Monthly Archives: April 2019

Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead (1991)

Posted on by

Before directing movies like Mr. Holland’s Opus, The Mighty Ducks, the live action 101 Dalmatians, Rock Star and Life or Something Like It, Stephen Herek was behind movies like Critters, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and this film.

Sue Ellen Crandell (Christina Applegate) is 17 and stuck at home while her mother goes to Australia and her friends go to Europe. Now, she’s in charge of her 16-year-old stoner metalhead brother Kenny, 14-year-old Zach, 13-year-old Melissa (Halloween franchise star Danielle Harris) and 11-year-old Walter (Robert Hy Gorman, Sometimes They Come Back and Leprechan).

Her mom hires a babysitter for the summer named Mrs. Sturak, who ends up being mean to everyone until she dies from a heart attack. So they do what anyone else would: they put her in a trunk and send her to a funeral home.

They screwed up in one major way: the old lady’s body had all the money. Sue Ellen tries to work at Clown Dog and falls for Bryan, but quits because of the manager. She then makes a fake resume for a job at General Apparel West, where she works as an executive assistant, for Rose Lindsey (Joanna Cassidy, The Glove, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?).

This pisses off Carolyn and Bruce (David Duchovny), two young workers who hate that she’s jumped ahead of them. Of course, this being a teen movie, Carolyn and Bryan end up being brother and sister.

There’s so much going on in this movie: drugs, kids falling off the roof, car stealing drag queens and a fashion show. Of course, everything works out fine. It’s a teen comedy. That’s how it works.

Production was nearly shut down to the actor who played Zach — Christopher Pettiet — having issues with drugs. They cut his scenes down so that they could finish the film. Sadly, he died nine years later of an accidental drug overdose.

Keith Coogan, who played Kenny, ended up being in two movies where parents were nowhere to be found. That’s because he’s also in Adventures in Babysitting.

My wife loves this movie. Seeing as how she’s probably one of its biggest fans, I felt that I should interview her.

Sam: Why do you like this movie so much?

Becca: Mostly because of her clothes. That’s why I watched it so many times when I was little. I looked up to her. And she smoked.

Sam: How many times have you seen it?

Becca: Thousands. At least.

Sam: Did you rent it every time?

Becca: In the beginning, but then I recorded it off HBO.

Sam: What’s your favorite part of this movie?

Becca: The fashion show at the end. And I thought that boy was cute.

Sam: The boy who worked at Clown Dog?

Becca: His name is Bryan. Yes.

Sam: Is it strange that Danielle Harris is in so many movies that you love?

Becca: Yeah but that’s what you get for being a kid actor. She was in a bunch of things. She was a mean kid here, but she played nice kids too.

Sam: Was this movie true to your 1980’s childhood?

Becca: Not really. My parents would have had ten kids, if they would have done that, maybe. Our house was always clean and my mom wouldn’t let anyone babysit us. So no.

Sam: Does your brother remind of Kenny?

Becca: Back then, no. But now more than ever. He’s more like Hell Hound, the slower one of Kenny’s friends.

Sam: Did you like a young David Duchovny?

Becca: Not with that hair. He had like a bob pulled into a ponytail. His name is Bruce. He’s head inventory clerk.

Sam: What else would you like to add?

Becca: I think Sue Ellen should have stayed working for GAW and not gone to college. General Apparel West if you must know. Because Rose loved her and I would have loved to have had a boss like that.

Better Off Dead (1985)

Posted on by

When I was a teenager watching these movies, I could never understand the lives of the kids in John Hughes movies. I couldn’t put myself into the headspace of the jocks or rich kids or the good looking ones. But Lane Myer? I get Lane Myer. When he finally finds that French foreign exchange student who knows all and gives him a new lease on life? That’s what I thought would get me through high school and give my life meaning.

“Savage” Steve Holland knows how to make a movie. I’ve seen this probably 4,000 times and every single viewing improves it for me.

Lane only has two interests: skiing and his girlfriend, Beth (Amanda Wyss, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, A Nightmare on Elm Street). But when she leaves him for the captain of the ski team, Roy Stalin, his life is over. So over that he decides to kill himself at every juncture, which believe it or not, ends up being hilarious.

This is a movie that knows how to cast its roles: David Ogden Stiers from TV’s M*A*S*H* as Lane’s dad, Kim Darby (Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark) as his mom, Curtis “Booger” Armstrong as his best friend, Yuji Okumoto (who is the best bad guy EVER in The Karate Kid Part 2)s one of the two Howard Cosell speaking race driving immigrant brothers, Dan Schneider as the evil Ricky and his testicles err…tentacles, Chuck “Porky” Mitchell as the owner of a fast food place with claymation dancing food, amazing character actors like Vincent Schiavelli  and Taylor Negron is small roles, E.G. Daily as herself rocking out, a little brother who is a bigger hit with the ladies (and a brighter scientist) than Lane, a paperboy obsessed with his two dollars and Diane Franklin (who starred in that scummy American horror movie that wishes it was Italian, Amityville II: The Possession) as the aforementioned French foreign exchange student.

This is a movie where, as I always say, hijinks ensue. There’s a dancing hamburger blasting Van Halen’s “Everybody Wants Some!!,” there’s Lane’s buddy trying to do lines of snow off the K12, there’s a one ski having ski race, there’s mothers getting blown up and there’s even the most ridiculous montage ever set to Rupert Hine’s “Arrested by You.” Truly, I could act this entire movie out for you if you’d like. Just ask me in person.

Better off Dead

According to the director, Cusack did not like the film and walked out of a screening, later saying it “was the worst thing I have ever seen. I will never trust you as a director ever again, so don’t speak to me.” This moment made Holland no longer care about movies. When asked years later if he hated making the movie, Cusack said, “No, I just thought it could have been better, but I think that about almost all my films. I have nothing against the film. Glad people love it still.”

We get into Eddie’s soundtrack contribution — as well as 10 other films — with our “Exploring: Eddie Van Halen on Film” featurette.

Joysticks (1983)

Posted on by

Jefferson Bailey (Scott McGinnis, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock) owns the hottest of all businesses in 1983: a video arcade. It’s driving local business tycoon Joseph Rutter (Joe Don Baker, a man whose name I screamed into the ear of a sleeping girlfriend once, which is a long story I should really get to sometime) nuts, so he gets his two nephews and plans on shutting down the arcade. Mean! Unfair! No!

Bailey’s too smart for Rutter and has two pals named Eugene Groebe (Leif Green, Davey Jaworski from the legendary bomb Grease 2) — who is molested by swimsuit girls before he even gets to the arcade — and McDorfus who are ready to deal with this affront.

This movie was such a big deal that Midway allowed the image of Pac-Man to be used as well as their new game Satan’s Hollow and the as-yet-unreleased Super Pac-Man during the big showdown at the movie’s end.

Corinne Bohrer, who is pretty much teen movie royalty thanks to appearances in films like Surf II, Zapped! and Stewardess School shows up, as does John Voldstad who played “my other brother Daryl” on TV’s Newhart.

There are two real reasons to watch this movie. One is the theme song, which has beeps, boops and promises “video to the max” and “totally awesome video games!” This song will infiltrate your mind and not leave, trust me.

The other big reason is John Gries, who completely owns every scene he appears in as King Vidiot, a punk rock maniac surrounded by punker girls who only communicate in video game noises when they’re not all riding around on miniature motorcycles. In a more perfect world, King Vidiot would be the star of the film. Every other person pales in comparison to his greatness. Gries would go on to steal the show in plenty of other films like Real Genius, Napoleon Dynamite, Fright Night, The Monster Squad and TerrorVision.

This all comes from Greydon Clark, who directed The Uninvited — a movie where George Kennedy does battle with a house cat — Without Warning and Wacko, as well as appearing in movies like Satan’s Sadists.

The saddest part of this movie was that even though the good guys win, arcades would be dead by the mid-1980’s. So really, the bad guys did win. King Vidiot? Well, no one knows what happened to him.

You can watch this for free on TUBI and Amazon Prime.

Thanks to felicity4771 for the typo notes.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)

Posted on by

After reading the novel by B. Traven, director John Huston thought that it would make a great film. And he saw his father, Walter Houston, as the perfect lead.

He felt for the story, as it reminded him of his days in the Mexican calvary. Luckily, his first picture, The Maltese Falcon, was a success, so he was able to make this movie happen. Originally, the studio had George Raft, Edward G. Robinson, and John Garfield selected for the main three roles.

Then World War II — and Houston donating his time to make war effort documentaries — happened. When it was all over, Humphrey Bogart had become Warner Brothers’ top dog and he wanted in.

This was one of the first Hollywood films to be filmed on location outside the United States. Filming began in the state of Durango and also at Tampico, Mexico, where the only Spanish Bogie learned was “Dos Equis.”

For their work on the film, John Huston won Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, with his father winning Best Supporting Actor.

Fred C. Dobbs (Bogart) and Bob Curtin are bums, getting by on spare change when they’re recruited by a labor contractor to help build oil rigs. The man skips on their pay. As they return home, they meet an old prospector named Howard (Walter Huston), who offers platitudes about god prospecting and how to get rich.

Between beating up their old boss for money and winning a small lottery, the men have enough to go in together to prospect for some gold in the hills of the Mexican interior.

What follows is an exhausting process that tries the men’s souls, as they’re forced to survive in near-unliveable conditions. However, they start adding up a fortune in gold. But now, Hobbs is gripped in the throes of worry — what if his partners screw him over?

Of course, there’s no way this ends up happy. Even as Howard is honored by the local village for saving a young boy, Hobbs is shooting their partner and trying to leave with the gold.

From mistaking a man trying to earn money for his wife as a killer to facing off with a band of Mexican criminals, the danger is real in every scene in this film. Hobbs is murdered by Gold Hat’s gang and his gold dust, worth so much that he’d kill his friends, is tossed into the wind. When the surviving Howard and Curtin realize this, all they can do is laugh.

Anton Lavey, founder of the Church of Satan, found that Walton Huston was well attuned to Satanic roles: “He was the only one who came out unscathed. He was the old geezer who knew the score, who was nobody’s fool when it came down to survival.”

Another Satanic viewpoint comes from Magus Peter H. Gilmore, current High Priest of the Church of Satan: “The Treasure of Sierra Madre is rather complex in realistically outlining human types, and ultimately, though the sought­-after gold — a pipe­ dream Satanism would caution against — is lost, the characters receive ends befitting their deeds.”

Scarface (1932)

Posted on by

Paul Muni plays gangster Antonio “Tony” Camonte — based on Al Capone — as this film details his bloody rise from the bottom to the top of Chicago’s gangs. This film was directed by Howard Hawks and produced by Howard Hughes, who wanted another hit after 1931’s The Front Page.

Hawks and Hughes were not on friendly terms, as there had been a lawsuit between the two, alleged that Hawk’s film The Dawn Patrol had stolen from Hughes’ Hell’s Angels. Over a game of golf, they dropped the suit and came to terms. Hawks was also pleased to see Ben Hecht would be the writer. Hecht was incredibly suspicious of Hughes as a producer, so he demanded a $1,000 a day salary to be paid every day at 6 PM. A grand a day in 1932, adjusted for inflation, would be around $18,450.80 today. Talk about being a gangster.

Luckily, Hecht and Hawks gelled well and agreed that the story of the gangster in the movie should mirror the Italian Borgia family, right down to the hints of incest between him and his sister.

The movie starts with Camonte (Paul Muni) killing “Big” Louis Costillo on the orders of boss Johnny Lovo, which enables the boss to take control of the speakeasies and bars of Chicago’s South Side. Johnny promotes Camonte to his key lieutenant but warns him to avoid the Irish gangs on the North Side.

Tony ignores that and begins taking over, drawing the attention of rival gangs and the police. Johnny realizes that Tony is out of control and begins making moves against him, all while Tony goes after Johnny’s girl Poppy. He woos her with his extravagant apartment, including a view of a neon sign that proclaims, “The World Is Yours.”

Meanwhile, Tony goes to war with the Irish gangs, sending the coin flipping hitman Guino Rinaldo (George Raft, the gangster’s gangster) to wipe out the Irish leader in his florist shop headquarters. Tom Gaffney (Boris Karloff!) takes over the Irish mob and comes after Tony’s men with Thompson submachine guns, but Tony even dresses up like a cop to wipe out his rivals, finally killing Gaffney in a bowling alley.

As the South Side gang celebrates, Tony dances with Poppy right in front of Johnny. That leads to an order of assassination to made against Johnny’s former friend and protege. Too bad for Johnny, who turns the tables. Once he kills Johnny, he’s the boss of all bosses, but the police start closing in. He’s also lost his mind, as he kills his sister once she secretly marries Guino, his best friend and most loyal soldier.

His sister calls the police on him, but in the end, she stays behind and defends him to the death. As tear gas fills his apartment, he rushes to the room, killed to the sounds of the cheering under that big neon sign. The world is, indeed, yours.

Scarface is a pre-Code movie, but was still screened for the California Crime Commission and police officials. None of them found it to be a dangerous influence, but the Hays Office insisted on changes. Hughes believed they had a vendetta against the film, which would go on to be one of the most censored movies in Hollywood.

That’s because the Hays Office wanted to avoid the sympathetic portrayal of crime. So criminals always had to be punished or shown the error of their ways. The strange thing is that the Office didn’t have the authority to actually censor films until 1934, but they’d often tried to delay films, which was damaging to the bottom line.

Maybe that vendetta is because the Office wanted changes to the script before the movie was even shot, but Hughes exclaimed, “Screw the Hays Office, make it as realistic, and grisly as possible.”

After the censorship battles, the film released a year late and was behind similar films like The Public Enemy and Little Caesar. Censorship boards in New York, Ohio, Virginia, Kansas, Detroit, Seattle, Maryland, Portland and Chicago all banned this movie until the Hays Office assured them that Hughes had made changes to the film. No completely uncensored version of Scarface is known to exist.

That said, the film was well-received, particularly by its inspiration, according to George Raft. However, it provoked outrage among Italian citizens and organizations.

Tony believes in that neon sign he can see outside his window. Yes, the world can be yours for some people, but that ascent — given his mania — is near impossible. His rise will come with an even bigger fall.

Alice, Sweet Alice (1976)

Posted on by

Alfred Sole was an architect who dreamed of making movies. His first film, 1972’s Deep Sleep, which starred Deep Throat‘s Harry Reems and The Devil In Ms. Jones‘ Georgina Spelvin, was made for only $25,000. However, it was ruled obscene and pulled from theaters. His second film — the one we’re about to cover — may not have done well at first thanks to spotty distribution, but thanks to Brooke Shields’ popularity and multiple re-releases under multiple titles, like Holy Terror, Communion and The Mask Murders.

Sole wrote the film with his neighbor Rosemary Ritvo, an English professor who he often discussed films with. A Catholic herself, they would often talk at length about the church in between discussing theater and horror films. Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now was a huge influence, as is obvious by the yellow raincoat worn by the film’s villain.

The film is set in 1961 Paterson, New Jersey, the hometown of the director, and as such much of it was based on his childhood. In fact, Mrs. Tredoni is directly based on a woman who lived next door to his grandmother who would look after the priests.

While Sole claims he had never seen any giallo before he made this, Alice, Sweet Alice is perhaps the most giallo of all American films before DePalma would make Dressed to Kill.

The film begins with Catherine Spages (Linda Miller, the daughter of Jackie Gleason and the mother of Jason Patric) visiting Father Tom with her two daughters, nine-year-old Karen (Shields) and twelve-year-old Alice (the astounding Paula Sheppard), who are students of St. Michael’s Parish Girls’ School. Father Tom gives Karen his mother’s crucifix as a gift for her first communion, making Alice jealous.

Alice is a wild child, her hair barely tied back, constantly in trouble for all manner of mischief. Is she a bad girl or just a misunderstood little girl dealing with the specter of her parents’ divorce in 1961, a time when this rarely happened and in a heavily Catholic neighborhood where this would surely be judged? Her antics include wearing a clear mask and repeatedly frightening and threatening her sister.

This all ends on the day of Karen’s first communion, when someone in the same school raincoat and mask as Alice kidnaps the young girl, strangles her, rips the crucifix from her neck and then sets her body on fire inside a church pew. This is insanely brutal and allows the viewer to know that this is not a movie prepared to take it easy on you.

At the same time, Alice enters the room and attempts to receive communion while wearing her sister’s veil. It’s never really established as to where she found it and whether or not she knew it belonged to her sister. There are no easy answers here.

Catherine’s ex-husband Dominick (Niles McMaster, Bloodsucking Freaks) comes back for the funeral and fulfills the giallo role of stranger pushed into becoming the detective. Furthering the giallo narrative, the ineffective Detective Spina takes over the case, pursuing the lead that Alice is the killer thanks to the suspicions of Catherine’s sister Annie. This lead seems even more obvious after the killer attacks Annie and Alice is found at the scene, wearing the same clothes.

Alice is sent to a psychiatric institution where it’s revealed that she’s been in trouble numerous times in school, a fact that Father Tom has concealed as he believed he could solve her problems.

The killer tightens her noose around Alice’s neck by luring her father to an abandoned building where she gets the jump on him, beating him with a brick, binding his body and pushing him off a ledge. Before he dies, he’s able to swallow the crucifix that the killer had stolen from his daughter. That’s also when we learn who the killer is, way before the film is over: it’s Tredoni, who sees Dominick and Catherine — and by extension their children — as sinners due to their premarital sex and divorce.

Alice may have been eliminated as a person of interest, but the danger remains. On a visit to Father Tom, Catherine learns that Tredoni lost a daughter on the day of her first communion, which taught her that children pay for the sins of their parents. In her grief, she gave herself over to the church. Her feelings about her calling are confirmed when Father Tom misunderstands her confession.

Finally, Alice’s scheme to leave cockroaches all over frightening landlord Mr. Alphonso neatly ties into Tredoni sneaking in to kill either her, Catherine or both of them. Alphonso is stabbed and the mad older woman runs to the church. Father Todd assures the police he can handle her, but even his mercy and the teachings of the church fail in the face of mania.

The end of this movie shocked me out of my theater seat. It’s visceral in its intensity and the end — where Alice walks away — is even more harrowing.

It’s rare to find a movie that completely destroys an audience. Alice, Sweet Alice did that when it played here to a full house as part of a Drive-In Asylum night of movies.

In these post-#metoo times, Alice takes on a whole new light. Nearly every male in the movie treats her blossoming womanhood as an invitation, from the lie detector operator who says that when he bound her breasts with the machine it looked like she wanted it to the guard at the children’s home who silently watches her as she meets with her parents. Perhaps even more disquieting is that Sheppard was 19 when this was made. Her only other film appearance is in the equally bizarre Liquid Sky, which is a shame, as she was incredible in both of these equally strange movies.

Alphonso DeNoble, who plays the grotesque Mr. Alphonso, also appeared in Bloodsucking Freaks. While his main career was a bouncer at a gay bar, as his side hustle Alphonso would dress up as a priest and hang around cemeteries, where widows would ask for a blessing and he’d indulge them for a monetary donation.

This film truly lives up to the ninth Satanic Statement: Satan has been the best friend the Church has ever had, as He has kept it in business all these years! And the Satanic Sin of Herd Mentality is obvious. To quote from the actual Chruch, “…only fools follow along with the herd, letting an impersonal entity dictate to you.”

Also, Alice posits that even the pre-Vatican II Catholic Church of 1961 was finding itself ill-equipped to understand the modern world and that people — from the old like Tredoni to the young like Alice — would suffer. Mostly, in the Church, it’s women that do most of that suffering, constantly propping up the male members yet never able to ascend to the power of the clergy, unless they want to be second best sisters.

Even 43 years after its debut, Alice Sweet Alice has the power to destroy. It’s a near perfect film that demands introspection and multiple viewings.

BONUS CONTENT:

For an even better look at this film, Bill Van Ryn of Groovy Doom and the horror and exploitation fanzine DRIVE-IN ASYLUM wrote this article for us last year.

We also had the opportunity to discuss this film with Alfred Sole’s cousin — and the maker of the astounding Desecration — Dante Tomaselli.

UPDATE: Arrow Video has released an absolutely perfect blu ray of this movie, featuring a new 2K restoration of the theatrical version from the original camera negative.

It also features brand new audio commentary with Richard Harland Smith and the commentary from the previous DVD release from co-writer/director Alfred Sole and editor Edward Salier.

Arrow puts so much effort into every release and it really shows here. There’s a feature called First Communion: Alfred Sole Remembers Alice, Sweet Alice that has plenty of memories from Sole on his career and this film. Plus, there’s a new interview with McMaster, a tour of the film’s shooting locations with author Michael Gingold and an interview with Dante Tomaselli.

If that’s not enough, Arrow has also included alternate opening titles, a deleted scene and the Holy Terror TV cut of the film. Go out of your way to buy this release.

Interview with Dante Tomaselli (UPDATED)

Posted on by

Dante Tomaselli is a screenwriter, director, and score composer behind the films Desecration, Horror, Satan’s Playground and Torture Chamber. The evils of advertising have brought us into contact with one another as we’ve discussed the lost power of poster art, particularly when it comes to the artwork for the film Prophecy.

I’m excited to get the chance to share this conversation with our site readers, as Dante was born in Paterson, New Jersey, the shooting location of Alice, Sweet Alice and more to the point, he’s the cousin of director Alfred Sole. Currently, he’s working on a remake of the film along with another feature, The Doll.

B&S ABOUT MOVIES: This week, we’re covering many of the movies on the Church of Satan’s film list. I was wondering if you had any thoughts:

DANTE TOMASELLI: Visually, I would say The Masque of the Red Death is one of my favorite horror films.  It’s not very suspenseful but the cinematography by Nicolas Roeg and those eye-popping Daniel Haller sets are to-die-for. The movie glows and has the unearthly feel of the supernatural with its macabre and surreal visuals.  Corman is at the top of his game. It’s as if The Masque of the Red Death and The Pit and the Pendulum were directed by Poe himself. Vincent Price was born to portray sadistic characters and I just love him as the Devil-worshipping Prince Prospero. Dripping with evil, Price delivers a multi-layered Oscar-worthy performance.  The colors bathing the interiors of the film’s castle are pure 60’s psychedelia.  Filmmakers just don’t make stylish gothic horror films like this anymore.

Dante with Alfred on set.

B&S: Obviously, Alice, Sweet Alice is near and dear to your heart. It’s the final movie we’ll cover. I just saw it in a crowded theater and the end disquieted an entire crowd. Why do you think the movie still retains such power?

DT: Well, first off I just witnessed exclusive clips of the upcoming Arrow Blu-ray release of Alice, Sweet Alice and you will be blown away. I am floored by the quality of the print. It looks gorgeous, luscious, painterly, brand new…better than ever!  The movie is lovingly preserved by Arrow Video.  Michael Gingold and Glen Baisley created the featurettes and in one of them they brought their cameras to my home studio in south New Jersey and interviewed me.  I spoke about my love and passion for the film and how proud I am of my cousin, Alfred Sole. I think the film retains such power because it’s genuinely enigmatic. In this age of McDonalds movies where everything looks the same with the computer generated imagery and sounds the same with the exact sound design and scores…There’s a sameness to almost everything these days. It’s numbing. People are slaves…drones to their cell phones. I walk through Manhattan and almost everyone is looking down at their little boxes. I get into the bus at Port Authority and everyone is looking down at their boxes. I sometimes do it too of course and I don’t want to be this way. When I walk through the streets of Manhattan I often get a chill as I pass by a crowded area. I feel as if at any second I might explode. There have been major terrorist attacks in NYC and time after time I seem to miss each one by the skin of my teeth. I feel the Grim Reaper moving closer and closer.

But getting back…You will love this new Arrow preservation. What a treat!  And the featurettes. Alice, Sweet Alice fans have a present coming to them. It is hands down, the ultimate presentation of Communion also known as Alice, Sweet Alice. And what I was leading up to…

I do think the film retains its power because there’s a real mystery to Alice, Sweet Alice, an aura of mysteriousness, and that’s a rare thing, especially in these times where every horror film that you see advertised on TV has the same visuals and the same exact sounds!

Alice, Sweet Alice is ferociously unique and marches to the beat of its own drummer in every way. It remains a landmark independent horror film and I’m so proud of my cousin, Alfred, who worked miracles with his $340, 000 budget. The eerie mask is unforgettable and we are talking about the possibility of releasing official Alice, Sweet Alice Halloween masks.

B&S: Are you still in the works of remaking the film?

DT: Yes, definitely,  I won’t talk about it anymore until I’m literally on the set but, yes. Michael Gingold is co-writer of the remake screenplay and we think we have something very frightening in store for horror fans, almost like a Giallo.  It’s just a matter of funding and it could happen at any time.  No one should ever dismiss me in mounting an independent film…I am nothing if not tenacious.

For now I’m focusing on my next film, which will be my fifth feature, The Doll.  It’s also a project co-written by Michael Gingold, who brings a lot to the table. The Doll concerns a haunting at a family owned wax museum in Salem. I’m getting closer to the film’s actual production.

Desecration, my first film was recently re-released on Blu-ray by Code Red and Kino Lorber (available at Diabolik DVD). I just finished my fifth dark electronic album called, Out-of-Body Experience. It will be released digitally and on CD in a few months and I’ve been encouraged by the feedback in the horror world on all my instrumental  albums…Scream in the Dark, The Doll, Nightmare...Witches.

For example, Mark R. Hasan at Rue Morgue always analyses the music and surprisingly my last album, Witches was even nominated for Rue Morgue 2017 album of the year. I create these strange sound sculptures in my home studio.

Lately, I find myself really drawn to the music side of things. In fact that’s what I’ve been doing exclusively since 2012. It’s time now, though to get back into creating hallucinatory horror pictures. I’m painfully pregnant with The Doll. It’s clawing at my insides.

Check out Dante’s site, Enter the Torture Chamber.

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Posted on by

Harry Powers was born in the Netherlands but made his way to America in 1910 before settling in West Virginia in 1926. A year later, he met and married farm and feed store owner Luella Strother through a lonely hearts ad. But he didn’t stop running those ads, as he got ten to twenty replies to his lovelorn classified ads a day.

Police would later discover the bodies of several people who replied to his ads, like Asta Eicher, her three children and Dorothy Lemke.  A mob tried to kill him and had to be dispensed with fire hoses and tear gas. After a trial so large that it needed to be held in an opera house to contain all the spectators, he was hung. His story inspired both the book and the movie The Night of the Hunter.

In 1930’s West Virginia. Reverend Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum, who is the only person who really could have played this role) is fleeing the scene of his latest murder. He’s a self-anointed man of the cloth who preaches along the dirt roads and small towns, a man who is both attracted to and hateful toward women. On his right hand is the word LOVE and HATE on the left, symbols for his ready-made sermons.

“Ah, little lad, you’re staring at my fingers. Would you like me to tell you the little story of right-hand/left-hand? The story of good and evil? H-A-T-E! It was with this left hand that old brother Cain struck the blow that laid his brother low. L-O-V-E! You see these fingers, dear hearts? These fingers has veins that run straight to the soul of man. The right hand, friends, the hand of love. Now watch, and I’ll show you the story of life. Those fingers, dear hearts, is always a-warring and a-tugging, one agin t’other. Now watch ’em! Old brother left hand, left hand he’s a fighting, and it looks like love’s a goner. But wait a minute! Hot dog, love’s a winning! Yessirree! It’s love that’s won, and old left hand hate is down for the count!”

Finally, in one small town, Powell for driving a stolen car while he watches a burlesque dancer, muttering to himself, “There’s too many of them. I can’t kill the world.”

Meanwhile, Ben Harper kills two men in a bank robbery and races home to hide the money inside his daughter’s doll. He promises his two children, John and Pearl, to keep it a secret. His son is shocked by how the police treat his father, beating him into the ground.

Ben and Reverend Harry share a jail cell, where the evil preacher tries to discover the location of the money. He gets just enough info on Ben’s family before he is free. Ben isn’t that lucky as he’s executed for his crimes.

Powell then appears in town to both woo and marry Harper’s widow, Willa (Shelley Winters). He charms all the other townsfolk except for John, who promised his father he’d never reveal where the money is.

Instead of consummating his marriage to Willa, Powell tries to get her to be part of his preaching. However, she learns that he’s looking for the money and he stabs and kills her, dumping her body in the river while telling everyone that she left him for a life of sin with a drummer.

Willa’s drowned body is discovered by Birdie Steptoe, an elderly drunk who is sort of an uncle to John. He fears the town will blame him for her death, so he tells no one. Powell starts to hunt the children and they flee in a raft down the river, only stopped for a moment to sleep in a barn. The shadow of the preacher and his singing reaches them and John exclaims, “Doesn’t he ever sleep?”

By this point, the film has become a German expressionist stage play looking fairy tale. The children escape to the home of kindly Rachel Cooper (Lillian Gish, the First Lady of American Cinema), a hard as nails old woman who is one of the few purely good people in this entire film. She protects and raises orphans, keeping the kids safe from Powell even when he tries to seduce the oldest, Ruby.

After an all-night standoff, the old woman shoots and wounds the preacher, who hides in the barn until the police arrest him. As they take him to jail, it reminds John of the night his father was arrested. He beats the man with his sister’s doll, screaming that he can keep the money.

At the trial, even the preacher’s staunchest defenders, like Icey Spoon (Evelyn Varden, The Bad Seed) become screaming drunks seeking his doom. A lynch mob has gathered while the executioner smiles at him, saying that he’ll see him soon.

Meanwhile, our children have gathered for Christmas, finally safe. It echoes the dreamlike beginning of the film, which again seems to be part of a fairy tale.

This was the only film directed by actor Charles Laughton and at the time of its original release, it was considered a critical and box-office failure. Laughton never directed another film.

Robert Mitchum was very eager for the part of the preacher. When he auditioned, he impressed Laughton when he said that he was looking for the character to be “a diabolical shit.” Mitchum promptly answered, “Present!” Mitchum later remarked that Laughton was his favorite director and that this was his favorite of the films he acted in.

While Laughton proclaimed Mitchum to be different from his public image — “All this tough talk is a blind, you know. He’s a literate, gracious, kind man, with wonderful manners, and he speaks beautifully–when he wants to. He’s a tender man and a very great gentleman. You know, he’s really terribly shy.” — on set, once producer Paul Gregory told the star that he was too drunk to be acting, he opened the door to Gregory’s Cadillac and pissed all over the front seat.

To Gregory, Mitchum pretty much was the character he was portraying: “He was a charmer. An evil son of a bitch with a lot of charm. Mitch sort of scared me, to tell you the truth. I was always on guard. He was often in a state, and you never knew what he would do next.”

The Boy with the Green Hair (1948)

Posted on by

Peter Fry is a runaway who was found with his head shaved and no parents before he goes to live with a retired actor named Gramps. It isn’t until he begins helping his class raise money for war orphans that he realizes that he too is one of them. When he wakes up the next morning, his hair is green. And that’s where the story really begins.

Suddenly, when Peter is in the woods, the orphaned children he’s only seen on posters appear to him and explain how he can make a difference, telling the world how much damage war does to children.

The townsfolk just can’t deal with Peter’s hair. They beg Gramps to cut it. A gang of boys chased him down and try to take it. So finally, a barber shaves his head and he runs away from home. Gramps finds him and tells him that there are adults who will accept what he has to say. His hair will grow in and his message will continue.

Joseph Losey, the film’s director, had to battle the politically conservative Howard Hughes — who had taken over RKO — to keep his vision. Both he and writer Ben Barzman would be blacklisted afterward. Hughes even brought 12-year-old star Dean Stockwell into his office and asked that when the orphans spoke of the horrors of war, he was to respond, “And that’s why America has gotta have the biggest army, and the biggest navy, and the biggest air force in the world!” Despite Hughes screaming at him, Stockwell refused.

Stockwell and Russ Tamblyn became lifelong friends after making this movie together, which led to Stockwell later introducing his buddy to David Lynch, who cast him in Twin Peaks.

I feel that Peter suffers from the Satanic sin of lack of perspective for some time. “You must never lose sight of who and what you are, and what a threat you can be, by your very existence. We are making history right now, every day.” By the end of the film, he remembers the final part: “Do not be swayed by herd constraints—know that you are working on another level entirely from the rest of the world.”

The 95 films on the Church of Satan film list

Posted on by

Originally compiled for Blanche Barton’s The Church of Satan — as approved by Magus Anton Szandor LaVey —  the Church of Satan’s recommended film list is made up of films that LaVey enjoyed or felt exemplified Satanism.

As Magus Peter H. Gilmore, High Priest of the Church of Satan, explained to our site earlier his week, the Church has no official position on various artforms, since the basis of the Church’s philosophy is individualism. This allows members to have their own personal lists as well as reasons why they feel these movies are on the film list.

We’ve been covering several of these films this week, but the list format allows us to share films that we’ve also covered in the past here on our site.

1. The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971): The first of two of the Dr. Phibes films, this revenge feature not only boasts Vincent Price as a Satanic superhero, but also an opening of musical numbers and clockwork androids with the main character not saying a word until nearly half an hour into the movie.

2. Alice, Sweet Alice (1976): This Americanized giallo offers a disturbing look at the dark roads that faith and herd mentality will lead believers down, as well as the way adults perceive children to be monsters.

3. All The King’s Men (1949): This thinly disguised take on the life of Huey Long was originally going to star John Wayne, who claimed that the script was unpatriotic and indignantly refused the part. Broderick Crawford took over and won the 1949 Academy Award for Best Actor, beating out Wayne in Sands of Iwo Jima.

4. The Asphalt Jungle (1950): Regardless of where you stand on the veracity of Anton LaVey’s relationship with Marilyn Monroe, she formed what he saw as the Satanic ideal of what a woman should look like. This is a bleak film where everyone is corrupt and everyone is doomed.

5. Bedazzled (1967): This retelling of the Faust legend by comedy team Dudley Moore and Peter Cooke concerns the Devil offering a young man seven wishes for his soul, but twisting each wish to frustrate the young man’s hopes. I wonder how many people were confused by the ending, where said devil tries to do the right thing only to be rebuked by God?

6. The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933): This pre-Code Frank Capra film is one of the first Hollywood films to deal with interracial love. While the novel that it is based upon concerns a philosophical battle between a Western woman’s Judeo-Christian worldview and an Eastern leader’s elegant, educated, wise and unsentimental philosophy, the film is more about a sheltered white woman succumbing to the wild, sensual nature of an exotic Asian man.

7. The Black Cat (1934): The first of eight movies that would team up Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff — one of the first movies with an almost continuous music score — this take on the Edgar Allan Poe story offers Karloff as an Aleister Crowley analog packs necrophilia, drugs, torture, human sacrifices and a Black Mass into its 69-minute run time. 

8. Black Zoo (1963): Michael Gough plays a cult leader who controls a lion, a lioness, a pair of cheetahs, a tiger, and a black panther; as well as a gorilla, all with the power of organ music. If you don’t see why Anton LaVey loved this movie, you aren’t paying attention.

9. Blade Runner (1982): A failure in its initial release, this Philip K. Dick adaption infuses the spirit of film noir into a dismal future where it never stops raining, corruption runs rampant and 1940s glamour can appear at the same time as Japanese style dominates future society. For those who dream of androids being part of our daily lives, Blade Runner casts them as both hero and villain, all while giving no easy answers even to its hero’s true identity.

10. Blue Velvet (1986): In this modern film noir, David Lynch rips the lid off of the safety of the small American town and shows the simmering menace and sexual depravity locked behind its white picket fences.

11. The Boy with the Green Hair (1948): A young boy uses his hair and individuality to protest war, which adults just can’t deal with in this stirring tale of facing off against herd conformity.

12. The Brotherhood of Satan (1971): Woe be to anyone who come against the children and old people of this remote Southwestern town which doesn’t take well to outsiders!

13. The Cabinet of Dr. Caliguri (1920): Written by two pacifists who were distrustful of the herd mentality and near mind control they had encountered during World War One, this German Expressionist film is considered one of the first true horror movies.

14. The Car (1977): Any movie that starts with a quote from LaVey — “Oh great brothers of the night, who rideth out upon the hot winds of hell, who dwelleth in the devil’s lair; move and appear!” — features him as a technical consultant and has a car similar to the one he drove (a 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III) is obviously going to be on this list. It’s also a great popcorn film.

15. Carnival of Souls (1962): Appearing before Night of the Living Dead and while America was still in the Camelot days of JFK, this blast of weirdness out of Salt Lake City and Lawrence, Kansas presents the foul underbelly of the bright and colorful ideal world that post-World War II America was cherishing. It’s also marked by sinister organ themes and the idea that the idyllic boardwalk can also be a place of extreme menace.

16. Citizen Kane (1940): You may have noticed by now that so many of the films on this list began their lives as failures, movies destined to be lost and forgotten, that had somehow retained their power and found an entirely new cult ready to triumph their virtues. As LaVey once said of music, “The word ‘occult’ simply means hidden or secret,” he says. “Go to the record store, to the corner where no one else is, where everything is dusty and nobody ever goes. Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” is mystical music, dramatic, Gothic, satanically programmed music. But it’s not occult music. “Yes, We Have No Bananas” would be an occult tune.

“It’s occult because when you put that record on the turntable, it’s a lead-pipe cinch that there is not another person in the entire world who is listening to that record at that time. If there’s anything, any frequency, any power that exists anywhere in this cosmos, in this universe, you’re gonna stand out like a beacon! It truly makes you elite.”

Citizen Kane may be well-known by now, but it was lost for years and the fact of why and how that happened lend it considerable occult power. It’s also no accident that Joseph Cotten ends up in so many movies on this list.

17. Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982): Following the failure of Popeye, Robert Altman created this ode to the past that’s also an exploration of how women must suppress their emotions, personalities and sexuality to be part of the male-dominated world instead of giving in to their true carnal nature. It’s also about the power of myth and how movie stars can transcend our reality.

18. The Comic (1969): Based on the lives of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd — as well as the influence of star Dick Van Dyke finally kicking alcoholism — this tale of a silent comedian starts at his funeral and moves backward to show us how a man unable to see his own faults and blaming others for his problems squanders his promise. Those without the understanding of the dangers of solipsism would do well to watch this.

19. Crawlspace (1986): The Church of Satan site lists this Klaus Kinski film — where he plays Karl Guenther, the insane progeny of a Nazi doctor who traps and kills women — after living within their walls — as the film that Crawlspace should be. I’m wondering if they may also mean the following film:

19 (and a half). Crawlspace (1972): In this made-for-TV movie, a kindly elderly couple continue to nurture and support a man that they want to become their son, despite him being a troubled adult. This is one of the darkest films I’ve ever seen and quite the lesson on your happiness relying too much on others.

20. The Dr. Mabuse films: Starting with Fritz Lang’s silent film Dr. Mabuse the Gambler, this series of films follows the adventures of the insane title character, a master of disguise, telepathic hypnosis and body transference, almost like demonic possession, who seeks to build a society of crime. By the end of the series of books, Mabuse isn’t even a person but instead seen as a spirit that continues to possess and take over others to achieve its wicked aims. The Satanic Film List pick is The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, but I feel that any of the films look pretty interesting. Land would even make a sequel — The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse — 38 years later that would anticipate the James Bond spy trend.

21. The Criminal Life of Archibaldo Delacruz (1955): Luis Buñuel would influence directors as diverse as Jodorowsky and Fulci. Here, he tells the story of wanna-be serial killer who makes elaborate murder plans yet never kills a soul. It’s been compared to Hitchcock’s Vertigo, another film about obsessive sexual desire.

22. Curse of the Demon (1957): Even without the demon effect in this film — one that caused a rift between its creators — this movie would remain just as frightening today as it was 62 years ago.

23. Dead of Night (1945): This British film is the father of all portmanteau films.  Interestingly, the film influenced the theories of astrophysicists Fred Hoyle, Herman Bondi, and Thomas Gold. Gold asked the group, “What if the universe is like that?” meaning that the universe could be eternally circling on itself without beginning or end, much like the finale of this movie. Unable to get past this question, they started to think seriously of an unchanging universe, which they eventually termed the steady state universe.

The Film List doesn’t explain if LaVey meant this film or the 1977 made-for-TV movie Dead of Night, which concerns time travel, vampires and a woman wishing her son back to life and instantly regretting it. That last story is positively bone chilling.

24. Death Wish (1974): No movie has ever represented this Satanic statement better: Satan represents vengeance instead of turning the other cheek! Charles Bronson goes from pacifist to brutal executor when his family is torn apart by crime. We did an entire week of these films, which are each worth watching for different reasons.

25. The Doll (1962): A lonely night watchman falls in love with a mannequin, eventually bringing her home where she comes to life. Consider this the much darker side of 1980’s froth like Mannequin and Mannequin 2: Mannequin on the Move, but also a tie to LaVey’s frequent writing about android companions.

26. A Double Life (1947): This film noir is all about an actor who becomes overly obsessed with his roles, as well as an exploration of deadly mirror images.  The lead character feels that he has to live the jealousy and rage of Othello in order to make his acting more successful in the ultimate Method role.

27. Duel in the Sun (1946): David O. Selznick thought that this film would surpass the success of his Gone with the Wind, but thanks to its highly controversial sexual content (not to mention Selznick and star Jennifer Jones leaving their spouses for one another) it didn’t reach those lofty ambitions.

28. Evilspeak (1981): Everyone at a Catholic school abuses Clint Howard until he can stand no more. This is the best version of Carrie that I’ve ever seen, one that puts you squarely on the side of the devil as everyone else is somehow more sinister than the First of the Fallen.

29. Fantasia (1940): Before Disney began churning out sequels, they prided themselves on innovation. The third animated film made by the studio, this was actually a traveling road show that used Fantasound, a pioneering sound reproduction system that made this the first commercial film with stereophonic sound. Much like many films on this list, this was deemed a commercial failure at first but is now seen as an incredible success. At one point, Walt Disney wanted to add new stories every few months so that each viewing would be different. If all this movie contained was the “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence, it’d be enough, but it is so much more.

30. The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953): The only movie created by Dr. Seuss, who later called it a “debaculous fiasco” and lamented that “Hollywood is not suited for me and I am not suited for it.” In truth, no one was ready for this film when it was made, a tale of a Svengali who uses 500 boys to play one piano in a space age dream world that Seuss intended to “themes of world dominance and oppression coming out of World War II.”

31. The Flaming Urge (1953): A young man tries to follow the American dream, yet he has an urge to follow and watch fires. When fires happen in his small town, everyone suspects him.

32. Freaks (1932): This film was considered so shocking upon release that 26 minutes of it were cut and never recovered. What remains is the tale of the sideshow and how it protects its own. Essentially ending the career of Tod Browning (Dracula), it’s the only film that MGM pulled before it finished playing in most theaters and it didn’t play the UK until the mid-1960’s. In 1947, MGM sold the rights to the film to exploitation director and producer Dwain Esper, who toured the film along with several of its stars.

33. The Gangster (1947): Also known as Low Company, this film noir was savaged by critics, who claimed it was too arty for its own good. It tells the tale of Shubunka, a gangster in it all for himself until it becomes too late for anyone to save him. LaVey said that, “To me, film noir is epitomized in a film like The Gangster. It’s almost like a surreal stage set; the angles are so disquieting and the whole feeling is so oppressive and claustrophobic.” He also named Shubunka as one of the top ten Satanic screen portrayals in 1981’s Book of Movie Lists.

34. Gizmo! (1977): The Film List doesn’t expand on what this film is, but I believe that it’s the second film by Marjoe director Howard Smith, which details strange inventions and attempts at flight.

35. The Great Flamarion (1945): After numerous clashes with studio bosses, Erich von Stroheim was forced out of directing and became a notable character actor. As a director, Stroheim was considered a dictator, antagonizing his talent while delivering cynical views of human nature. As an actor, he was often a horror movie version of a German, doing things like tearing off women’s clothing with his teeth and throwing babies out windows when they annoy him. In this film noir, he plays a misogynistic trickshot artist coerced into murder.

36. The Great Gabbo (1929): Another film starring Stroheim, this film follows a ventriloquist who gradually loses touch with reality and eventually can only communicate through his dummy, Otto.

37. Hans Christian Anderson (1952): This Danny Kaye film isn’t really a biography of the famous Danish teller of fairy tales, but more of a fairy tail in and out of itself where the author creates a world of fantasy and imagination for children to the consternation of adults.

38. Hell on Frisco Bay (1955): This film noir is about a cop unjustly convicted of manslaughter and how he attempts to figure out life when he’s released. Edward G. Robinson plays the mob boss who tells Paul Stewart’s character that his jailhouse pleas were a waste of time: “Those guards told me how you used to pray every night. Get down on your knees like you were in church. Why’d you do it? So you wasted it, praying to the wrong people. You just keep praying to Vic Amato. Things will keep working out.”

39. I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932): Based on a true story, this Paul Muni-starring pre-Code movie is all about a man who becomes restless after World War I and accidentally gets caught up in a robbery. Sentenced to ten years on a chain gang, he escapes and is forced into a loveless marriage to stay free. At the end of the film, he falls into the shadows as he disappears from life, telling his true love that he will steal to remain free.

40. I Bury the Living (1958): A newly hired committee chair learns that with the push of a black or white pin, he begins to have control over life and death. Or does he? This was directed by Albert Band, the father of Charles, and is a favorite of Stephen King, who has praised the film’s darkness while criticizing its happy ending.

41. Inherit the Wind (1960): A fictionalized parable that uses the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial to try and make sense of the strange atmosphere of America during the McCarthy era, this movie also challenges Creationism. Writer Jerome Lawrence said of the movie, “We used the teaching of evolution as a parable, a metaphor for any kind of mind control. It’s not about science versus religion. It’s about the right to think.”

42. Island of Lost Souls (1932): Another pre-Code feature, this take on H.G. Welles’ The Island of Dr. Moreau features an island of human-animal hybrids, Bela Lugosi as the beast-like Sayer of the Law and Kathleen Burke as the sensual Lota the Panther Woman. By the end of the film, The beast-men realize that once Moreau breaks the laws he imposes on them, they are no longer feel bound by said laws, defying their master when he yells, “What is the law?” They respond triumphantly, “Law is no more!”

42. It’s Alive! (1974): In this Larry Cohen film, Frank and Lenore Davis must decide whether they can love their bestial and murderous child. The film’s trailer contains an image of a baby bassinet and music that turns ominous as we grow closer, a Satanic inversion of the innocence of childhood.

43. Key Largo (1948): The fourth and final screen pairing of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, this tale of stolen valor features another strong performance by Edward G. Robinson as mob boss Johnny Rocco. In Blanche Barton’s biography of LaVey, he speaks at length about Robinson’s role: “Very self-centered, refusing-to-go-under hoodlum and totally hedonistic…sadistic, brutal, and at the same time very Satanic, but at the end pathetic.”

LaVey was so taken by Robinson’s character in this film that he would borrow lines from its dialogue in conversation. He expanded on his thoughts on the film by saying, “All through the film, the only interesting characters are the villains! Bogart and Becall are used merely as one-dimensional, cardboard good guys, playing straight men for the gangsters’ Satanic one-liners.”

44. Kiss Me Deadly (1955): This film noir is based on a Mickey Spillane novel and was called “a film designed to ruin young viewers” by the United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce. Savage detective Mike Hammer investigates a hitchhiker’s murder, which leads him into a web of deceit and exploration of modern society’s descent into barbaric behavior, ending in nuclear fire and a return of man to the sea.

45. Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (1950): James Cagney takes what started in the film White Heat and pushes it further into the realm of film noir, as he deals with corrupt cops and two women out to manipulate everything and everyone in their path. If you’ve ever seen Messiah of Evil, this is the film that’s on the marquee of the theater that the doomed Toni attends.

46. Koyaanisqatsi – Life Out of Balance (1982): Starting in 1972, Godfrey Reggio and the Institute for Regional Education (IRE) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) worked together to create an ad campaign to call attention to the invasion of privacy and the use of technology to control behavior. With only $40,000 left in the budge after this effort, Reggio used the rest to produce this film which illustrates life in turmoil thanks to technology. Or perhaps not, as Reggio stated that the films that make up the Qatsi series are intended to create an experience and that “it’s up to the viewer to take for himself/herself what it is that they mean.”

47. The 47. Leopard Man (1943): The second film on this list from Jacques Tourneur, this is considered the first movie to depict a serial killer. One assumes that LaVey loved the idea of this film — a leopard is hired to promote a night club dancer but is unleashed and used as a murder weapon.

48. M (1931 and 1951): Directed by Fritz Lang and Joseph Losey, these two films both tell the story of a serial killer of children, which was Peter Lorre’s first starring role. Before this movie, he was considered a comic actor. After, he’d flee the Nazis and become a star in America. The location would be moved to Los Angeles in the remake with David Wayne playing the same character.

49. Marjoe (1972): This indictment of the way that religion uses its worshippers remains as brutally frank as it was nearly fifty years ago. It still amazes me how much access the filmmakers enjoyed as they created this.

50. The Masque of the Red Death (1964): LaVey said that this is “an evocative film with some wonderfully Satanic dialogue that Vincent Price delivers as only he can.” This Roger Corman film, aided by Nicholas Roeg, is a colorful marvel and quite a parable about relying on anyone but yourself.

51. Metropolis (1927): This Fritz Lang film has the subtitle “The Mediator Between the Head and the Hands Must Be the Heart.” The Nazi Party loved this film, which led to Lang showing distaste for it later. I found this Roger Ebert quote telling: “Metropolis is one of the great achievements of the silent era, a work so audacious in its vision and so angry in its message that it is, if anything, more powerful today than when it was made.”

52. The Most Dangerous Game (1932): Shot at night on the same sets as King Kong with two of the same actors (Fay Wray and Robert Armstrong), this film posits that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who hunt and those who are hunted. Several quotes from this movie ended up in the letters of the enigmatic Zodiac Killer.

53. Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell (1951): Before Lynn Belvedere became a TV character, the character starred in three movies. This is the final one in the series, here Belvedere sneaks into an old folks home and changes everyone’s lives, even those whose religious views don’t permit them to see that the man is correct.

54. Murder, Inc. (1960): In Peter Falk’s first starring role, he somehow transforms from a quiet man to black menace, using an icepick to decimate a man.

55. The Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948): Another Edward G. Robinson film noir, in which he plays “The Mental Wizard” John Triton, a nightclub fortune teller who suddenly learns that he really has psychic abilities, yet all of his relentlessly bleak predictions always come true. LaVey said that Robinson “exuded the diabolical perhaps better than any other actor” and that “most of his roles had Satanic overtones.”

56. The Night of the Generals (1967): Omar Sharif stars as a German intelligence officer who sets out which of three generals killed a prostitute, a case that extends two decades and long past his demise.

57. The Night of the Hunter (1955): Cahiers du Cinéma selected this film as the number two film of all time behind Citizen Kane. It’s the story of a preacher turned serial killer with love on one hand and hate on the other, a role that is not only played by lived by Robert Mitchum. Shot in the style of German Expressionism, this was a movie whose critics at the time of its release simply weren’t ready for it. Notice a trend?

58. Night Tide (1961): Welcome to a world where mermaids could be real, where sailors are taken to their doom and the Whore of Babylon can be an actress. Again, the boardwalk’s bright lines descend into utter blackness.

59. Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922):  This German Expressionist horror film — directed by F. W. Murnau and starring Max Schreck as the vampire Count Orlok — is an unauthorized ripoff of Dracula. No matter — it remains one of the most horrific films ever committed to celluloid.

60. Pennies from Heaven (1981): Audiences came to this expecting the Steve Martin they knew and loved from stand-up comedy and The Jerk. Instead, they got a movie about the deep longings of the 1930s, filled with musical numbers from that era. Martin said of the film, “I must say that the people who get the movie, in general, have been wise and intelligent; the people who don’t get it are ignorant scum.” LaVey said of the film that “the sets and the characters were 100% authentic.”

On the Sinister Screen, Miles Jaconsen says, “It is the anti-musical. Instead of providing its audience with an escape from dreary circumstances, it uses music to elucidate the dreary circumstances, and the music is all the more evocative due to its purpose. It draws upon 70s-style cynicism and dovetails it with 30s-style cinema. The characters are constantly trying to escape their miseries, and use song and dance to express this. We, the audience members, are shown just how inept they are at affecting positive change in their lives. When the film does offer dreamy, comfortable illusions, as all musicals do, it is not long before they are shown to be preludes to sorrow.”

61. The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977): This Larry Cohen film is a dark vision of American politics and the FBI director who deals with the Red Scare of the 1950s, the Kennedys and social change of the 1960’s and Nixon in the 1970’s, along with a closeted sex life and an obsession over his dead mother.

62. Private Parts (1972): In the dark corners of Los Angeles, a squalid hotel hosts all manner of depravity and perhaps the most normal person keeps a doll that he injects with blood as a companion. Paul Bartel essays a film that was so upsetting, some newspapers wouldn’t even print its title.

63. The Puritan (1938): A religious fanatic must justify and rationalize the murder of a girl he’d fallen in love with, all while the police wait for the moment that his faith breaks.

64. Radio Days (1987): This Woody Allen film is all about the bittersweet nostalgia for a past that can never return — the days when radio stars entered daily lives and engaged their audience’s imagination. It has been reported that Stanley Kubrick loved the film so much that he watched it twice in two days, comparing it to a home movie of his life.

65. Roman Scandals (1933): Eddie Cantor plays a boy who dreams of the days of Ancient Rome, a time free from the scandals and corruption of his small town. Imagine his surprise when he’s transported back in time and learns that it was the same back then!

66. Rosemary’s Baby (1968):  Pray for Rosemary’s Baby screamed the buttons and headlines. Perhaps no horror film — not even The Exorcist — has better played on the fears of society better. Paranoia, women’s liberation, religion, the occult — this one has it all. What it does not have — contrary to popular urban legend — is LaVey playing Satan.

67. The Ruling Class (1972): Peter O’Toole plays a paranoid schizophrenic British nobleman — the 14th Earl of Gurney — who believes that he’s Jesus Christ (which leads people to believe he’s insane) and Jack the Ripper (which peole easily embrace). LaVey said of the film, “This is an oddball film they tried to see as a comedy, but it’s really a tragedy with comedic undertones.” He also called it one of the all-time great Satanic films, ending with a blasphemous scene where O’Toole leads a gang of corpses in singing “Onward Christian Soldiers.”

68. Satanis – The Devil’s Mass (1970): Look, we’re never gonna get to go to the actual Black House any longer. This captured at the time documentary is as close as we’ll get, though. Essential viewing.

69. Scarface (1932): This Howard Hughes produced, Howard Hawks directed and Paul Muni starring film ran afoul of the censors, who demanded making alterations, feeling that it glorified being a gangster. They asked for the name to include the words The Shame of a Nation, a prologue that eliminated gangsters and that the original ending — where Antonio “Tony” Camonte dies in a hail of bullets near a sign that proclaims that “The World is Yours” — be used instead of the one where he turns himself in.

70. The Scoundrel (1935): Anthony Mallare (Noel Coward in his screen debut) is a heartless publisher devoted to ruining the lives of everyone he meets. When he dies in a plane crash, he must return to life and find one person who will mourn him or face eternal damnation. It turns out that the girlfriend of the author whose life he decimated is the only one able to save him.

71. Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964): A medium wishes to be famous and respected, so she has her husband kidnap the young daughter of a wealthy family so that she can later find the child for the police.

72. The Sea Wolf (1941): Edward G. Robinson stars as the domineering sea captain Wold Larsen, who nearly dooms every character in this film to a watery grave. LaVey spoke highly of this Jack London adaption, saying, “Wolf Larsen only degrades those who have already degraded themselves; he brutalizes only those who know only brutality; he preys upon those who deserve to be preyed upon.” He added, “My reaction to this film has paralleled my growing disdain for the human race over the years. When I first saw it, I thought, “The character of Larsen is too brutal.” The next time I saw the film a few years later, I could understand the brutality a bit more — it didn’t seem so extreme. Finally by the next viewing, I’d developed a real empathy for Wolf Larsen!”

73. Serial (1980): Martin Mull plays a man losing patience with the late 1970’s and early 80’s world of sex, cults and psychobabble. This movie failed to win audiences in theaters but found new life on cable.

74. The Seventh Victim (1943): This horror noir — in which a young woman discovers a cult of devil worshippers while looking for her missing sister — was derided by critics for having “narrative incoherence.” That’s because its director and editor removed four major scenes, including an extended ending of the film. Supposedly, writer DeWitt Bodeen, who also wrote The Curse of the Cat People, based this movie on his own experiences with a cosmetics company, an Italian restaurant and a Satanic secret society in New York City. The Dr. Judd character played by Tom Conway connects this movie to 1942’s Cat People, another film noted for its nihilism. That said, Dr. Judd died in that film, but there was a thought that people would connect this film to that success. There are also several homosexual undertones in the movie, particularly between the characters of Jacqueline and Frances.

75. Shadow of a Doubt (1943): This Alfred Hitchcock again features Joseph Cotten, here as Uncle Charlie, a man celebrated by his community while at the same time feared by the younger members of his family who know that he is a criminal.

76. Simon, King of the Witches (1971): A sorcerer who lives in a sewer sees through the hypocrisy of modern witchcraft and society as he continues his path of continually improving himself. Sure, it seems silly today, but most of the 1970’s do.

77. Simon of the Desert (1965): Simón has lived for 6 years, 6 weeks and 6 days atop an eight-meter pillar in the middle of the desert, praying for spiritual purification. Satan tempts him three times, first as an innocent girl, then as Jesus and finally as a woman who climbs up the pillar and takes Simón to a 1960’s nightclub where people dance the Watusi, trapping him forever. Oh those pesky Satanic witches, using their feminine wiles…

78. Smile (1975): The contestants and people involved with the Young American Miss Pageant are used to explore and skewer the veneer of darkness that always exists, boiling under the lid of a traditional American small town.

79. The Snowman (1933): The official list on the Church of Satan website points to the 1982 TV adaptation of the book, but I wonder if LaVey intended this 1933 short instead, where a young Eskimo and his cute animal friends build a snowman that becomes a Frankenstein’s Monster and attempts to kill them all?

80. Soylent Green (1973): There’s never been a more brutal or uncompromising look at the future ever filmed. Man’s inhumanity toward man has finally won out and all that’s left is to embrace death. This is the final role of Edward G. Robinson, who he died 12 days after filming ended.

81. Specter of the Rose (1946): A male ballet dancer hasn’t danced since his first wife died on stage with him to the haunting tune of “Le Spectre de la Rose.” Now a newly married man, he’s enticed to return once more to the stage.

82. Stardust Memories (1980): This Woody Allen film is about a filmmaker who attends a retrospective of his work, which leads him to remember the inspirations for the movies he’s made. The title is a reference to the Louis Armstrong song “Stardust” and the film is packed with jazz classics, as well as issues like religion, God, philosophy, existentialism, relationships, death and the meaning of life.

83. Strangers on a Train (1951): Hitchcock creates a dilemma for tennis player Guy Haines: he wants to get rid of his wife so that he can marry the woman he loves. When he meets Bruno Antony, a man who wants his mother dead, they agree to exchange murders. Bruno comes through, but can Tony? Prefiguring the giallo, this is a movie of duplicates and duplicity. Of the film, Magus Gilmore says, “Strangers on a Train examines justice gone awry wherein a fantasy of eliminating someone who has wronged you quickly becomes a nightmare when a sociopath enters into the equation — a warning to not pursue punishment beyond what suits the crime.”

84. The Stepford Wives (1975): A family moves from New York City to the suburbs and discovers a town where women are subservient to their men because they’re no longer human. Instead, they’re programmed to serve the needs of their husbands, in sharp contrast to women’s liberation. This film walks the line between the personification of android companions — a subject dear to LaVey’s heart — and the loss of identity and free will, one of the main worries of Satanism as it entered a new century.

85. Svengali (1931): With hypnotism and mind control, a sinister musician controls the voice — but ultimately not the heart — of a woman that he can ultimately never have. This movie crashes Hollywood glitz with German Expressionism together.

86. Tourist Trap (1979): LaVey said that the definition of a Satanic film can be anything from a classic to “obscure schlock,” as he categorized this film. Chuck Connors character has created a world all of his own, peopled by half-alive versions of people he’s taken, controlled by his mind — or perhaps not, the movie is never truly clear here. This is a strange and brutal film, even more so when you learn it’s rated PG.

87. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948): Magus Gilmore commented on this film, saying that it was “rather complex in realistically outlining human types, and ultimately, though the sought­-after gold — a pipe­ dream Satanism would caution against — is lost, the characters receive ends befitting their deeds.” Indeed, a movie where star Humphrey Bogart is murdered doesn’t seem to fit into the Hollywood ideal, but the Satanic.

88. Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964): All hail Herschell Gordon Lewis for inflicting the curse of gore on the world of cinema. In this one, he takes the fun of Brigadoon and shoves it through the lens of the carny exploitation director, where it emerges as the town of Pleasant Valley, which emerges every one hundred years to achieve bloody revenge on the North. Turns out that every member of the two — two thousand to the number — were wiped out by Union troops. It’s time for payback.

89. The Victors (1963): In war, there are no winners. This film shows how the victor and the vanquished are both the victims. There are no battles shown, but vignettes that illustrate small moments from the beginning, middle and end of the conflict. Unlike many World War II films of the time, typically of Hollywood interpretations of the Second World War at the time, American soldiers are shown to be shell shocked, tired of fighting and capable of casual cruelty toward anyone who gets in their way. There’s also an execution scene set to Frank Sinatra singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Star George Hamilton when speaking of the film, which was a box office bomb, said that it was too dark and foreshadowed the darkness of the 60’s that was yet to come.

90. Westworld (1973): Westworld is a place where LaVey’s dream of android companions has come true. However, it’s also a place where man’s darkest impulses are allowed to run free, leading to them repeatedly killing robot cowboys that finally malfunction and rise up against their creator. There’s a moment where the two leads discuss sleeping with the android prostitutes in the brothel, unsure whether they were real. The answer is, “Does it matter?”

91. The Wicker Man (1973): Christopher Lee’s Lord Summerisle is perhaps one of the most Satanic characters to appear in a movie, with lines paraphrase Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” to grand effect: “That I think I could turn and live with animals. They are so placid and self-contained. They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins. They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God. Not one of them kneels to another or to his own kind that lived thousands of years ago. Not one of them is respectable or unhappy, all over the earth.”

If you’ve never seen this film, I don’t want to give much away. It includes a hero who probably isn’t the hero and villains who are probably not the villains. It’s utter darkness infused with the hope of a new season. And it’s a film that contains this section of dialogue, where everyone gets what they really desire:

Sergeant Neil Howie: No matter what you do, you can’t change the fact that I believe in the life eternal, as promised to us by our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Lord Summerisle: That is good, for believing what you do, we confer upon you a rare gift, these days – a martyr’s death. You will not only have life eternal, but you will sit with the saints among the elect. Come. It is time to keep your appointment with the Wicker Man.

92. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971): Magus Gilmore refers to this film as “a scenario where everyone gets just desserts served­ up by Gene Wilder as a most engaging devil.” How this is a film for children still blows my mind, as it’s filled with nightmarish situations. I love how so many use the words from “Pure Imagination” for inspiration when I’ve always been motivated by “The Rowing Song”: There’s no earthly way of knowing / Which direction we are going / There’s no knowing where we’re rowing / Or which way the river’s flowing.

93. Wiseblood (1979): LaVey referred to this movie as “a real misanthropic exercise” that was “so realistic it borders on the surreal.” It stars Brad Dourif as Hazel Motes, a veteran of an unspecified war and a preacher of the Church of Truth Without Christ, a church of his own that allows him to remain at war, but now it’s against anyone with a belief in God, sin, evil, Heaven or the Final Judgement.

94. Yanco (1961): A boy’s talent at music is directly proportionate to his oversensitivity to sound, which pushes him away from the city and into the woods, where an old man teaches him to play the violin. When the man dies, that violin ends up in a pawn shop in the city. Each night, the boy makes a pilgrimage to that store to play music that the people of the city believe comes from an evil spirit.

95. Zelig (1983):  Woody Allen appears again on this list, here playing Leonard Zelig, an enigma of a man who takes on the personalities of those around him, becoming a celebrity in the 1920’s. He is truly a man who is everywhere and nowhere.

Thanks to the many sources and people whose quotes I’ve included here. Again, your own examinations of these films are more important than anyone else’s. Think for yourself and find your own path to what films give you personal enjoyment.

That said — several of these movies are difficult to find. Don’t let that challenge you. Embrace the effort! As LaVey said, “If a movie is easily obtainable from the corner video shop there’s no point in keeping a copy.”

Want the full list? We’ve added it to Letterboxd.