The Brotherhood of Satan
The Brotherhood of Satan is a creepy little sleeper about a makeshift family that gets trapped in a backwoods town where parents are mysteriously dying and their children are vanishing. An obvious byproduct of the Rosemary's Baby craze of films with ridiculously corny Satanists, the film is paced at the speed of evolution, the ending is completely coherent but not fully spelled out (which has left a great many viewers wondering exactly what happened), and some of the dialogue is pretty silly -- however, this is one of those films that's an exercise in style over substance. There's lots of unsettling moments (with lethal children's toys!) and trippy visuals, and it's well worth it for fans of slow-moving '70s flicks.
The cast includes Strother Martin (Sssssss, The Villain) as the head of the Satanic clan, LQ Jones ("The Virginian") as the Sheriff, Alvy Moore (Hank Kimbell from Green Acres) as the deputy, Charles Bateman (Santa Barbara) as the leading father and Geri Reischl (Fake Jan from The Brady Bunch Variety Hour) as his young daughter. The movie is available on DVD, though I seriously question if it was originally released in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio --it frequently seems as if the picture on the DVD is improperly cropped. Though maybe it was just poorly shot.
