Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The acting is mostly terrible. The editing is worse. The entire production suffers from a rushed, haphazard look. But somehow, "Satan's Black Wedding" manages to do what a horror film is supposed to do: leave the viewer with a lingering sense of unease. Pointing out this movie's flaws is like shooting fish in a barrel, but figuring out what makes it work is considerably more tricky. More than anything else, I think it's the cinematography. The jittery camera-work and agonizing closeups give the film a gritty, authentic feel, so that you almost believe you're watching a documentary even when the female vampire is gnawing on the neck of a shrieking victim and bright red stage blood spurts everywhere. It should look ridiculous, but it doesn't--and that's what makes "Satan's Black Wedding" a frightening film. The little things help, too, of course (they always do). The Monterey location shots drip with an atmosphere of gloom and foreboding. Ray Myles is appropriately weird-looking as the vampire priest. Best of all is Lisa Milano, the actress who plays the sister of Greg Braddock, the male lead: the look on her dead, pale face after she has repeatedly slashed her wrists (the most unsettling scene in the film, for my money) is straight out of a nightmare. And the film's surreal climax, though it takes place a little too abruptly, is disturbing, too.

Satan's Black Wedding (1975) ** (out of 4) Mildly entertaining film has a brother investigating his sister's suicide. He eventually tracks down the killers to a church, which is being used by vampires for Satanic rituals. This is a very cheaply made film running just over an hour and while there's nothing too original going on here it does remain interesting throughout. If you don't expect The Exorcist or Rosemary's Baby then you should get a few minor grins out of this film. There's some nice, if cheaply done, gore scenes to keep things moving. Outside of that we get some really hammy performances, which lead to a couple laughs.

"Satan's Black Wedding" is in no way a good movie. But, It isn't all that bad of a no budget film. Sure, there are many grade B through Z horror films that are good and bad, but this one is actually entertaining in a strange sort of way. Don't Expect "The Omen" or "Rosemary's Baby" with this one, but check it out if you can find it. The storyline isn't anything to original as it starts with a woman slitting her wrists and bleeding to death. Go ahead a few days and we are at her funeral with her brother and few others. Her brother, whom is a Hollywood actor, decides to check out the place in which she did herself in. When he gets there he discovers that the police scene hasn't been changed and that there is blood all over the place. The police detective doesn't believe this to be a suicide thus starting the brothers search for what actually happened, leading him into a dark world of vampires with silly looking teeth.First I should say that the special effects are definitely grade Z. No gore but an extreme amount of blood. The vampire teeth are just hilarious as they look like something that you could buy from Wal-Mart. The movie did have some nice atmosphere with a halfway decent soundtrack minus a few moments where the pitch got way to high and it hurt my ears. The acting was also silly going from mediocre to just plain bad. Especially during a love scene that is about as boring as watching the grass grow. Last, but not least, check out the very end of the movie at the "The End" screen and listen to the music fade off horribly. It was just hilarious.I got to recommend this to anyone that loves 70's low budget cinema. Definitely worth the time. 7/10

*minor spoilers*A man travels to California to unravel the mystery surrounding his sister's death. He learns that she had been writing a novel about Satanism, and spent much of her time at an old church outside of town. Soon, he begins seeing her in the company of a creepy-looking priest(and with a decidedly bigger and sharper set of chompers than he'd remembered), and eventually learns a horrifying truth...that he and his sister have been chosen by Satan to be wed in very unholy matrimony, and to become the proud vampire parents of the Antichrist.SATAN'S BLACK WEDDING is an under-the-radar obscurity still largely unnoted by the votary of horror fans...an unfortunate thing, because for all its technical shortcomings(production values are nearly nonexistent), this gritty grassroots flick actually delivers in a strange way. It's thick with eerie emanation, and serves up some surprisingly savage vampire attacks. The affrightment is beneficially italicized by the film's gloomy score(of mostly spare, crunching piano), and a cast of total nobodies perform acceptably for such a proletarian production.A strange little appurtenance from the muster of 70s drive-in horror, SATAN'S BLACK WEDDING is a film many will disregard as tossable schlock. That being stated, it may just as well prove a rewarding excavation for those drawn to remote film oddities.5/10