Stadt des Grauens (1971)

Stadt des Grauens: Directed by Bernard McEveety. With Strother Martin, L.Q. Jones, Charles Bateman, Ahna Capri. A family is trapped in a desert town by a cult of senior-citizens who recruit the town’s children to worship Satan.

“For some reason in the 1970u0026#39;s it seemed to be a requirement for every former cast member of u0026quot;The Wild Bunchu0026quot; to appear in a low-budget satanic-themed horror movie. You had Ernest Borgnine in the ridiculous u0026quot;Devilu0026#39;s Rainu0026quot;, Warren Oates in the underrated u0026quot;Race with the Devilu0026quot;, and of course William Holden in the the overblown sequel u0026quot;Damien: Omen IIu0026quot;. The weirdest one though was probably this one which features both Strother Martin and L.Q. Jones (Jones, who would later write and direct the cult classic u0026quot;A Boy and his Dogu0026quot;, also contributed to the screen play).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt starts out promisingly enough with an entire family somehow being compacted in their car, all except for the young son who wanders off and runs into a strange group of other children. For awhile it is unclear whether this movie is ripping off u0026quot;Village of the Damnedu0026quot; or u0026quot;Rosemaryu0026#39;s Babyu0026quot;, as you have this group of orphaned and kidnapped children wandering around after their parents have been done by a bizarre murder spree, AND you have a coven of decrepit oldsters led by Strother u0026quot;What we have here is failure to communu0026#39;cateu0026quot; Martin. The main protagonists are a good-looking but bland couple and their young daughter who are only passing through town, but become involved in the weird goings after they discover the remains of the compacted family. Jones plays the good guy sheriff, and Martin has a second role as the seemingly kindly town doctor. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe satanic scenes are very weird with a lot of freaky shots of childrenu0026#39;s dolls, and people violently convulsing and dropping dead. The pretty blonde wife also has a u0026quot;Rosemaryu0026#39;s Babyu0026quot; style hallucinatory dream that is like u0026quot;Coffin Joeu0026quot; on particularly bad acid. The end finally ties everything together sort of, but this remains one of those 70u0026#39;s movies that is a lot longer on style than on logic. Still I guess Iu0026#39;d recommend it if you go for these sort of films at all.”