Satan’s Slave is a pretty laughably bad movie that at times was bewildering at times and features Michael Gough in a villainous role, though the performances from Potter and Glendenning was wildly on one end or the other.
Satan’s Slave
(1976)
Genre(s): Supernatural, Horror
Vinegar Syndrome | NR – 90 min. – $34.98 | May 24, 2019
Date Published: 06/08/2019 | Author: The Movieman
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Vinegar Syndrome provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 2.75/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Catherine (CANDACE GLENDENNING) and her family are invited to stay for the week at the Yorke family estate, a massive piece of land in the countryside owned by Catherine’s uncle, Alexander Yorke (MICHAEL GOUGH). When a mysterious accident takes the life of Catherine’s mother and father, Alexander offers for her to stay with him until she gets well. Under the care of her uncle, his mysterious assistant, and Catherine’s perverse cousin, Stephen (MARTIN POTTER), Catherine begins growing ever suspicious of her family’s intent on keeping her at the estate. Soon she discovers that her family may be hiding dark secrets linked to their sinful past… Quick Hit Review: Satan’s Slave is a trippy British thriller from the 1970s based around the occult which, based on my minimal reading, was pretty prevalent during the era. In any case, although the pacing is on the slower side and some of it doesn’t make a lick of sense, however it seems most supernatural related films tends to play it fast and loose with the rules. The performances weren’t anything special although Martin Potter was over-the-top while Candace Glendenning was a bit too understated, but seeing Michael Gough in a villainess role was pretty fun. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 3.5/5 |
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Although I did not receive one, the initial pressing got a thick slip cover with the clear case bottom slides into the case. Inside is a poster and the inner artwork is reversible. Audio Commentaries:
The tracks offer different perspectives of the production, obviously Warren and Scott give a first-hand account on making the movie, providing bits of information on film locations, the cast, plot and, in the case of Scott, his process of scoring the film. The second track takes a historical account of the movie, breaking down the themes, how it was received back in ’76 and more. Personally, I probably prefer the second track as it flowed a bit better. Creating Satan (29:51) is an older but lengthy making-of featurette with interviews with the cast and crew. All You Need is Blood (13:14) is another archival featurette, this one from 1975 with behind-the-scenes footage. Devilish Music (12:34) finds composer John Scott discussing his approach to scoring the movie. “Fragment” (10:04) – Short film written & directed by Norman J. Warren. Multiple Theatrical Trailers – A compilation of adverts. Deleted Scenes (5:06) filled with two scenes that were cut and are accompanied with commentary and shown in black & white (as they didn’t have the budget for color workprints and the audio tapes were missing having disintegrated over the years. |
VIDEO – 4.0/5 |
| Vinegar Syndrome releases Satan’s Slave where it’s presented with a 2.35 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer, scanned in 2K from the original 35mm camera negative. For the most part this is a nice looking picture, detail is sharp throughout and the natural film grain looks to have been retained, on the downside bits of specs, scratches did show up from time to time (and one scene in particular was especially littered with it. All in all, with this being 40+ years old and hardly a mainstream film, I did find the picture quality to be rather good. |
AUDIO – 3.75/5 |
| The disc comes with a satisfactory albeit ultimately limited DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track. Dialogue does come through with fine clarity but there were some instances of hisses and pops here and there, yet nothing terribly distracting. |
OVERALL – 3.0/5 |
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Satan’s Slave is a pretty laughably bad movie that at times was bewildering at times and features Michael Gough in a villainous role, though the performances from Martin Potter and Candace Glendenning was wildly on one end or the other. This Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome has respectable video and audio transfers to go along with some decent set of bonus material. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.