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.
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