MovieChat Forums > The Brotherhood of Satan (1972) Discussion > It didin't suck, however... :o(

It didin't suck, however... :o(

posted 16 years ago by PACman66
4 replies | jump to latest

This film is not w/out merit, but I like a film that "moves". This film has all the pace of a crippled snail. And this film has too much padding. If you cut out dream sequences, pointless conversations, minutes & minutes of silence & various redundancies, this film would have been a tight 65 or 70 minutes long.
(This film's pacing reminded me of Manos: Hands of Fate, and I don't mean that as a complement.)
And this film has far too much rain! I love rain… It relaxes me… To the point of where I was getting sleepy just watching this!
This film seems to defiantly have an audience, and on some form The Bro’s of Satan deserves it. Maybe that guy is right; this movie is too good for me.

Trust me,
Swan

[–] drh3010 15 years ago

The unnecessarily long driving scene at the beginning is exactly like Manos.

[–] sutter1013 14 years ago

Cut out the dream sequence?! Are you nuts?!?!?! The lead female's dream sequence is awesome. It was trippy, colorful, and actually moved the plot (by showing how their specific family may have been targeted).

[–] VinnieRattolle 14 years ago

The first time I caught the movie, I literally fell asleep. I wasn't feeling particularly tired when it began but it's paced at the speed of evolution. Masochist that I am, I gave the movie another shot and fell in love with it. Although "Brotherhood" is unquestionably a horror movie, it's also got the stamp of an early '70s art film on it. I think that's probably why it's still got an audience when so many of these types of films have been altogether forgotten -- it's sort of unique and oozes style. That said, there could certainly be some trims made that would improve it. The aforementioned driving scenes, for example, seem endless and have very little merit, either to the story or as art. The dream sequences, however, are part of what makes the movie memorable.

While I can't deny that there are certain surface similarities, I'd never equate "Brotherhood" with "Manos" under any circumstance. "Brotherhood" is certainly not the greatest film ever produced, but most of the acting is decent, it's fairly well made, it has charm, style and a wonderful ending (that's so clearly vague that it tends to leave viewers baffled -- which makes me love it more!). "Manos," on the other hand, is pure and unadulterated schlock that's only become well known because it IS such horrible schlock.

http://vinnierattolle.blogspot.com/

[–] ElectricWarlock 8 years ago

It is a tad slow, but still a pretty good movie in my opinion. I was fascinated by the idea of the elderly recruiting children into Satanism so the story kept my interest the entire time. And the cinematography, use of colors and scenery, and the music were all beautiful. I just can't get enough of Satanic/supernatural horror movies, especially ones from the '70s. So this film was a big hit for me.