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THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN
This early entry in the “Satanic Panic” films of the seventies, inspired (like most of the others) by ROSEMARY’S BABY (THE EXORCIST, the other seminal film in the cycle, had yet to be released), is an extremely stylish low budget chiller. The narrative could have used some work, however!
The Package
THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN (1970) was a product of LQ/Jaf, a two man
operation consisting of L.Q. Jones and Alvy Moore, veteran actors both (Jones
has appeared in more than fifty movies, including many by
Sam Peckinpah, while
Moore is best known for a recurring role on GREEN ACRES). The two produced and
co-starred in the present film, LQ/Jaf’s third and most polished production.
The first was something called THE DEVIL’S BEDROOM, which Jones wrote, directed
and acted in, and admits, was “probably the worst picture ever”. The bayou-set
shocker THE WITCHMAKER followed in 1969, and was a minor hit, paving the way for
COME IN, CHILDREN, which eventually became THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN, directed by
Bernard McEveety and featuring Jones’ frequent acting partner Strother Martin in
the lead. It met with considerable critical and financial success, and
impressed author Harlan Ellison enough that he allowed Jones and Moore to adapt
his sci fi novella A BOY AND HIS DOG to the screen in 1974, with Jones writing
and directing.
The Story
Middle aged Ben is driving through the desert with his girlfriend Nicky and
K.T., his daughter. Ben stops his station wagon by a car at the side of the
road...and immediately regrets his actions, as the car is filled with massacred
corpses! He races to the nearest town, but is nearly killed by an inexplicably
hostile mob of people, and so drives off into the desert with his daughter and
girlfriend in tow--they doesn’t get very far, however, before a little girl
standing in the middle of the road forces their car onto the shoulder, where it
stalls. Thus Ben, Nicky and K.T. find themselves with no choice but to walk
back to the town they just vacated.
In that town weird things are afoot. The community’s elders spend the
night attending a weird satanic gathering presided over by Duncan, the town
doctor. Many of the town’s children, meanwhile, have gotten together to torment
and/or kill their parents in freaky ways involving creepy dolls. It seems that
for the past day or so the area has been plagued with suspicious murders and
nobody has been able to leave.
Ben and his family, re-entering the town, find themselves caught up in the
madness when Ben’s daughter K.T. disappears. He and Nicky join forces with the
town sheriff and priest to take on the Satanic forces besieging the area. Said
forces have been bequeathed by Dr. Duncan, who it seems wants to transport the
spirits of himself and his fellow Satanists into the bodies of the town’s
children. Will our heroes be able to intervene in time?
The Direction
If style were enough to guarantee a successful product then THE BROTHERHOOD
OF SATAN would be a prime example of such--and for its first half it is,
so much so that I was willing to overlook the half-baked screenplay, with its
severely underdeveloped storyline, chaotic viewpoint shifts and countless loose
ends. Bernard McEveety displays an extremely sure hand directorially, helming
with confidence and real style. So assured are McEveety’s visuals that much of
the narrative is related without dialogue (which is not always a good thing, as
the loopy storyline would have benefited from a bit more explanation).
The film does owe something stylistically to ROSEMARY’S
BABY, with its measured pacing and jittery, voyeuristic camerawork, as well as
the neat (though hardly unprecedented) way McEveety combines innocence with pure
evil--an early Satanic mass accomplishes this particularly well, with a bunch of
smiling old coots cavorting amidst black robed figures. It’s no accident, after
all, that the primary villains are either children or old people! The opening
shot admirably lays out the film’s underlying themes by showing a toy tank
moving over toy cars and then cutting to a real tank mowing down real cars...too
bad the scene has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie!
Vital Statistics
THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN
(a.k.a. COME IN, CHILDREN)
LQ/Jaf
Director: Bernard McEveety
Producers: L.Q. Jones, Alvy Moore
Screenplay: William Welch
Cinematography: John Arthur Morrill
Editing: Marvin Walowitz
Cast: Strother Martin, L.Q. Jones, Ahna Capri, Alvy Moore, Charles Robinson,
Charles Bateman, Geri Reischl, Scott Agular, John Barclay, Joyce Easton, Judith
McConnell, Charles Robinson Knox, Helene Winston