6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
A family is trapped in a desert town by a cult of senior-citizens who recruit the town's children to worship Satan.
Starring: Strother Martin, L.Q. Jones, Charles Bateman, Ahna Capri, Charles Robinson (III)Horror | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Do you ever wonder about unusual initials in people's names? If so, and you've stumbled across the name L.Q. Jones before and questioned what his middle name might have been (Quincy? Quentin?), the answer is: nothing, although the fact that Jones' birth surname was McQueen might at least indicate that the "Q" had some kind of meaning for the actor and writer. In fact one Justus McQueen, Jr. took the stage name "L.Q. Jones" after he played a character with that name in the 1955 film Battle Cry (his credit in that film is under his original name). If you don't even recognize L.Q. Jones' name, a quick internet search of images may remind you rather quickly of an actor with (according to the IMDb) close to two hundred acting credits in both film and television, as well as a handful of writing, producing and directing credits. Jones' best known effort in writing, producing and directing is arguably A Boy and His Dog, a film which has at least one interesting connection to The Brotherhood of Satan, at least insofar as both feature Jones' frequent collaborator Alvy Moore also a producer and actor in that enterprise as well. A figurative "third Musketeer" in the form of Strother Martin is also on hand here, and as some of the supplements get into, Martin was another friend who regularly hung out with both Jones and Moore, making this, as one of the erstwhile kids in the film mentions in an interview included on this disc as a bonus feature, a "family affair".
The Brotherhood of Satan is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains only the following fairly generic verbiage about the transfer:
The Brotherhood of Satan is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 [sic] with mono sound. The High Definition master was produced and supplied by Sony Pictures.Judging solely from screenshots (which has some obvious built in dangers), this looks substantially similar to the Mill Creek release, though it does look to me like the palette is just very slightly warmer in this Arrow version, with a tendency toward (again, slightly) more natural flesh tones and less of a somewhat brown skew. Detail levels are quite good throughout the presentation, and potential problem areas like mist strewn evening scenes don't present any real challenges for compression. The film is quite stylish and a number of extreme close-ups offer excellent fine detail levels. There are minor but recurrent signs of age related wear and tear. My scores is 4.25.
Marty wasn't overly impressed with the audio on the Mill Creek release, and while this low budgeted affair doesn't ever really offer anything too ambitious in its sound design, I found the LPCM Mono track on this release to offer more than capable support for the film's dialogue and a kind of fun score by Jaime Mendoza-Nava, which in some ways presages some of the choral elements of Elmer Bernstein's Oscar winning work on The Omen, and in other ways offers things like a slightly spooky music box cue that is relatively effective. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.
- Original Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:27)
- TV Spot #1 (HD; 1:02)
- TV Spot #2 (HD; 1:02)
- Radio Spot (HD; 00:54) plays to key art from the film.
If The Brotherhood of Satan had done a bit more artful job weaving together various plot elements, it might have been a real sleeper in terms of shock value, but as it stands, it's intermittently creepy and has a surplus of style, along with some really fun performances. That said, Strother Martin may simply be a bit too on the folksy side to pull of his characterization as a marauding Satanist. Technical merits are generally solid and as usual Arrow has compiled some great supplements, for those who are considering a purchase.
1972
1971
1970
1975
Standard Edition
1981
2018
2019
Limited Edition of 1,000
1972
2015
1972
The Crawlers / Creepers / Troll 3
1993
1979
Slipcover in Original Pressing
1985
Also Includes = I Eat Your Skin and Blue Sextet
1970
2013
Kino Cult #13
1976
El espanto surge de la tumba
1973
1975
1972
2015