7/10
Stay out of small towns!
3 April 2019
Warning: Spoilers
I mentioned some time back how many movies I learn about because they're sampled by My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult. In their song "Rivers of Blood, Years of Darkness" from Confessions of a Knife, the words "Blood! Blood!" and "Drown our useless age in blood!" come from the film.

I've always loved the box art for this movie and never gave it a chance. I'm glad I did!

Ben, his girlfriend Nicky (Ahna Capri, Han's secretary from Enter the Dragon), and Ben's daughter K.T. (Geri Reischl, the fake Jan Brady!) are on their way to K.T. grandmother's house on a highway that takes them through the American Southwest.

They come across an accident and report it to the sheriff (L.Q. Jones, who wrote and produced this movie) before the locals go crazy and almost kill them. That's because no one can leave town and nearly all of their children have gone missing.

It turns out that a coven of old Satanists have been taking the children, teaching them to follow the left hand path and are trying to use their bodies as receptacles for their elderly souls. If anyone gets close, they use the kids' toys to murder them. A local priest figures it all out, but he's driven crazy after seeing a murder.

It turns out that kindly Doc Duncan - played by Strother Martin who said "What we have here is a failure to communicate" in Cool Hand Luke - is either the leader of the cult or Satan himself. There's an awe-inspiring scene where hooded men with flaming swords kill the old people so they can go inside the children's' bodies. When their parents finally get there to save them, it's too late. Everything goes to blackness, with only the words "Come in, children" on the screen.

When Brotherhood of Satan was shown, audience members were given a packet of "Satan's Soul" seeds. Each envelope - illustrated with the movie's logo - contained two seeds, which were, according to the instructions, supposed to provide protection from the Black Magic of The Brotherhood of Satan. If you think movies are better in 2019 than they were in 1971, I have news for you.

Much like Evilspeak, this is a film on the list that presents the powers of Satan succeeding against the forces of good. It's pretty much exactly as the rest of the world perceives how Satanists act. Of course, Anton LaVey encouraged this type of shadow play and making fun of the rest of the straight world.
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