Satan's Slave (1976 film)
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Satan's Slave (also known as Evil Heritage) is a 1976 British independent supernatural horror film written by David McGillivray and directed by Norman J. Warren. It stars Candace Glendenning as a young woman who, after surviving a car accident in which her parents are seemingly killed, is taken in by her uncle and cousin (Michael Gough and Martin Potter), unaware that they are both necromancers who intend to sacrifice her to resurrect the spirit of a supernaturally-gifted ancestor.
The film, a production of Warren's newly formed company Monumental Pictures, was funded by producers Les Young and Richard Crafter with their own money and shot almost entirely on location in Pirbright, Surrey and Shepherd's Bush, London in late 1975. The following year, re-shoots were undertaken to film additional material and more violent, alternative versions of existing scenes with the aim of increasing the film's appeal to audiences in the Far East.
In the UK, Satan's Slave was originally released as a B movie. Critical reaction to the film has been mixed, with aspects such as the acting, script and plot drawing a variety of responses.
Plot
Catherine Yorke, a young woman from London, receives a bracelet from her boyfriend John for her upcoming birthday. She then leaves the city with her parents in the family car to join her father Malcolm's brother, Alexander, for a week at his home in the country. At the turn into Alexander's estate, Malcolm suddenly falls ill at the wheel and crashes the car into a tree. Although the vehicle is only slightly damaged, when Catherine leaves to fetch help it mysteriously explodes, seemingly killing her parents. Alexander, assisted by his son Stephen and secretary Frances, takes the distraught Catherine into the house and gives her a sedative. On waking, Catherine finds the driveway cleared of wreckage and is told that the police have concluded their investigation. Her parents' funeral is conducted later that day on the grounds of the estate. After the ceremony, Catherine finds an old gravestone bearing the name of Camilla Yorke, an 18th-century ancestor of hers who died aged 20 – the age that Catherine is about to reach. Over the next few days, as she continues to be hosted by Alexander, Catherine experiences disturbing visions of women being branded, flogged and sacrificed in satanic rituals. She finds herself drawn to Stephen, with whom she becomes romantically involved. Meanwhile, Alexander steals Catherine's bracelet and uses it to channel dark magic that compels John to kill himself by jumping from the roof of a tower block.
Frances tells Catherine that Camilla possessed supernatural abilities and that Alexander, who believes in necromancy, intends to resurrect the girl's spirit to increase his own power. Having murdered several women, including his own wife, to test his theories, he has determined that he can achieve this only by sacrificing Catherine, Camilla's direct descendant, when she turns 20 – Camilla's age at the time of her death. Frances also warns Catherine not to trust Stephen: having witnessed his mother's sacrifice as a young boy, he has grown into a murderer like his father.
Discovering Frances' betrayal, Stephen stabs her to death and locks Catherine away. On the morning of her birthday, Catherine is led into the surrounding woods to be sacrificed by Alexander and his cult but escapes after running a nail file through Stephen's eye. At the entrance to the estate she runs into Malcolm, who claims that both he and her mother survived the car accident. She is then taken back to the house, where Alexander, no longer wearing his ritual robes, claims that her recent experiences were merely hallucinations brought on by the sedative. However, his trickery is uncovered when Catherine pulls back a curtain to find Stephen's bloody corpse. Alexander praises Catherine's brutality and hails her as a true descendant of Camilla. It is then revealed that Malcolm, not Alexander, is the head of the cult. Trapped, Catherine screams, and the picture dissolves to shots of another human sacrifice before fading to black.
Cast
- Michael Gough as Alexander Yorke
- Martin Potter as Stephen Yorke
- Candace Glendenning as Catherine Yorke
- Barbara Kellerman as Frances
- Michael Craze as John
- Gloria Walker as Janice
- James Bree as Malcolm Yorke
- Celia Hewitt as Elizabeth Yorke
- David McGillivray as Priest
- Moira Young as Sacrificial Victim (uncredited)
