Satan's Children from 1975, is a teensploitation film and a unique entry into the Rape and Revenge genre, in that the protagonist is a teenage boy. This low budget horror flick features acting that ranges from laughably bad to eerily effective. This is mainly because the cast consists entirely of university drama students. Our main character spends about 90% of the film in nothing but his underwear, and some shots are so dark you cannot even make out the characters. The movie is mostly appreciated as a So Bad, It's Good type film.
The Film follows 16 year old Bobby Douglas as he runs away from his abusive home, crashes at a bikers apartment, is brutally raped, and then is taken in by a commune of teenage Satanists. Bobby's questionable sexual orientation causes tension at the commune however as this particular brand of Satanists are extremely homophobic. When Bobby manages to escape, he sets out to take revenge on everyone throughout the film who wronged him.
The supporting characters consist of Bobby's step-family, Mr. Douglas, who forces Bobby to do chores ala Cinderella's step-mother, and Janis, his step-sister who gets a kick out of teasing and molesting him. Then we have the Satanists. There's Sherry, the only one willing to help Bobby (though mainly because she finds him attractive.), Joshua, who is against taking in Bobby, reasoning that he is either gay, a victim or both, things Satan apparently hates. There's also Simon, the leader, and Monica, a lesbian.
Satan's Children contains examples of:
- Bad Boss: Simon, who will kill his followers for breaking his rules.
- Bury Your Gays: Poor Monica is set to be executed by Sherry, and is then killed by Simon just for being a lesbian.
- Cure Your Gays: Bobby is thought by the others to be gay (and some early scenes suggest he may be), Sherry's plan is to turn him straight with a quick makeout session and it seems to work. (it's also possible demon magic is involved in this) Sherry also tried "curing" Monica earlier.
- Commune: Where the Satanists live.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Subverted, Bobby's sexually abusive step-sister gets the most drawn out punishment of any of the characters.
- Hollywood Satanism: Who ever said Satanists didn't like gay people?
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Simon, who hates gay people and tells Bobby he is weak for getting raped. He also simply refers to Bobby's rapists as "queers".
- Real Is Brown: Much of the cinematography, especially the early scenes at Bobby's home, are shot like this.
- Rape as Drama: For all the clumsy acting and editing in this film, the scene of Bobby being undressed at knife point, and the scene where he is gang raped in a car, are surprisingly effective and, as noted by The Cinema Snob, can be quite hard to watch.
- Stockholm Syndrome One interpretation as to why Bobby returns to the commune at all.
- Will Not Be a Victim: Bobby's inspiration to go and enact revenge.
