It's 1987 and in an improbable series of events five English teenagers and one American find themselves shipwrecked on an island after fleeing an angry trio of be-denimed fairground workers named Dad, Ace and The Bear. On the island they discover a hotel all decked out to celebrate New Year, in June, where they each experience inexplicable events before falling prey to the spirits in the hotel and the angry fairground folk.
The cast are uniformly terrible and as such you'll be glad to see the
back of them and will care little when they meet their timely demise.
This was the fifth and final horror that director Norman J. Warren made between 1977 ('Satan's Slave') and 1987 and is certainly the weakest. It has some dumb fun ideas but unfortunately they're all ones we've seen before in better movies by the likes of Fulci and Raimi but if you think of it as a big silly tribute to the various things and folks it's cribbed from then it makes for a fun, relentlessly daft, ride.
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A short behind the scenes look at the making of Norman J Warren's 1976 horror 'Satan's Slave' that we featured here the other week (click the link back there to watch it) thefirst of a trio of horror's he made over between 1976 and 1978.
Featuring a voice over by Warren and other members of the crew, quick snippets with a couple of cast members including Michael Gough and some footage of them setting up various scenes including testing various shades and consistencies of the blood that Warren's movies are so renowned for.
In truth there's probably nothing here that would be of any particular interest to anyone who isn't already a fan of the director or the film but personally I always love a peak behind the curtain.
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'Satan's Slave' is the first of a trio of horror films released between 1976 and 1978 by director Norman J Warren who died earlier this week (11/3/21).
Travelling to visit the uncle and cousin she'd previously known nothing about - never a good sign - Catherine Yorke (Candace Glendenning - 'Tower of Evil' (UK / US) & 'The Flesh and Blood Show' (UK / US)) is involved in a car crash that kills her parents. Recuperating in her Uncle Alexander's mansion and getting to know her creepy and psychotic cousin Stephen (Martin Potter) whilst experiencing vivid flashbacks to the torture and murder of a young woman she remains entirely unaware of their true nature and the plans they have for her.
'Satan's Slave' with it's country house and it's nefarious necromancers owes a debt to the films of the Hammer and Amicus studios and the books of Dennis Wheatley but this is pure 1970s hexploitation never missing an opportunity to put a male character in a robe or to get a female character out of hers. Neither Glendenning nor Potter have much in the way of screen presence but Michael Gough with his effortless portrayal of the suavely devilish Alexander and Barbara Kellerman as his secretary Frances both have talent to spare.
The story moves at a snail's pace and there really isn't enough here to fill it's 80 minute runtime and would have benefitted from losing 20 minutes or so but as a low budget schlock horror with it's toes dipped in both the Brit horrors of the past decade and the new Euro horrors of the (then) current decade it's an interesting and fun watch.
If you enjoy what we do here on Wyrd Britain and would like to help us continue then we would very much welcome a donation towards keeping the blog going - paypal.me/wyrdbritain
Affiliate links are provided for your convenience and to help mitigate running costs.
