SATAN’S CHILDREN [1975]
Satan’s Children is a low budget movie from 1975 that is really low budget. It starts out with this cool looking opening credit scene, which seems to be the only cool scene in the entire movie. The film looks like it was recorded using really old cameras, probably some of the earlier versions of color film, or at least very cheap color cameras.
The movie starts out with the main character Bobby mowing the lawn, and it seems to arouse his step sister. There’s this gross incestual dynamic from her in the movie, which seems like a thinly disguised fetish. I don’t know why they had to include that in the movie, they could have just made the step sister bratty, catty, and annoying, without making romantic gestures to him.
Bobby is seemingly not really liked by his step dad or step sister that much, and after dinner one day, his step sister tries to get him in trouble. She asks what the “brown bag in his closet” is, which to me, I immediately thought that Bobby had a bag of shit in his room. But when he left the table to go get the bag, it was in the nightstand next to his bed, and instead of being a bag of shit, it was a bag of marijuana. Bobby leaves the house instead of revealing to his step dad that he had weed, and we see small montage of him walking around the city alone at night.
Bobby ends up at a diner, and is hit on by an older man, who is told to leave by a younger greaser looking type of guy. The greaser guy makes fun of the dude for being gay, and then…he and Bobby take a ride on the guy’s motorcycle. This struck me as odd, because the idea of a man riding “bitch” on a bike was thought of as gay for the longest time. The greaser guy, whose name was Jack, I believe, takes Bobby back to his place, and offers him a beer. Then, he undresses, puts on a robe, then takes a knife to Bobby’s neck. Bobby is then stripped, tied up, and then thrown in a car with Jack and his friends, where they proceed to assault Bobby. After, they throw his body somewhere outside.
The next day, a group of hippie looking types are seen playing some sort of bad version of volleyball outside. A woman named Sherry is running away from another woman, where we see that the latter had made a move on Sherry. Sherry, not being a lesbian, did not take kindly to the advance, and slaps the other girl, telling her to figure out “how to like guys”.
The hippies playing ball stop for a moment to see Bobby unconscious near their fence, where he’s taken inside their compound. Sherry takes an interest in Bobby, finding him attractive for some reason. One of the other cult members dislikes this, saying that Bobby was “Queer”.
In general, the movie has this ridiculous homophobic tone, especially considering what the main idea of the movie was about. Sherry and the others that “save” Bobby are actually a group of Satanists, but somehow, they were against gay people. This struck me as odd, considering how most Abrahamic Religions are anti-gay. If Satanists are supposed to be the antithesis of Christians and the like, wouldn’t it make sense to accept Gay people? I suppose that this idea destroys any plot the movie has.
The Satanic idea is more of a hint, as opposed to a main theme. It’s like a small sprinkling of salt to a meal, than a delicious seasoning. The few scenes where the cult members are dressed in robes and praying to Satan, were laughably bad. The costumes looked so cheap and horrible, like they barely figured out how to use a sewing machine. I wonder if the creators of the movie read anything from the Satanic Bible by Anton Lavey, because I did see some black candles lit in the background, and a few other pieces that might have been nods towards the Church of Satan. To me, if they did do a little research into Lavey, it wasn’t very much. They likely only skimmed through the book if they did.
The idea of a Satanic hippie cult also seemed to be a nod towards the Manson family, who had committed the Tate-LaBianca murders only 6 years prior the movie’s release. It seemed that it was a crappy generalization of what the news press originally said about the Manson family, where people like Susan Atkins and such were “slaves of Satan”. This movie, “Satan’s Children” felt like it was written by children. The plot didn’t really go anywhere, and barely anything was explained at all.
There was a lot of emphasis on the Gay parts, and how being gay was “bad”. In a way, the movie appeared nearly Christian with how homophobic it was. I think that it was holding onto the idea that gay = sex offender, an unfortunate idea that bigots would carry in the past. Ironically, wouldn’t Bobby’s step sister have been considered a sex offender? She was molesting him in the beginning of the movie.
I was in shock with how bad this movie was. It was funny to me, because of how low quality, low budget, and low skill it was. The head honcho, Simon, wasn’t anywhere near as intimidating as you’re supposed to think of him. Sherry and Bobby “fall in love”, after meeting for one day, and for some reason, Bobby is supposed to be considered attractive! Most of the cast members looked smelly, and likely needed a shower.
Bobby eventually runs away from the compound, and two henchmen that were chasing him end up in quicksand. Of course, the quicksand trope. Bobby, only in his underwear, falls a million times, turning his tighty whities into what looked like shit stained underwear. After the henchmen presumably die in the quicksand, Bobby takes their jeep back home, and starts to eat out of the fridge. His step dad starts yelling at him again, and he cracks a bottle over his head. Bobby then ties up his step sister and throws her in the back of the truck.
Somehow, he makes it to the apartment of the guy that raped him in the beginning of the movie, and kills all the men there. He then chops their heads off with saws, and takes them back to the Satanic cult, as an offering, I guess. I assume that Bobby is then allowed to join the cult? The movie ends with him making love to Sherry, while Bobby’s step sister is crucified.
Once again, I was appalled when I watched this movie. I think that, as time went on, the people involved must have realized how bad it was, and likely never pursued anything else in film. Most of the cast only seemed to have been in this movie. The film seemed to be a project for what were film students. Unfortunately, this movie would not have earned them a good grade. The story was lacking, it was barely satanic, and really, we didn’t have a reason to like the main character at all. What happened to him was terrible, but nothing else is really divulged about the character after he ends up at the Satanic cult. In fact, none of the characters had any background story at all. It was incredibly weak.
Looking through the newspaper archives, there were some interesting snippets. In 1975, “Satan’s Children” first debuted in Illinois, so some of the advertisements marketed the movie as something that fans of the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” would like. This is hilarious, considering that these movies are nothing alike. TCM is actually scary, while Satan’s Children is an unintentional comedy film.
Another ad claimed that the movie was “The most gory and frightening film of 1975”, which came from the director himself. This was nowhere near true, as there’s barely any blood in the movie at all. It had the tagline, “Do Satanic cults really exist?”, like as if the movie would have delved into this further, but upon watching, the question wasn’t explored at all. Bobby encounters a Satanic cult, but it’s not because he was trying to find one. He just so happened to end up at their compound.
I couldn’t find any reviews on the movie from that time period. I think that goes to show how many people really saw it, let alone watched the whole thing to even think of reviewing it.
I don’t recommend watching this film, not even once. It’s just bad. I laughed with how bad it was, but it didn’t really add any more enjoyment to my life. I have to give this movie 1 star, and 2 slimes.
Slimey, bad movie.
My video: https://youtu.be/3ET3S9zfI78
