REVIEW: SATAN'S SLAVE (1976)

Review: Satans Slave (Evil Heritage) Directed By Norman J. Warren, Starring Michael Gough (1976). 
by Erok Hellhammer

Crown International Pictures has always been a minefield of a production company for me, after first seeing that Cadillac hood ornament logo before Don't Answer The Phone, you'd think "Hey maybe they have other films worth seeing", but don't be fooled. Satan’s Slave is definitely not the Crown film to restore the companies damaged reputation. It starts off with a naked babe lying on a sacrificial alter, while a goat headed priest gets down to some virgin stabbin’. The beginning of the film has all this potential and it was written by David McGillivray, who penned many Peter Walker classics like House of Whipcord. But eventually it runs out of nightmare fuel very fast and deflates.

A milquetoast looking Brit couple are having "issues", by that I mean they get down to some sadomasochistic scissor play (You’d think pubes and scissors often go together, right)? The painful love games are not mutual, because the male is a psychotic bastard who decides to kill his girlfriend. After seeing Warren’s superior film Alien Prey, I automatically had high hopes for this, which has the great Michael Gough, who did a lot of early 60s ghoulish films like Horrors of the Black museum. It's pretty much a dud; the only way it possibly could be salvaged is if they used the footage for some doom metal music video like Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats.

Warren is very different from his British counterpart Peter Walker, whose films go from highly energetic and gory to completely boring, some dull examples are Schizo (which was written by Satan’s Slave’s screenwriter) and Die Screaming Maryanne.

Fan video of "Black Mass" by Electric Wizard using footage from Satan's Slave

While Catherine (played by Candace Glendenning) is out visiting her relatives in the countryside, she gets a terrible surprise when her parents both collide into a tree and die in an explosion!

Gough, who plays Catherine's Uncle Alexander seems nice, but he's most likely the guy from the beginning wearing the crossed eyed goat’s head.

This family leaves no stone unturned as they quickly bury the bodies and ditch Catherine’s parent’s car. Brits are a little too mellow about trauma at least here and hardly make a fuss out of this situation—in fact they are alarmingly passive. I have the feeling that people who really enjoyed Psychomania would dig this. There's a witch branding and whipping scene that looks like the album cover for “Friends of Hell” by Witchfinder General come to life! That was one of the highlights of the film for sure.

After 37 minutes in, this film is pretty dull, but I know to stick it out till the bitter end because Alien Prey had one of the greatest finales ever! The tedium starts building and building...snoooorrereeee.

Everything about Satan’s Slave is little too British and I stuck it out even though it causes waves of narcolepsy. I recently watched Voodoo Black Exorcist and had a good time, just so you know how high my tolerance barrier is.

There's a lot of naked busty babes with mounds of bush, but you're better off just going straight to your usual porn source and skipping this. In the 80s these attributes would’ve merited a slight recommendation, but this is the future and there ain’t no turning back!

Blood on Satan's Claw is another dull Satanic movie in the same league that I've fallen asleep to more times then I care to mention during that snooze fest. Satan’s Claw was conceived to cash in on Michael Reeves superior film Witchfinder General. I think Claw fans may try to convince you that Satan’s Slave is worth your time. That's the thing about the "Father of Lies", he works in the art of deceit and trickery! Get behind Thee Satans Slave! If you want cartoon British Satanism than I recommend you listen to Venom instead! If you must watch it however, this film is available on Amazon Prime streaming.