cult film freak: STROTHER MARTIN & GERI REISCHL 'THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN'

Geri Reischl in THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN Year: 1971 Rating: *

Produced and featuring actor L.Q. Jones, co-starring his fellow Sam Peckinpah stock member Strother Martin and directed by Bernard McEveety, THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN is 90-minutes the very, very, very long way...

With a perfect married couple and their perfect blonde daughter getting stranded in a rural town that, as we learn halfway through, consists of Satan-worshiping old folks led by Strother as the local doctor under the secret protection of L. Q. as sheriff: the town recruiting children (including Debi Storm) for the cause...

L.Q. Jones in THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN with Strother Martin

The only decent scenes are not for content but the symmetrical aesthetic of the groovy-Gothic Satan-worshiping church interior where most of the budget probably went, and where more time with the kids, especially the central family's daughter Geri Reischl whose parents become a vanished after-thought, is needed...

But SATAN has no perspective of the children feeling fear since they're hypnotic all along, and as for suspense.. without chills there are no thrills. Making BROTHERHOOD a drive-in flick to fall asleep to... to dream scarier nightmares.