same place F13TH PT 3 was shot I believe – esp in the barn.
Hot chix, violent gore ….. ah yesssssssssssssss
Some sourses say Twisted Nightmare is 1982 for production, but the fashions place it in 85/86, so i dont think it’s too late.
I have a VHS of Satan’s blade that picked up for 2$(Australian)
At a Pawn shop. At the same time I picked up a copy of the movie ‘heads’ also for 2$ and a brite-board of alf with his trade mark slogan “no problem”. That was a good day.
Admittedly I didn’t like Satan’s Blade at the time, in fact I’m not even sure I like it now. When I saw ‘heads’ I enjoyed it thoroughly, it was a fine film and well made.
But I only watched it once.
I’ve seen Satan’s Blade 3 times already at least
(not counting a couple of times when I had a party and had satans blade playing in the background)
There’s nothing worse in my mind than these deliberately cheap
and nasty films trying to appeal to the ‘so bad it’s good market’
To me these are just awful B grade films (as opposed to awesome B grade films) However there is something oddly appealing in some of the weird Z grade films you come across.
Part of it comes from the fact that these directors set out to make genuinely scary films, but they lack the skill,experience and/or knowledge to do justice to their vision.
But in doing that they lack the pit-falls of generic B-grade horror where everything is some formulaic that it’s hard to remember 5 minutes after you’ve finished watching it.
I can’t forget Satan’s Blade, no matter how hard I try.
It’s lacklustre production, rather than just being whimsical becomes eerie in itself when combined with the grim feeling of the film. The style reminds me Z grade film’s like
Marc Lawrence’s film ‘pigs’ (aka:’killers’) and ‘Unhinged’
(Although Unhinged is more of a typical slasher fest right up until the end scene which is surprisingly weird and stretched out for longer than should be humanly possible)
Neither of those films however, is anywhere as shoddily constructed as ‘Satan’s Blade’.
All this however is procrastinating, and distracting from my real question (I’ve just taken my Lunchtime Dexies so that’s not really surprising. The best thing about being mentally ill is
the legal amphetamines. Of course having watched Satan’s Blade several times most people would probably assume me to me mentally ill anyway)
The main point of this message was to see if anyone knew the domain status of Satan’s blade. I have been collecting public domain material for use in my own art, and have been wondering about the domain status of several Z grade 70′s and 80′s films.
There is something I can’t put my finger on about Satan’s Blade that Draws me to it.
To me there are no particular scenes that stand out it’s more the overall texture of the film. And texture is the most important thing when splicing and dicing, databending, datamoshing, after- effects ect.. ect..
I’ve even considered remaking it, I think a lot of people would be curious about a modern version of ‘Satan’s Blade’ set in Australia. I am poor as a church mouse, but hey..This is satan’s blade after all. The most expensive part would be the liquor for the most realistic drunk scene in a film yet.
But first, the domain status. One could assume that because of it’s obscurity and the fact that it hasn’t been released on dvd that the film falls in the public domain.
This assumption is erronous, someone could be sitting on the rights simply because there dosen’t seem to be a proifit in a dvd release (illogical I know, but who can understand humans?)
I hope I can resolve this issue shortly, unlike the last time I tried to work out the status of a idea.
I’m STILL trying to find out if ‘The Spider’ is public domain (The Norvel Page pulp character, coincidently there are at least 2 public domain comic characters called the spider as well so the name at least is public domain)
At any rate, I could continue to write crap for ever so I’ll tie this up now. Mind you, if I wasn’t on my meds this would be even longer and even less on topic, though possibly less speedily typed. Plus there is a chance I may kill myself.
Ciao.