Welcome to the Scream Factory Crypt! In this binge series I will be watching all my Scream Factory titles I own alphabetically! Scream Factory is my favorite imprint of Blu-Ray’s because they take movies that studios and the public might not adore but have fans and deserve to be given respect. This will take a long time as I have over 120(!) titles and counting, I know I will have more before I finish, so stay tuned! Not only will I talk about them on the podcast but I will review them here as well so you can see how I feel about aspects of each release.
I decided to go out of order for part 23 and review the 1972 thriller, Daughters of Satan!
I ordered this blu-ray based solely on its bad ass cover. And while the film never lives up to the awesome campiness of that poster it is a fun, somewhat forgettable adventure.
Tom Selleck stars as James Robertson, an art historian living in Manila with his wife Chris. On a trip through the city, James finds a painting depicting witches being burnt at the stakes along with a dog. What strikes James is one witch looks just like his wife!
James buys the painting and soon he and Chris are terrorized by a dog and other supernatural events. What James soon learns is that there is a second painting this time showing the conquistador who is burning the witches looks just like him!
Daughters of Satan is a low budget affair. It is cool seeing a young Tom Selleck in the film as he still brings the charm. The film isn’t scary at all, but it does have some fun scenes. There is a sweet foot chase through the streets of Manilla. There’s also some bloodletting and gratuitous nudity as well. All of this can’t overcome a forced script that never really gains its footing. I will say it is a fun film and I enjoyed it much more than Blood and Lace.
The video on the blu-ray disc is good not great. I wasn’t expecting that much from this film, but it looks solid for the majority of the runtime. Some scenes seem to suffer from pops and scratches as if they had to source the film from different quality of sources. The colors do look great and there is good detail in most of the frame.
The audio too is good. Nothing will push your sound system to the limits but the dialogue and music come through crystal clear. The film also doesn’t suffer from sound pops or scratches.
Most of these films do not feature any features, but Scream Factory has given Daughters of Satan two extras. These are not listed on the back of the package. First is the trailer for the film which includes the trailer for SuperBeast, which was shown with Daughters of Satan as a double bill. Also included is a photo gallery with some cool moments captured.
Daughters of Satan is a fun diversion. It isn’t great but it isn’t awful. The film mostly succeeds when Tom Selleck’s character James tries and solves the mystery of the burning witches. But hats off to Scream Factory for giving Daughters of Satan the high definition treatment.
Film: C+
Video: B-
Audio: B-
Extras: C
Overall: C