Satan War (1979) Film Review – We Have Amityville at Home! [Fantastic Fest]

Posted on by Jim Cox

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Satan War is a 1979 Satanic exploitation horror, written and directed by Bart La Rue. Whilst mostly known as a TV actor who had starred in over 20 roles, including Star Trek TOS (1967-69), and Mission Impossible (1969-1972), Bart was also the writer/director of the 1975 documentary The Ark of Noah. The film has been lovingly restored by the American Genre Film Archive, known for its outstanding work in film restoration and preserving media.

Newlyweds Bill and Louise Foster move into the house of their dreams but it quickly becomes a nightmare. Goop oozes out of cabinets and coffee pots, lil’ earthquakes keep happening, things go bump in the night, kitchen chairs keep running into Louise, and worst of all, the Foster’s cross keeps inverting itself over and over on their wall.

Undoubtedly a product of its time, Satan War revels in the heightened Satanic Panic that was sweeping the American nation from the 60s through to the 90s. With everything from board games to music being labeled as satanic and responsible for society’s woes, it wasn’t difficult to feed on this irrationality. To this foundation, the film adds elements of the “haunted house” subgenre into the mix to create a film with homogeneous themes to the much popular and long-lasting film The Amityville Horror (1979). Whether the similarities were intentional or not is up for debate, despite this, these resemblances are undeniably present throughout. 

However, here is certainly where the parallels end, lacking the acting talent, pacing, and budget that Amityville had in abundance. As such, Satan War had to make do with what little they could scrape together, being produced on a “soda-can refund” based on an influx of loose change. This lack of production value is discernible in multiple ways, from barely furnished sets to rudimentary special effects, and archaic film equipment–the film is noticeably lacking, even for a B-movie.

Delivering performances that would be expected of such a low-budget horror film, our two protagonists Bill and Louise, played by Jimmy Drankovitch and Sally Schermerhorn respectively, provide a slightly wooden but overall acceptable performance throughout. While not bringing any awards home, their energy certainly becomes present in the film’s third act. However, one element that doesn’t quite match this vigor is the film’s ADR used in place of audio recording equipment on set. The unemotional dialog delivery hardly seems to match the visual response being displayed, resulting in some unintentionally hilarious moments.

Lacking any sound outside of spoken dialogue and Foley sounds, this noticeable silence allows the film’s psychedelic, 70s synth soundtrack to have much more impact in setting a scene’s tone–to which, it does surprisingly efficiently. Working similarly to Goblin’s score for Dario Argento’s Suspiria (1977), the rising crescendo of experimental synths certainly does improve the lack of tension presented by the visuals.

An interesting, if flawed blend of Satanic panic and haunted houses, Satan War is a definitive example of low-budget filmmaking of late 70s exploitation which, with the loving restoration from the American Film Genre Archive, will get to be seen by audiences anew. However, while the film may only be alluring to fans of the lesser-production values associated with B movies, Satan War is still an enjoyably short blast from the past which will entice exploitation and haunted house fans alike.

We watched Satan War (1979) at this year’s Fantastic Fest

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