DAUGHTERS OF SATAN (USA/Philippines, 1972)

DAUGHTERS OF SATAN 
(USA/Philippines, 1972)
Director: Hollingsworth Morse

I've seen a lot of Filipino flicks but I must admit never to have come across DAUGHTERS OF SATAN before. Made as a US/Filipino coproduction in 1972 and directed by some guy called Hollingsworth Morse. The name did not ring a bell with this reviewer! A quick gander at IMDb makes me think this is probably his most interesting work. He made episodes in various TV series but nothing that stands out I'm sorry to say. I reckon this is his only horror film. 

An American businessman (played by Tom Selleck!) living with his American wife in the Philippines buys a painting from a mysterious antique dealer (played by Vic Diaz of course). The painting is 300 years old and shows three witches being burned alive. Charming picture to hang next to the dinner table! One of the witches looks exactly like his wife. The wife isn't too pleased with the purchase. She suffers from mental problems so having to look at herself being torched at the stake every day probably isn't her idea of cool interior decoration.

At some point while the husband is at work she encounters an evil dog, and an evil housekeeper turns up at her doorstep. Later there's another witch, more evil evildoers engaging in evil practices, and women getting flogged and hung over deadly iron spikes. 

DAUGHERS OF SATAN is odd and maybe it doesn't make too much sense but, hey, when was that a problem in horror movies!? I think the film is wonderfully odd and I much disagree with Ian Jane's 17 year old review from DVDManiacs (also copied by Andrew Leavold on his blog). He didn't think it was all that entertaining. Personally, I didn't look at the clock one single time throughout the film.
   
Ian Jane reviewed a UK DVD release in 2003 but I got the new (from 2018) blu-ray released by SHOUT! FACTORY. It doesn't mention if this release is sourced from a film negative or a 35mm print but it looks fabulous in any case. In contradiction to the DVD this release is in 1.85:1 widescreen. There's hardly any extras, a trailer and some still photos. The disc is subtitled in English. 

Final word: Highly recommended! (and I'd advise you get it sooner rather than later. These things have a tendency to go out of print fairly quickly these days). 

Apparently, the film played at US cinemas on a double bill with another US/Filipino production, SUPERBEAST. The trailer is for this double bill and SHOUT! have released both films on blu-ray (I own a terrible shit looking, censored bootleg DVD from ZDD. Needless to say, I have ordered the new blu-ray of SUPERBEAST but I reckon it's most likely stuck somewhere in traffic as so much stuff seems to be during these weird times we live in).



Trailer:
 

BEAST OF THE YELLOW NIGHT (PH/US, 1971)

I rewatched Eddie Romero's BEAST OF THE YELLOW NIGHT (PH/US 1971) last night. This time on blu-ray from VCI. I really like this film. Sure it's slow but so what. It's so weird and different. The main character is John Ashley but this time he's not a hero but a soulless human turned beast – spurred on by Satan himself. Vic Diaz is the devil!

 The release from VCI is a dvd/blu-ray combo pack and the transfer from a 35mm negative looks great (slightly worn but probably still heaps better than the print anybody would have seen at a drive-in back in the day).


Trailer from VCI:

Severin to release the original PENGABDI SETAN (1980) on blu-ray!!!!!

On may 26 Severin are going to release Sisworo Gautama Putra's PENGABDI SETAN aka SATAN'S SLAVE on blu-ray in the USA. This is indeed fantastic news!!!

In English the film is known as SATAN'S SLAVE - not to be confused with a UK film by the same title. And not to be confused with the Indonesian remake of the same title from 2017 either! The original film is from 1980.

The ONLY English friendly release of the original 1980 film so far – worldwide – is the old long gone Brentwood bootleg DVD which was sourced from the old - also very rare – Japanese VHS tape. The tape is letterboxed and the bootleg DVD has English subtitles in the black bar.

But now... we get a blu-ray!!!!! (yes, an unheard-of number of exclamation marks – and it's indeed called for!) This is indeed great news (yes, I said that already and I'll say it sagain so you'll understand this is indeed a great piece of news!). You can preorder here.

Indonesian poster for SATAN'S SLAVE

I haven't watched the film for a long time but I remember it as being a cool watch. It's not a masterpiece by any means. However, it it's a cool worldweird horror film from a country that we don't see too many horror films from in the West.

It's a film that Jared Auner certainly would have written about on his old Worldweird Cinema blog a long time ago. Jared's last post on his blog was 9 years ago, it was partly about the (very cool) video label Mondo Macabro, and incidentally he is now with that very same label! A label that has given us quite a few cool films from worldweird territories. Hopefully, we'll see more films like that from MM and Severin.

I highly recommend you preorder/buy PENGABDI SETAN and convince the label to put more money into releases of this sort.

I'm not too fond of the cover for the upcoming release, the old Malaysian VCD cover (also used for the Japanese VHS) looks heaps better but, hey, it's just a cover. The most important thing is we get the film! xD

SPECS FOR THE UPCOMING BLU-RAY:

Disc Specs:
*Brand new scan from the original negative in Jarkarta
*Indonesian mono audio (with English subtitles)

• Satan’s Box Office: Interview with Producer Gope T. Samtani
• Indonesian Atmosphere: Interview with Screenwriter Imam Tantowi
• Satan’s Slave Obsession: Audio Interview with Remake Director Joko Anwar

 

Video-cd from Malaysia (front)

VCD from Malaysia (back of cover)

VHS release from Japan (Indonesian language with Japanese subtitles in the black bar).
This version was used for Brentwood's bootleg DVD (they call
it public domain in the USA but we all know that's bullshit – it's a bootleg)

SUPERBEAST & DAUGHTERS OF SATAN on blu-ray

Double bill trailer

I kinda forgot all about Scream Factory's DVD release of SUPERBEAST and it completely escaped my attention that they also released DAUGHTERS OF SATAN back in 2018. Both films are weird Filipino horror flicks and thus both belong on his site!

Well, actually, they are both US productions made in the Philippines but still! And also, I've just discovered that not only are have they been released on Scream Factory DVD but they're also on that thar shiny and spiffy cool format, blu-ray! Check the double bill trailer in the above.

I ordered the two films a couple of days ago but obviously I haven't got them just yet. I have an old shitty bootleg DVD of SUPERBEAST from ZDD (terrible picture quality and the print is cut, too!). I don't remember much of the film so it'll be nice to pay it a revisit. DAUGHTERS OF SATAN is new to me. Both films are from 1972.

Reviews over at DVDDRIVE-IN: SUPERBEAST and DAUGHTERS OF SATAN

Ho Meng-Hua's BLACK MAGIC 2 coming to blu-ray soon

Woah!!! Ho Meng-Hua's BLACK MAGIC, PART 2 is being released on blu-ray! This is one of my all time fave HK horror flicks. Dark and wild. DARK AND WILD!!! Part one is good but this is way better! It took years and years of waiting to get to see this. It never received a release in any format in HK. There was ONE vhs release in the USA - cut beyond belief (missing ten minutes). Eventually they put out a reg. 1 dvd.

Film credits on HKMDB

From 88 Films in the UK.

NIGHT OF THE COBRA WOMAN dvd from Scorpion Releasing

When I posted about new DVD releases of American-Filipino coproductions the other day I forgot this one, NIGHT OF THE COBRA WOMAN, - maybe because it's not released from Vinegar Syndrome (like the other five) but instead it's out on Scorpion Releasing (run by Code Red's Bill Olson's brother).

NIGHT OF THE COBRA WOMAN (1972) is yet another Roger Corman produced flick shot in the 'Pines. Until this release the film had only been released on VHS. I haven't got the new DVD yet but according to one online source the DVD is pretty good, and it's got a few great extras on it; There are new interviews with Marlene Clark, who plays the main character, and Roger Corman. The trailer is also included and the film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1.

UPDATE (2019): Scorpion Releasing has also released the film on blu-ray!