Rating:
★★
USA. 1988.
Crew
Director – Jim Winburn, Screenplay – Brent Friedman, John Geilfuss & Scott Rose, Producers – George L. Briggs & Robert A. Miller, Photography – Peter Wolf, Music – George L. Briggs & Bruce Lowe, Special Effects – Special Effects Systems, Inc., Art Direction – Gary Bentley. Production Company – Om Productions.
Cast
William Smith (Reed Weller), Tal Armstrong (Daley Long), Pepper Martin (Collector), Jack Vogel (John Connors), Theresa Cooney (Teri Connors), Robert Zdar (Sheriff O’Connell), Connie Lolan (Lisa Ballard), David Campbell (Stu Connors), John Powers (Harry Ballard), Lee Night (Jamie), Marcus Wyatt (Troy Long), Patrick Fahey (Warren Garrett)
Plot
The Satanist Reed Weller places a mark on the chest of a man he calls Collector and demands that he brings him the souls of 103 children. Thirty years later, John Connors’ younger brother goes missing in the midst of a baseball game, having been snatched by Collector. Afterwards, Collector is admonished by Weller for taking children from the town instead of targeting surrounding areas. Big city lawyer Daley Long passes through town only for his son Troy to be abducted while they are stopped at a gas station. Daley becomes upset as Sheriff O’Connell seems unwilling to do anything. As Daley becomes aware, many of the townspeople have conducted deals with Weller for good fortune and are in debt to him.
Evil Altar was one of only three films directed by Jim Winburn. Winburn had been working as a stuntman and later stunt coordinator since the 1970 with credits on films such as Halloween (1978), Escape from New York (1981), Tron (1982) and a great many others. Winburn directed two other non-genre works with the action films The Death Merchant (1991) and Miami Beach Cops (1993).
Evil Altar was a routine 1980s occult film. It released to VHS and attained little distinction when it came out. There are only a couple of recognisable names present – William Smith, known for roles as tough guys in assorted 1970s biker and Blaxploitation films as well as the genre likes of Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973) and The Ultimate Warrior (1975), and Robert Zdar/Z’dar, known around the same time as this as the title character in Maniac Cop (1988) and sequels.
The film follows the conventions of the Devil Worship films that were laid down in the 1970s. Efforts such as Brotherhood of Satan (1971) and Race with the Devil (1975) created the cliché of the Small Town run by a secret cabal of Satanists, or where the town elders were in a secret conspiracy. The film doesn’t exactly give much clue what is going on – William Smith has empowered a man (Pepper Martin) to bring him souls, while the townspeople come to Smith wanting favours for good fortune – he appears to have even provided David Campbell with a girlfriend – although details much beyond that are vague.
William Smith has great presence as the Satanist magician, although the effect is ruined whenever Smith opens his mouth and speaks in his usual gravelley rasp – it is the sort of voicing that belongs to a bad-ass villain in a 1970s exploitation film or Western, not as someone conjuring the forces of darkness. Jim Winburn delivers sinister atmosphere but nothing ever in the way of jumps. There is almost nothing in the way of effects.
Brent [V.] Friedman has written a number of genre films, including Syngenor (1990), American Cyborg: Steel Warrior (1992), The Resurrected (1992), HellBound (1993), Necronomicon (1993), Ticks (1993), Prehysteria! 2 (1994), Magic Island (1995), Pet Shop (1995), Prehysteria! 3 (1995), Mortal Kombat: Annihilation (1997), Mermaids (2003) and Foodfight (2009), as well as created the tv series Dark Skies (1996-7) and Secret Agent Man (2000).
Full film available here
