The Redeemer: Son of Satan! (1978)

User Rating:

4.3/10   

Director:

Constantine S. Gochis

Writer:

William Vernick (writer)

Release Date:

7 April 1978 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

If You Have a Craving for Terror...Come to the Class Reunion

Plot:

Six people are trapped within the confines of their old high school during their 10th high school reunion with a psychotic, masked preacher who kills them off for their sinful lives they have made for themselves.

Plot Keywords:

High School Reunion | Murder | Shot In The Chest | Hunter | School Bus

Cast

Damien Knight	...	John Sinclair
Jeanetta Arnette	...	Cindy
Nick Carter	...	Terry
Nikki Barthen	...	Jane
Michael Hollingsworth	...	Roger
Gyr Patterson	...	Kirsten
T.G. Finkbinder	...	The Redeemer
Christopher Flint	...	Christopher
Jessica Bein	...	Maisie Hanrahan
Richard Timmins	...	George Hanrahan
Rosa Arift	...	Gypsy
Eric Kjoenes	...	School Watchman
Larry Mooney	...	Bible Salesman
Daniel Elliot	...	Choirboy With Knife
Carla Ness	...	Legal Secretary

Also Known As:

Class Reunion Massacre (video title)

Runtime:

84 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:R

Filming Locations:

Pasadena, California, USA

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Times Square (1980)

A Crap-tacular slice of '70s drive-in Cheez...

I would like to preface these comments by saying that I saw this movie on a poor quality double feature DVD (paired with Andy Milligan's "CARNAGE") that I picked up at the dollar store, so I honestly wasn't expecting much from CLASS REUNION MASSACRE (aka "THE REDEEMER: SON OF Satan!") from the get-go. I read some reviews of the film on this site and several others before viewing it, and I noticed a lot of comments about its "dreamlike" or "surreal" quality. After watching the movie, I wonder how much of that "dreamlike" quality was intentional and how much was just dumb luck on the director's part. There were a few interesting scenes in CLASS REUNION MASSACRE but for the most part I found myself laughing at the screen more often than not.

Here's our "plot" more or less: six people, each a cartoonish stereotype representing a "deadly sin," (a greedy lawyer, a vain gay man, a lesbian, a rich bitch, a male chauvinist pig, and a promiscuous former teen-queen) return to their now-closed high school for a ten-year reunion, where they quickly discover that they're the ONLY people in the school building aside from a psychotic killer who locks the doors and proceeds to pick them off one by one while wearing a variety of masks and costumes. Our six victims, to be blunt, are idiots. After nearly every death scene, the remaining survivors invariably sit around looking dejected and discuss "NOW what are we going to do?" until the crazed killer strikes again, rather than doing the logical thing, like trying to smash out a window, break down a locked door, or whatever is necessary to escape. They also tend to stand around in shock and horror after every death while the killer makes a long, drawn-out speech about their sinful lives, letting him say his piece rather than simply rushing the guy and trying to kick his ass. Oddly enough, our killer (who is a fire-and-brimstone priest, judging from the not-very-helpful exposition shown at the beginning of the movie) seems to have no connection to the six people other than the fact that they're sinners and he hates them. If he had gone to school with the six and they'd shoved him in a locker or otherwise mistreated him in some way in the past, then perhaps the rampage would make sense. I'm not even going to get into the kid with an extra thumb (?) who rises mysteriously out of a lake (!) at the prologue of the movie (accompanied by some of the most annoying synthesizer music ever recorded) and is not seen again till he returns there in the epilogue, because those scenes feel like they were pasted in from a different film. The prevailing theory seems to be that the kid is actually "The Redeemer" and that he's the one pulling the strings (those of you who've seen the movie will get that reference, I'm sure) behind the Priest's murder spree, but overall CLASS REUNION MASSACRE isn't coherent enough for the viewer to know for sure. It seems to me like the makers of the film were trying to mesh the then-popular "Satanic child" genre (i.e. "The Omen") with the slasher film genre, but they bungled both sides of the equation. The highlights for me were the teen-queen character, a Farrah Fawcett wanna-be who was wearing a short skirt, and one kill scene involving a pendulum hanging from the ceiling and a creepy puppet in a clown suit. Otherwise, CLASS REUNION MASSACRE was 90 minutes that I should've put to better use, like clipping my toe nails or watching paint dry.