Horror Movie Review: Satan’s Slave (1976)

Described as erotic supernatural horror, Satan’s Slave (also known as Evil Heritage) was released in 1976 & stars Candace Glendenning & Michael Gough.

The movie begins with Catherine Yorke (Glendenning) & her parents on route to visit her Uncle Alexander (Gough). None of the family have ever actually met him before which makes the whole trip even stranger. It doesn’t really matter though as the family are involved in a car accident that kills Catherine’s parents.

Traumatised, Catherine is taken in by the mysterious Alexander who lives in a huge house alongside his oddball son, Stephen (Martin Potter) & his devoted ‘girlfriend’ Frances (Barbara Kellerman). It’s not long before Stephen, who is a bit of a playboy, takes a shine to Catherine who begins to enjoy his attention.

However since arriving at the house, she has started to suffer from bad dreams & hallucinations. A lot of which involve her naked, lying on an altar & surrounded by hooded figures. She is disturbed by them but Alexander’s warm & friendly behaviour & her blooming relationship with Stephen keeps her there.

Unfortunately though, Frances is very jealous & decides to ruin the happiness between Catherine & Stephen by revealing the truth. Catherine is not a guest at the house, she is a prisoner. She is to be sacrificed in the name of her ancient ancestor, Camilla York who was a witch. Camilla was killed because of her powers & Alexander believes sacrificing Catherine to her will see the witch reborn in her body.

Will Catherine escape? Or will she be sacrificed to an ancient evil?

Satan’s Slave is a mixed bag, plenty of fun & violent scenes intersected with boring dialogue & predictable moments. There are plenty of imaginative moments & the dream scenes/hallucinations are quite fun even if they lack originality.

Most of Satan’s Slave’s biggest issues relate to the cast with only Martin Potter as Stephen standing out. His portrayal is zany & off-kilter, it’s fun but often over the top. Way better then some of the tired & bored performances found elsewhere.

Visually, the movie has style. The locations look wonderful & they are used to enhance the story being told. It’s not a particularly violent or gory movie but when blood is spilled it’s quite graphic (stabbing in mouths & eyes).

Unfortunately the film does drag through the middle. It’s obvious just what is going on very early into it & it takes way too long to get to the finale. The movie relies heavily on its nudity & eroticism. The former is in abundance while latter never really hits. A run of the mill supernatural horror that can at least claim to be quite forward thinking for the year it came out.