BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN (1971); “Come in, children”

Well, I've been needing a break for a while, so renown writer for SCREEM and Shock Cinema magazines, Greg Goodsell has volunteered to sit in for me on this pre-Xmas outing with a special presentation about Santa, I mean Satan, so Enjoy!!

Greg Goodsell here after a long absence --welcome to the nefarious BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN (1971), or as it was originally titled COME IN, CHILDREN. This is from the same people who brought you the sci-fi classic, A BOY AND HIS DOG in 1975. BROTHERHOOD, while a fascinating misfire -- is no classic. We’ll discuss further – Anyway, the legendary Jaime Mendoza-Nava composed this film’s chilling score – full of children’s choirs and such.

Here is one of the film's most original ideas: in a small California town, there is a rash of families being killed off, and it's being accomplished by all these satanically inclined children whose toys come to life and kill people! Check out this toy tank –

AAAAAH! It suddenly becomes real and crushes a husband and wife to death trapped in their car! Their pleas of distress are profoundly disturbing, and almost too much to bear!

After the once-proud nuclear unit is crushed into pate, these evil kids scoop up the toy, since reduced to normal size! If you want to unnerve a motion picture going audience, one fail-proof thing always works! Take some squirmy, hyper-active kids and make them stand perfectly stock still! Need we cite examples? THE SHINING, WHO CAN KILL A CHILD, VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED –

Here we go, another quasi-perfect nuclear unit -- it's only semi-perfect because the father is not married to his girlfriend, and he has a precocious little girl from a previous marriage who loves to play pranks on them -- dripping strawberry Snow-Cone on them with everyone thinking it's drops of blood at first! Ha! Keep that in mind for the later gore scenes!

HA! Yes, BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN is firmly in the genre of "evil kids" movies -- THE BAD SEED, THE OMEN and ORPHAN. Everyone secretly admires an especially wicked child, it seems.

Dad finds the family crushed into kitty litter, and so must alert the authorities –

And who should the voice of the law be but the illustrious character actor L. Q. JONES? Jones is best known for his work with director Sam Peckinpah, and was the producer of this film. He got his actor friends Bernard McEveety to direct and Alvy Jones to act!

Whassup? Well, this small Californian town is suffering from a rash of family homicides and child abductions, and nobody knows what to do! Seeing as the town's law is comprised solely of Jones and a flunky, the killings continue! There's an even bigger problem now -- acting legend STROTHER MARTIN is the town's not-so kindly sawbones! "What we have here is a failure to communicate," indeed.

We switch straight away to two rotten kids at play in a yard. They're up to no good!

The kids then say grace with their clueless parents, who are unaware that God has turned His back to them and their town.

Here we go again; the girl's doll comes to life and throttles mom and dad! This murder scene, unlike the one with the tank, is not very well done! After the dolly kills ma and pa, it sheds a tear! What does it all mean, other than making for an odd, arresting image?

A-HA! The town's oldsters are secretly conducting Black Masses, grasping candles from hooded figures and declaring, "Nothing that I have is not thine!" Could it be ... I don't know -- SATAN?

Yes, it's all a part of an evil scheme of the town's senior citizens to regain their youth! The group here is the most persnickety group of Satanists since 1968's ROSEMARY'S BABY, from which this movie stole more than a handful of ideas!

Nifty Mario Bava-esque scene involving fog and a churchyard.

With all the deaths and murder, a spare room in an office full of blocked ice serves as an impromptu morgue. The bloody bag at the top of this scene is presumably all that's left from the family in the car that was crushed at the beginning. BLECH!

Say you love Satan? Dame Alice, played by magnificent actress Helene Winston obviously didn't, as she allowed her grandchild to be baptized into Christianity and her coven is very nonplussed! Winston was brilliant in this production company's later A BOY AND HIS DOG!

In the words of Gomer Pyle, SURPRISE SURPRISE SURPRISE. Strother Martin is also the coven's leader! But you knew that all along, didn't you?

And here are all the little dears, assigned their own little alcove, awaiting soul transplantation.

In spite of being in the clutches of absolute evil, the town's children find time for some birthday cake and a lively party!

Uh-oh, the coven gets ready for the next phase!

Will the evil coven get its way? What do you think? Sorry gang, but Eegah!! And Tabonga! only grant me 22 stills out of a movie replete with striking image after striking image. Final analysis? BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN has top-drawer acting talent, superb photography, strangeness and atmosphere – but a lot of it falls surprisingly flat! The similar, but far lower-budgeted MESSIAH OF EVIL (1972) is more fondly remembered today as a result. Hey, you could do worse --

ULTRAMAN - Mystery Comet Tsuiphon / Toho Company - 1966

Welp, the world's supposed to end today, and, I swear, there was a small earthquake here yesterday afternoon!.. Big deal, the world's not ending today, relax and spend some time with Tabonga, here at The Dungeon!.. We gots a wild 'n' weird episode from this great series where our hero has to fight off three monsters, not just one!

Eegah!! sent us over a soundclip for our enjoyment, sooooo, you can push the big red 'GO' button located directly across from the glowing towel rack, NOW, Rufus The Gnat! Here's our audio offering for... ULTRAMAN!

The story's about a comet that comes dangerously close to the Earth, and, the heat and radiation may cause unexploded nuclear warheads to detonate. When The Science Patrol search for a bomb they can't locate it, then, find out that a monster has it stuck in its throat! The Science Patrol and Ultraman end up facing off against three monsters that are in the midst of a Royal Rumble battle.

The Science Patrol, with the help of their super computer, detect that Comet 24 will miss the Earth by only 22,000 miles and may cause some unforeseen problems...

So, the Science Patrol go out patrolling in their famous rocket plane.

Luckily, the comet passes by Earth without any loss of human life, everyone's relieved, they thought it'd be a lot worse!

The Science Patrol encounter a giant snow monster while searching for a lost bomb. I love this monster, it's a real crack up!

All monsters were produced by Toho artists, so, I can tell you that this flying monster here is a remodelled version of Gigan.

And, this thing is a version of, obviously, Godzilla!

I dig shots like this!..

Ultraman gets big and battles the bunch of brawling, bullying brutes!

Hiroko Sakurai plays Space Patrol member Akiko Fuji, she was also in five other Ultraman series.

But!.. Comet 24 will appear again in the year 3122 on July 2nd at 8:00 am, so beware!!

ANÓNIMA DE ASESINOS - Piero Umilani - "Man On The Spying Trapeze" (1966)

                                     

Nothing sez Christmas like a good old-fashioned Euro-Spy flick, so tonight's feature is "Anónima De Asesinos" or auf Englisch, "Man On The Spying Trapeze," interestingly enough, a title that has absolutely nothing to do with the movie at all, but it is a pretty good play on words just the same!

The music in "Man On The Spying Trapeze" was written by the outstanding composer Piero Umilani who passed away back in 2001. Besides having 147 credits for movies and TV, Piero will live forever in the hearts and minds of people everywhere because he was the man who composed the wildly popular ditty "Mah Nà Mah Nà" for the 1968 documentary "Svezia, Inferno E Paradiso" (Sweden: Heaven And Hell). Just in case you think you don't know what I'm talking about, then check out this Muppets video, and you will never wonder again! What a phenomena !!!

"Man On The Spying Trapeze" stars Wayde Preston as super spy Jerry Land, whose own story just might be more interesting than the movie itself! Before he ever spoke a line in a movie or on TV, the 6'4" Wayde played string bass with numerous bands, fought in the Korean War, was a park ranger, a rodeo cowboy and an airline pilot! From 1957 to 1960 he was the star of a popular western TV series called "Colt .45" that ran for 67 episodes, and after this movie was made, he starred in a bunch of spaghetti westerns with titles like "Vivo Per La Tua Morte" (A Long Ride From Hell) and "Dio Perdoni La Mia Pistola" (God Will Forgive My Pistol)!

I love this shot of half Mexican, half Japanese, Noé Murayama as Mr. Wong, a man always on the wong side of the law! Because of his look, Noé was in over 150 movies, almost exclusively as a villain in titles like "Dr. Satán Y La Magia Negra, "Blue Demon Contra Cerebros Infernales," and "Víbora Caliente!" (Hot Snake)

The nightlife in Beirut is swinging to say the least!!

Mr. Wong is still hiding in the shadows, and taking it all in!!

Just like all good spies, Jerry Land is quite the ladies man!!

On the plane flight to Beirut, Jerry Land met this hot rich gal who invites him to her yacht for a party, but when he arrives, he finds out these are the friends she was talking about that she wanted him to meet!

One of those good friends just also happens to be Mr. Wong!!

Mr. Wong also happens to be quite the inventor!! And you thought waterboarding was bad??

To make his escape, Jerry slips into the only clothes available. Unfortunately it was all just a setup, and Mr. Wong and his cronies are all waiting for him when he arrives back at his apartment!!

Jerry is not without some special spy tools like this powder he puts on the floor that can only be seen with some special glasses, so that he can tell if any new intruders are lurking about!

The streets of Beirut are also not safe at all, but Jerry is quite adroit at kicking ass!

Now he's getting blackmailed because he was set up to look like a murderer!!

Ah So, Chop Chop!! Jerry finds out his boss is a two faced conniving lying bastard!!

The military wraps it all up in the end, but it's pretty hard to be very effective when you literally have two left feet!! Mah Nà Mah Nà!!!