I first heard about this true obscurity when it was mentioned in the book 'Shock! Horror!: Astounding Artwork from the Video Nasty Era'. This book was unashamedly all about celebrating the lurid and garish covers that adorned the horror videos unleashed on Britain in the late 70's and early 80's. It was not about documenting the films on their merit, it was all about the video covers. And perhaps the brilliantly titled Satan War is the ultimate example of this philosophy because this is one lousy film that had a very memorable video cover. Its artwork had a hilariously poor painting of Satan sporting a green toga. But as I say, the film
not so good.
It's been made on a real shoestring that much is certain. The main bulk of the film is a riff on The Amityville Horror, which has a newly-wed couple moving into a new house. Right away, scary events begin to happen like a wall-mounted crucifix inverting itself at will, scary gunge and moving furniture. It's so amateurishly done that it becomes very tiresome indeed and to make matters worse it has a synthesizer score that is repeated relentlessly until you feel like your brain has taken a kicking. The central story is padded out to feature length by the inclusion of a couple of 'documentary' scenes that bookend the film. In the opening we have a Satanist ceremony, in the end sequence it's a voodoo ritual. These have the potential to be more interesting but also out-stay their welcome somewhat.
This really is a tough movie to get through. It is very odd. But not in a good way.
