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:
 

Zombies in the land of Oz

Check out this trailer! It's a new zombie film from Australia called WYRMWOOD: ROAD OF THE DEAD (dir: Kiah Roache-Turner) and it looks awesome. It's out on DVD and blu-ray in the UK (and most likely on DVD in Oz as well) but not yet in the US. I ordered the UK DVD over the weekend and can't wait to get it. Everyone I've spoken to says it's pretty cool (well, except for one Aussie collector on fb, haha) so I'm certainly looking forward to this flick which, judging by the trailer, looks like MAD MAX with zombies!

Five bucks from Amazon UK.

Last MAD MAX 2 clone from Santiago now on DVD

I posted about WATER WARS, Cirio H. Santiago's last film, way back in 2011. The film is yet another MAD MAX 2 post-apocalypse rip-off (and yay to that!) from the Philippines. The initial title was Road Raiders but it was later retitled WATER WARS.

Unfortunately, Santiago passed away during production and apparently Jim Wynorski had to finish the film. It dawned on me a couple of days ago that WATER WARS is now on DVD in Thailand!! (I'm told it actually came out last year!). As far as I know, the Thai DVD is the only release worldwide. I placed my order last week but haven't received the film yet. According to the webstore in Thailand the DVD carries the English dubbing.

A few people have pointed out that WATER WARS uses quite a bit of footage from WHEELS OF FIRE, another of Santiago's post-apocalypse films that he shot in the Philippines. And that the film isn't all that great. Oh well, on this blog we (royal "we") often find great entertainment in pop-culture that the squares and mainstreamers discard as trash. Maybe it is trash but I've seen quite a few flicks in my time that delivered heaps of entertainment despite (or because of) their being trash. Let's wait and see. I knew I had to, simply haaaad to, order a copy when I found out the film had been released.

More info on the disc as I receive it. The DVD is available from eThaiCD. I've never had any problems with them and they've got free postage worldwide!

Trailer:

In the red!

Ahhh, just ordered a handful of dvd's from CODE RED. At New Year's Eve I made a New Year's resolution of not buying any DVD's in 2013. I guess with this order that resolution is now down the toilet!

New stuff from Bill Olsen

Bill Olsen and CODE RED have just released their latest DVD, a double feature with SEEDS OF EVIL (1972) and TOUCH OF SATAN (1971). Both films are presented in 1.78:1 (16x9). I haven't watched either of them and word is neither is a masterpiece but, hell, they're horror movies from the early 70s and one of them has "Satan" in the title. How could you not want to check them out (yes, I've already placed an order).

My two cents on the covers; Maria Karellis looks nice and all but I wish Bill Olsen would make proper covers instead. How about putting each film poster on each their side, i.e. using the back cover as a front cover as well (and lose the chick entirely). This way each poster would cover a full cover. As it is you can hardly see the details in the pictures. And then use see-thru cases and print the info on the inside of the cover. Much better (as these dvd's are only available via direct sale anyway it's not like there's a risk of losing the potential customer at stores due to their not being able to be grabbed by the spiffy cover text on the back).

Now, Bill, are you going to release LEGACY OF SATAN or not???

Wake in Fright

I've just ordered this on DVD from OZ. Looks great! AU$26 incl. postage from Chaos.

Got change for a penny, mate?

I bought a pile of stuff for a penny each on Amazon UK! ONE pence!! Mickey Spillane's "The Big Bang" was secondhand but "The Goliath Bone" was brand new. THE NINJA KILLER has a terrible cover that doesn't actually tell you it's a Turkish film starring Cuneyt Arkin. LOL. The old VHS cover is much better.

Scorpius Gigantus!!!

Does this look like the best film ever made?? You betcha! ^_^

Love Taiwan!

Gee whiz!! One of my fave Hong Kong "girls with guns" flicks is KILLER ANGELS (starring Moon Lee). Unfortunately, it's never been released on HK DVD, VHS, LD, or VCD with English subtitles. Actually it's never been released on HK DVD at all, and if there are video tapes or a laserdisc releases I have certainly never come across them. All I've been able to find is an un-subbed VCD and an English dubbed American VHS (which I only have a bootleg off). I must have watched that VCD 15 times as it's such an entertaining movie. HOWEVER... last night... I stumbled over a DVD release from Taiwan... that says it has English subtitles!! Fucken brilliant!! I ordered it right away. It's from a well known eBay seller in HK (and he's got more copies if you want one!). It's listed as letterboxed and dubbed in Mandarin. I also bought MAD MAD GHOST (also on Taiwan DVD) and VAMPIRE KIDS (on HK DVD). Niice!

...but they were cheap!

I bought a couple of DVDs! Yeah yeah I know! But they were on offer! I couldn't live without them! xD

FRI OS FRA DET ONDE (Ole Bornedal, it stars Lene from Aqua!) ^_^
MÅNGUDEN - "lost" Swedish TV horror movie from 1988. Never released on VHS.
BULLET IN THE HEAD - Fortune Star's new(ish) DVD
A BETTER TOMORROW 3 - new remastered VCD from FS. Still not on DVD (this new version that is).
BAY OF BLOOD (AWE)
NOTHING UNDERNEATH (AWE) - Italian giallo that stars Rene!
SAUNA (AWE)

I ordered them all from CDON except for the two HK films which are from DDDHOUSE.

Edit: A couple of extra titles:
Cut-Throats Nine/Joshua (Code Red reg. 1 dvd)
Ghostwatch (reg. 2/UK dvd)
Creepy Presents: Bernie Wrightson (a big, fat hardcover comic book reprint)

In transit over New Zealand or some such place

I hadn't bought anything for a while but during the last couple weeks I've tried to rectify that! So if the mailmen of this world could please hurry up (and spend less time having fun trying to trash my stuff) I'd be happy!

REDEEMER - Son of Satan (reg. 1 dvd)
MIDNIGHT (the John Russo movie) (reg. 2/UK dvd)
GHOSTWATCH (the BBC tv thingy) (reg. 2/UK dvd)
BLACK SCORPION (the Roger Corman superhero movie) (reg. 1 dvd)
NAM ANGELS (the Cirio H. Santoago film, not aka The Losers) (reg. 1 dvd)
RIGHTING WRONGS (aka Above the Law, the Cynthia Rothrock film!) (reg. 1 dvd)
NIGHTMARE: 30th Anniversary Edition (aka Nightmare in a Damaged Brain) (reg. 1 dvd)
EL MONSTRO DEL MAR (Aussie dvd) - whoo-hoo!! Looking forward to this.
SPLIT OF THE SPIRIT (HK dvd)
DEVIL'S TREASURE (HK dvd)
THE HAUNTING OF MORELLA (reg. 1 dvd)
THE NEST (reg. 1 dvd)
BLOOD - THE LAST VAMPIRE (reg. 2/UK dvd) - paid £0,01 for this one!!!
THE ADDAMS FAMILY - complete season 1-3 series set (reg. 2/UK dvd) - supposedly uncut in contradiction to the reg. 1 set (of season 1). Have already received this on and it looks just beaut!
GIRL NEXT DOOR (reg. 1 dvd) - have received this one as well. :D

Anna Calvi (digipack cd)
The Ramones: Live January 7, 1978 At The Palladium, NYC (cd)
C.W. Stoneking: "Jungle Blues" cd + 180g LP!

HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP (reg. 1 dvd from Shout! Factory)
PIRANHA (reg. 1 dvd from Shout! Factory)
DEATHSPORT/BATTLE TRUCK (reg. 1 dvd from Shout! Factory)
- Those 3 Shout! DVDs have reportedly already gone out of print!

TWIN PEAKS Gold Box (reg. 2/Denmark) - contains the complete series plus lots of extras including both versions of the pilot. Some of the other versions only omits the international cinema version of the pilot but have commentary tracks instead. I went for the Danish box as I'd rather have the international pilot on DVD than the commentary tracks (none of them are by David Lynch anyway). According to Dvdcompare.net the international pilot is only available on stand-alone DVD somewhere in Asia (I forget where exactly). I've already got the old version on that obsolete format we used to call "video" back in the day. LOL.

Second-hand from Blockbuster's:
TESIS (aka Snuff) (reg. 2 DVD/Denmark)
BAD GUY (aka Nabbeun Namja) (reg. 2 DVD/Denmark)
KOLLEGIET (aka Room 205, the original Danish film, not the remake) (reg. 2 DVD/Denmark)

reg. 2 DVD releases from AWE:
BLACK PAST
LA SANGUISUGA CONDUCE LA DANZA (The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance)
CASTLE FREAK
FASCINATION
INFERNO
NIGHT OF THE HUNTED
THE SHIVER OF THE VAMPIRE
THE BURNING MOON
PREMOTUS

Second-hand from Amazon UK:
Marilyn Monroe: "Gold Collection - Classic Performances" (cd) + "The Essential Recordings" (cd)

Black Devil Doll dvd

In addition to my last post I should include this one as well as I've just ordered BLACK DEVIL DOLL! Yay!! I posted about it quite a while ago, actually before it was even released, but it's been till now before I finally place the order. Too many damn films in this world I guess. LOL. Check the trailer, it's pretty cool. I think I called it a "remake" of BLACK DEVIL DOLL FROM HELL but I'm not so sure it's really a remake but more like a completely different story that just happens to deal with another black, horny devil doll. LMAO. And it's got heaps of gore and splatter too.

Around £12 via Amazon UK incl. postage.

A coupla new saucers

Received my welfare cheque today. Not enough for this month's bills so I though "sod it, I'll order some DVDs!" If you're going down you might as well do it in style. So, anyway, I bought the RAMBO "Special Edition" DVD set (from Artisan) from 2002. Apparently, it's an awesome set with tons of extras. It's long out of print and in 2004 the same company released a new edition but they changed the title to RAMBO "Ultimate Edition" and threw most of the extras away. Go figure. My info is from an incisive post about the sets from a user on Amazon.com. The latest set from Lions Gate has got almost all the extras from both sets plus the fourth film so that set is awesome too, and yes I've got that one already but, hey, what can you do. I needed the old set too. xD. Oh, and if you are considering getting the blu-ray I hear it sucks! For some reason they once again chucked out the extras, or many of them anyway. Go figure (again)!!



HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER. I've told this story about a zillion times but here it is again; I was living in London when I saw HENRY the first time. I think it was in 1989 or maybe '90. I went to watch it at an afternoon screening at the old (and sadly long gone) Scala Cinema Club. They used to have a double bill consisting of the same two films running all thru out the afternoon and on this particular day the programme was HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER and THE STEPFATHER. HENRY was on first and needless to say I was overwhelmed. THE STEPFATHER was really good too but there just wasn't any comparison here and when the latter finished I just stayed in my seat and watched HENRY again (once you'd paid the entry fee you could stay all afternoon if you wanted). That night I DREAMT about HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER. I've never done that before or after (at least not so vividly that I remembered when I woke up). After I moved back to this stinking hell-hole I began tape-trading right away and one of the first films I got hold of was a 3rd generation dupe of a film company copy of HENRY! It had a text line saying "Not for sale" or something similar. When I met my (later to be) co-editor on BANNED IN BRITAIN 'zine in around '92 or '93 she was very impressed that I had the film. It wasn't released ANYWHERE at the time. Now kids look at you with disbelief if you tell them there once was a time you couldn't get HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER, haha. Anyway, I've already got a handful of VHS and DVD copies of the film but I needed this one as well. It's the 20th Anniversary edition from DarkSky and altho it doesn't say so on the cover (and altho Amazon wants me to believe otherwise) I'm pretty sure this is the 2-disc release. It's supposed to have thee best extras. Well, I certainly hope it does.



Roger Corman's 1950's sci-fi flicks CRAP MONSTERS, WAR OF THE SATELLITES, and NOT OF THIS EARTH in SHOUT! Factory's awesome DVD series of Corman classics!! Obviously I haven't watched the DVD yet but I'm sure it'll be gooood. SHOUT's prints are nothing short of BRILLIANT and they completely smoke the public domain and bootleg prints that shit companies usually think is good enough for these films. Too fucken bad - and a big fucken kudos to SHOUT for this series!



Lastly, here's MULBERRY STREET (cleverly retitled Zombie Virus on Mulberry Street by the British video label even tho I'm told there are no fucking zombies in the bloody movie, hahahaa). Thanks to Fred Anderson for the tip. Oh, and if you're in Denmark you might like to know I paid a *whooping* 22 kroner for the MULBERRY disc from Amazon UK including postage! That's about half of what a kebab is around here. xD