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Released by: Olive Films/Slasher Video
Released on: May 12th, 2015.
Director: Louis Scott Castillo Jr.
Cast: Tom Bongiorno, Stephanie Leigh Steel, Thomas Cue, Janeen Lowe
Year: 1984
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The Movie:
The sole directorial offering from Louis Scott Castillo Jr., Satan's Blade was, like so many other slasher films, made to cash in on the popularity of horror filmdom's most bankable sub-genre during its boom years. Made with a miniscule budget and a cast of completely unrecognizable actors and actresses, it's an oddity to be sure and it's relative obscurity has likely only helped to grow its cult audience over the years. Amazingly enough, the film not only lives again but it's got a legitimate special edition Blu-ray release. But is it any good? In its own strange way, it's great.
The movie opens when a daring duo of lady thieves pulls of a bank robbery - we don't really see much of this, it happens quickly. But we know it's happened because we witness firsthand the dastardly double crossing that leaves one of them dead in the bathroom of a remote resort somewhere out in the middle of nowhere. The other? Well, the titular blade takes care of that one. A pair of cops investigates. Sort of. They don't seem too committed to their work but they poke around and look at some things.
Meanwhile some thirty year old teenager types show up at the resort: Marlene (Marti Neal), Sue (Ramona Andrada), Stephanie (Stephanie Leigh Steel), Mary (Susan Bennet), Rita (Diane Taylor), Tony (Tom Bongiorno), Lisa (Elisa R. Malinovitz), Lil (Janeen Lowe), and Al (Thomas Cue). They're there to hang out and have a good time and as such, they pay no heed to the ominous warning of the killer that stalks the words armed with a particularly evil knife. Instead they hang out, talk a lot and sit on picturesque rocks near the water. At one point some people get drunk and frolic in the snow. That would probably be cold and potentially unpleasant. Somehow they fail to notice the fact that there's a massive blood splatter all over the wall of the unit they've rent. They walk past it and never mention it but it's pretty hard to miss. Of course, as you'd guess, people start dying, getting murdered in typically grizzly low budget fashion… each one at the end of a knife.
Satan's Blade is pretty much bottom of the barrel as far as horror films go but being able to recognize that doesn't necessarily mean that the film isn't worthwhile. There's actually a lot to like about this one. Yes, the acting is terrible across the board, nobody here is able to emote much and even the 'tender' scenes that take place on the aforementioned picturesque rock that are intended to build drama and character fail miserably. Yes, the plot is pretty much riddled with clichés and plot holes and fine, the ending and its supernatural twist don't really add much of anything to the story but there's something here.
The film's locations are top notch. Really. The outdoor scenes are actually quite well shot and make nice use of the natural scenery. There's something about horror films that take place outside in the snow that instantly gives a film some additional mood and Satan's Blade has that. Contrasting this, possibly as a happy accident of the locations used and the shooting conditions, the indoor scenes have an interesting claustrophobic feel to them (despite an occasional cameo appearance from the boom mic) that contrasts with the desolate outdoor location photography quite nicely. As such, even when the film's erratic pacing slows down and the acting is more than a little questionable, the movie has a fairly bleak tone to it. Call it beginners luck, but it's there and it sort of works on the same level as Ghostkeeper in that regard.
The film also delivers on the body count. The kills aren't always the most creative but there's enough gore and the slashings happen often enough in the last half of the movie that the film meets expectations in the carnage department. We get a bit of nudity too, never a bad thing. On top of that, the movie also features a great score. Not good, but great! It's heavy on synths and not always entirely appropriate for complimenting what happens on screen but the music conjured up for Satan's Blade is particularly cool in its own right. And so, in its own strange way, Satan's Blade makes for a pretty entertaining watch. It'll certainly help to have an affinity for low budget slashers and all that they tend to entail going into this one. Of course, those expecting a highbrow horror masterpiece are advised to look elsewhere, but the movie has its own thing going on and if you're in the right frame of mind for it, Satan's Blade there's a lot to enjoy here.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Satan's Blade arrives on Blu-ray in its original 1.33.1 fullframe aspect ratio in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer from a 2k scan of original archival materials. This one never got a legitimate DVD release so it's only point of reference is the old VHS release and obviously, this Blu-ray release leaves that old tape in the dust. Clarity is quite good for a low budget feature, and detail is solid here too. Colors are maybe a tiny bit faded but typically fare quite nicely as do black levels. The image shows some print damage, which isn't really a shock, but for the most part it's never a distraction. The transfer retains a pleasantly film-like look throughout, meaning no evidence of digital noise reduction or edge enhancement pops up, and the film's grain structure appears natural throughout. We get nice skin tones here, a reasonable amount of depth and overall a very nice representation of the source.
The English language DTS-HD 2.0 Mono Master Audio mix on the disc is just fine given the limitations of the source. There are a few spots here and there that sound less than perfect but these are infrequent and for the most part the audio is crisp and nicely balanced. Dialogue is typically easy to understand and hiss and distortion are never problems. There are no alternate language options or subtitles in provided.
If getting the movie in HD with lossless audio wasn't enough, there's a bunch of extra features here too, starting with the sixteen minute Director's Narrative. This is basically an on-camera interview with director Louis Scott Castillo Jr. in which he talks about the birth of this project, how he came to direct it, shooting the picture on a low budget and how it was finished in 1980 only to sit while he searched for a major studio deal (Spoilers! He doesn't speak kindly about this experience). He also talks about who wrote what, the film's distribution quirks and what he's done since making this movie.
This is complimented by a half hour long piece called Remembering Satan's Blade in which Castillo expands on quite a few of the same topics covered in the first piece. It's bizarrely shot - we often spend more time looking at a film canister placed on a table or the director's belt buckle than anyone's actual face - and it is a bit meandering at times, but there are some interesting stories told here. Castillo also shows off some of the props from the film, a canister of 35mm material and some promotional materials he's held onto over the years.
Aside from that, we get a nice batch of scenes taken from the Dutch and Japanese VHS releases of the film. This isn't specifically alternate footage but it gives us a look at the way that the film was presented and transferred on these two different home video releases. There's over sixteen minutes of footage in this section. We also get two pieces of the film's score available as isolated tracks, a still gallery, a video scrapbook, the Prism video advertisement, menus and chapter selection. The Satan's Blade 2 fan trailer advertised on the packaging is nowhere to be found.
The Final Word:
The very fact that Satan's Blade has made it to Blu-ray is reason enough to shout “hallelujah!†but when you add to that the fact that it looks as good as it does here and contains a pretty decent selection of extras too? 'Tis truly the age of miracles in which we live. This won't be one for the masses but that's ok. If you appreciate bottom of the barrel slashers ripe with oddities and curiosities in place of linear storytelling and good acting, step right up. This is the movie for you. In its own strange way, Satan's Blade is awesome.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
