A long time ago, I was arguing with a friend over the relative merits of the stinker movie we had just seen(I don't remember what it was so please don't ask). I said that there were no bad plots, only bad finished films. For instance, Larry Cohen's "Q"; if only Cohen had been able to match the rest of his film with Michael Moriarty's genuinely loopy, strangely affecting performance, he might have gotten a good movie instead of an independently produced tax write-off. Compare it with the Japanese anime, "Dragon Century": when you have cartoon characters, do a cartoon film. And then you have films like "Touch of Satan". Like almost everyone here, I caught it on MST3K, and had a good laugh at Laughlin and company's expense. But then...I got the strangest feeling: where had I seen this story before? "Horror Hotel", with Christopher Lee? Not exactly, although that was a good example of a good idea done well for film. "Crowhaven Farm", with Hope Lange? No; close, though..."Black Noon", with Roy Thinnes and Ray Milland? No..."Manos, Hands of Fate"? Nope, let's not even go there...Then it hit me--I recalled a short story published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction around 1983 or '84, titled "Lord of the Dance"(the author's name escapes me at the moment, damnit). Basically, a small group of people make a pact with the Lord of Darkness (although here it's set in a small village in modern-day England) to stay perpetually young. What I realized was not that Laughlin ripped off his idea from others--I don't think he did--but that, years afterward, the basic idea was still scary and workable WHEN DONE RIGHT. Which Laughlin and company failed to do this time around. Too bad, it could have been great...oh well, at least we still have a good stinker we can laugh at, along with "Horror of Party Beach" and "Giant Spider Invasion"...
Review of The Touch of Satan
