It seems that lessons were clearly learnt during the production of 1975's 'Criminally Insane' as 12 months later Nick Millard would return to work once again with 'Satans Black Wedding' a satanic vampiric romp that in some ways VASTLY out flanks his previous work...While in others really manages to come up short.
The plot follows 'Mark' a gent who's been away from his family for a while who, on returning to attend his sisters funeral, finds her bedroom covered in blood and suicide note left offering little answer to what exactly transpired. Mark links in with a detective who says that the case is being examined. But it's the housekeeper who seems to have the best measure on exactly what is going on. An evil presence is stalking the grounds of the house, and she desperately wants to cut her losses and leave while she still has her life.
Mark tries to piece together exactly what happened alongside his childhood friend Jean, which leads them on a journey of black mass rituals, satanic beings and an encounter with a mysterious rider of the devil himself. leading to a rather unsettling conclusion.
And, the first thing that jumped out at me with this feature is, when compared to Millards previous work, the technical ability seems to have massively improved across the board. Direction seems more considered, thoughtful and there seems to be more emphisis on showing rather than telling which is great. there seems to be a much more coherent vision present here.
Shots are stronger, better composed, utilise depth of field well and, for the most part it feels like scenes were actually structured rather than it feeling like they just got to the location, shot whatever they wanted, however they wanted and assumed it would just work in post.
B-roll gets a nice increase which helps the scenes breath a lot better. theres much more creatively inspired and solidly constructed lighting setups, which really help give the production much more professional flair! Colour use is much more cohesive here and results in a much more styalized production!
The edit is coherent, tightly cut with decent match cuts, much less repetative footage, and effects are utilized in a much more meaningful way offering a very solid base that the films works to. In fact, barring only a couple of instances of mixed to poor composition and occasions where scene building 'crossed the line' I thought this, considering what came before it, was pretty well put together by comparison.
That is also unfortunately where the vast majority of my rating for this film goes. As it seems that, in exchange for a much sturdier and solid technical production. The script has been allowed to wilt somewhat.
Make no mistake, this is an (at times) rather atmospheric little horror thriller. But the issues with the script here are plentiful. From revealing who the 'baddies' are pretty much immediately (thus spoiling the 'mystery/surprise reveal' element of this thriller) to ropey, dry and uninteresting dialogue. To really rather poor act structuring where we once again find ourselves with a solid first act, a decent 10 minute closer and about 30-40 minutes that AT BEST could be described as a 'runaround' with the occasional half decent atmospheric moment in it. This is a script that absolutely had potential, but has been ill thought out in its translation to the screen.
The biggest issue? is a mixture of pacing problems and an unengaging cast. The film starts strong enough out the gate with some genuinely interesting mystery fodder. But quickly devolves into a repeatative form of our core characters visiting a location, wandering around for a bit, learning a little bit of info (that we as an audience were clued into 20 minutes prior) before moving onto the next scene.
The tone is much more serious than Millards past works, which I think works wonderfully in the more atmospheric scenes where our characters are fleeing from vampiric satanists...But that seriousness becomes a millstone when we get to the 'wandering around' segments. with the lack of charismatic, interesting or engaging characters, this piece does become rather dry, rather quickly.
The dialogue is very heavy on explanation and plot detail, this is the kind of movie where knowing less about the mysterious force our characters are up against would have really worked in the films favour..No such luck though sadly, as we're instead given explicit detail of their plans and how its going to be executed multiple times across the runtime.
Its also just...kind of boring. Its idle chatter dialogue...only it runs for 60 minutes when it really should have been used to help give the characters a bit more depth and complexity. Idle chatter can be essential to character growth when used SPARINGLY. And here, it very much isnt. relegating the actual INTERESTING plot points to a few mintues here and there in dribs and drabs.
The performances across the board are largely quite dry and uninteresting. a few good horror moments here and there really isnt enough to save this thing.
I feel kind of bad ripping into this one because the bones of a really solid idea ARE present here, and it DOES have some good solid moments. But it feels like a lot more effort was put into making this film look better than it sounded...and thats kind of a make or break for me.
I'd still say maybe check this one out if you can find it. Its really not bad. But just...temper your expectations on this one. I think this would play brilliantly with Bob Clarks 'Deathdream' as a B-feature. But is this 'must see?'...well, its a no from me.
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/satans-black-wedding/
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