THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN

US, 1970, 93 minutes, Colour.
Strother Martin, L Q. Jones, Charles Bateman, Anna Capri, Charles Robinson, Alvy Moore, Geri Reischl.
Directed by Bernard Mc Eveety.

The Brotherhood of Satan is a small-budget horror thriller without well-known stars. However, it is very good of its kind quite genuinely horrifying.

It was produced by L. Q. Jones who plays the part of the sheriff. Jones has worked often with Strother Martin who plays the doctor. Direction is by Bernard Mc Eveety, a name more associated with the Disney Studios than this kind of horror film. (A number of Mc Eveetys also appear in the cast list.)

The film captures the atmosphere of the isolated and small American town, the world of children, the world of the aged. By showing ordinary things and making them seem different from what they are, the film lures the audience into its world, its atmosphere of witchcraft. The film explores the age- old myth of the seeking of immortality in this world and the selfish devices (aided by mad scientists and superstitious leaders) to gain everlasting life here on earth. Very good of its kind.

1. Interesting and entertaining horror film? The effect of horror films? Nightmares and audiences facing their fears?

2. Wide screen photography, the American landscapes, Middle America, the small American town and its atmosphere? The film's special effects? Editing and pace for suspense and horror?

3. The title and the implications of witchcraft, Satanism? The town fraternity?

4. The pre-credits effect: the toys and the children playing, the tank, the real tank, the crushing of the car? Sinister atmosphere?

5. The special effects for frightening audiences, making them suspicious, for the effects of witchcraft e.g. the red drops coming from the sweet, the father swooping to save his children and audiences fearing something sinister? The doll killing the Bible-reading parents and then shedding a tear?

6. The world of the normal, the innocent - surfaces covering abnormality? The film playing with audience attention, suspicions, tears?

7. Ben, Kiti and Nicky and their trip, the arrival, the accident, going into the town, their concern, communications cut? Ben trying to drive away and having to return? Participating in the search? Discussions with the sheriff and Tobey? The priest and the doctor? The skid and the child on the road? Kitty lost? The discovery of a coven, the final search and the sinister ending? Ben and Nicky as characters in themselves? As a way into the situation for the audience?

8. Dr Duncan and his amiable presence, reasonable, nice? His practice? Response to the mystery? Helping the search? The parents? The irony of his hold over the people? The coven? His plan to transform the old people into children? The irony about his statements on the rational and his being involved in superstition and witchcraft?

9. The comparison with the priest, his concern, his religious background, reaction to superstition? His discovery of the truth? His falling into madness?

10. The sheriff and his place in the town, concern about the children, the parents? Tobey and his help? With the priest, with Ben? The search? The final discovery?

11. The range of parents in the town, their relationship with their children, ordinary lifestyle, mystery, the eerie behaviour of the children, their deaths?

12. The members of the coven, their presence in the town, their seeming gentility?

13. The children and their childlike behaviour? Transformed? Under the power of witchcraft? Their assembling? Victims of the coven? The chill of the ending?

14. A piece of effective horror? Shifting points of view? The unexplained and the inexplicable?