The Killing of Satan

THE KILLING OF Satan was the first recommendation by this clerk at a brand new offbeat video store in my neighborhood and I fell in love with the movie and the store after that. I told him I felt I had seen everything horror-wise that was good and that I had also seen all the so bad it's good horror/trash stuff - like Ed Wood, Al Adamson, Skip Milligan, Albert Pyun, etc. so they recommend this little opus and my pals and I were laughing our heads off - the special effects and acting are atrocious - the scene where a large boulder crushes someone is so inept and badly done that Wily Coyote would smirk - the boulder looks like a large wad of newspaper, the actor is out of position for the "boulder" to crush him so he literally flings himself in front of it and then after he is crushed they reveal the actor's head sticking up out of the ground and a paper doll outline of his body with some ketchup on it. After that, we were hooked. The fights are bad, the music is bad and yet there are also some really creepy things it - in fact, there was this mute cave boy that totally freaked out my friend - there are scenes with LOTS of real snakes - I mean, this is the Phillipines, I'm sure the film crew just hired some locals to bag snakes and they came back with tons - in one scene - the lead hero is just smashing and tying real LIVE snakes in knots - the finale between Lando the hero and Satan himself has to be seen to be believed. THE KILLING OF Satan is an amazingly bad movie for lovers of great bad International cheese.

A jean-jacket-wearing champion named Lando must travel to a cave to rescue his daughter from the forces of evil. A Filippino amalgam of Christianity and other religions appears to be the basis for this bizarre fantasy adventure. It has a budget as low as Geek Maggot Bingo and acting that makes William Shatner look like a candidate for knighthood. Guys zap each other with magical rays that appear to have been drawn on the film with crayons. Rubber snakes turn into naked people. Nudity, gore and implied rape co-exist quite happily with a child-like innocence that's at the story's heart...I don't have the cultural background to process this film properly, I'm sure, which is what makes it so damn entertaining. I am now hanging my head in shame and questioning my own gratuitous use of the phrase "WTF" up to this point, because this film is clearly what it was meant for all along.

See it.

When the Devil's minions begin to terrorise his village and kidnap his daughter, a powerful magician's nephew decides to take action and discovers that he has inherited his uncle's gift of magic in this decidedly offbeat horror film from the Philippines. True to the title, the protagonist does eventually find himself fighting against Satan incarnate, but his minion battles are actually the highlight here as he has to fend off shape-shifting snakes, minions who kill by staring cross-eyed at their victims and the list goes on. Amusing as all this might sound, 'The Killing of Satan' remains a rather mixed bag overall. The first half-hour is actually pretty dry cut with only a single nightmare involving a boulder death standing out. The special effects are also incredibly cheesy and unrealistic to the point that the film is never all that scary and there are some irritating silly sound effects too, not mention many ridiculous costumes. There remains, however, something quite appealing about the filmmakers taking such an uncanny premise and running with it. The dialogue is not exactly first rate, however, the film is played straight (not as a comedy) and while never all that frightening, there are some genuinely unsettling moments to be had - plus where else can one find a film in which its hero defeats a snake by tying it into a knot and throwing it over a pile of rocks?

The Killing of Satan (AKA: Lumaban ka, Satanas) - 1983 (This Films Rates a C ) A crazy super low budget Filipino film where a mustachioed man named Lando fights to save his daughter from Satan. "You're yellow Satan!" But first he is unknowingly summoned by his dead uncle to battle The Prince of Magic and his evil posse. The prince has these rays from his hands that can incapacitate. The dead uncle guides Lando through his journey. Eventually learning of his true superhuman powers and learning he can heal plus withstand bullets. The film gets kind of weird from there. There are fake explosions, fake rockslides down a mountain, snake slapping and tying the body into a knot, shape shifters, phony yet entertaining combat scenes including fisticuffs and hand rays, the defeat of Satan and lots of snakes. The script and acting are not meant to be funny but are, mainly due to the extremely absurd dubbing. There are too many examples of this. Sometimes the storyline gets lost and often times it's just plain bad. The gore and effects are mild and not anything exciting. There are boobs. It is ok for what it is.

I'll start by mentioning this is a Filipino-made horror-fantasy film. If you've ever seen a Filipino horror movie then you know you're in for a wild wacky horrorificly (is that a word?) entertaining time.

In this movie a paunchy mustachioed jeans jacket wearing Filipino human named Lando who uses the super powers of God is chosen by his dead uncle to battle the forces of evil. Before actually getting to battle Satan, he must first face the equally impressive mustachioed Prince of Magic who wears a bright red jumpsuit and cape (kinda like something Elvis might wear) and his minions and free the naked and chubby Filipino girls who were stolen from the village. This movie has so much imagination packed into 90 minutes you just have to like it in spite of the cheap-jack animated super powers everyone seems to have.

Also included in this wild flick are some pretty decent old school horror FX including a man (the dead uncle) who gets literally flattened by a huge boulder and is reduced to a still talking head connected a wet pile of flat intestines and gore. There is also an amazing ripping scene that will make you rewind more than once. (You'll know it when you see it) I'm sure most people after viewing this film would be like…"WTF!!?" but I've always got a kick out of it. I've had the BIG BOXED VHS version of this film in my collection for probably 15 years. Not sure if it's even available anymore which is a shame. If you want to be entertained, this flick is just the thing. I highly recommend it.