“It's too much time and too much effort for just an idle joke.”
Often times, the most interesting horror films are those that may not follow a particular trend or are caught between two (one dying and one emerging) cinematic trends. The Redeemer: Son of Satan! is one such film. On the surface, taking the title at face value, one would assume something along the lines of The Omen. After all, the Richard Donner chiller had been released a mere two years prior and had raked in plenty of cash at the box office. However, watching The Redeemer, it is very obviously a slasher movie... and a masked slasher movie at that. Halloween was months away from changing the face of horror forever. So, where did that leave The Redeemer? Nowhere. To play on the bottom of a double bill with Screams of a Winter Night, if a shot in the background of the Tim Curry movie Times Square can be believed. It wasn't until the movie was given new life on video (and a new, trashier but flashier title... "Class Reunion Massacre") that people started to take notice.
A group of people are invited to a class reunion at their old high school. Upon arriving, they find only a few of them show up, despite the grand decorations that have gone into the event. Soon, one of them dies and the rest realize that they have been locked in the school. What they don't know is that one of their classmates grew up to be a deranged preacher with a viciously sick sense of Biblical justice (murdering each classmate because of a particular "sin" that they indulge in... gluttony, vanity, homosexuality, etc.) With each passing victim, their killer grows more and more bizarre... donning a number of homemade masks and utilizing fake voices to lure and frighten his prey. Class reunions are often dreaded, but will anyone make it out of this one alive?
The Redeemer: Son of Satan! is a truly great, forgotten horror movie. Yes, it's got it's cheesy problems just like any other film of its era, but it also builds a sense of foreboding doom more palpable than a lot of movies I have encountered. From the minute the hapless victims set foot into the school, you feel they are in great danger and a number of moments in the film come off as genuinely suspenseful. As the film goes on, you realize the lengths (not particularly realistic, but hey, it's a movie) that the killer has gone to set his trap. Bars have been added to all the school's windows, the school's boiler has been sealed up with bricks, and not to mention the various handmade latex masks and puppets (yes, puppets... but more on that later) that the killer has created. The film also leaves the viewer with a great many questions. Was the redeemer supernatural? The puppets that come to life later in the film seem to definitely suggest that he had powers beyond that of a mere preacher. Also, what of the second thumb that appears on his hand? Symbolizing the touch of Satan at work behind his murders? Perhaps. We never fully find out. Much like Black Christmas, the movie gives us clues regarding the killer, but answers nothing definite. Mystery, to me, is much scarier than having everything spelled out for the viewer.
The actors are all decent. For a low budget such as this, the acting could have definitely been a lot worse. T.G. Finkbinder's anything goes performance as the killer really provides some of the most chilling aspects of the film. Some of the overacting could come across as silly to some, but I felt it perfectly captured the bizarre dementia of crazed man who believes he is doing God's (or perhaps, the Devil's, as the title seems to suggest) work. With his numerous costume changes and creepy set-ups (after burning alive the former captain of the football team, the reunion group later finds his charred remains dressed in an old football uniform) I couldn't imagine a more perfect killer. His performance is helped by the simple, no nonsense direction of Gochis. It's hard to appreciate the camerawork and cinematography on a bad VHS copy, but the film definitely oozes with a great late 70s atmosphere. It is helped out considerably by a great, haunting keyboard score by Phil Gallo and Clem Vicari Jr., who would both later go on to score the early 80s redneck-killers-in-the-woods opus, Mother's Day. The kills are mean-spirited, but not overtly gory. A lot has been made about how mean spirited the kills are (people are impaled, burned, shot, and one is even forced underwater and asked to repent of her sins). I think the most controversial aspect to the film is the religious angle. The killer is clearly doing the work of Satan, all the while proclaiming that his intentions are divine.
I don't herald Constantine S. Gochis among the greatest horror directors of all time, but what he and his crew created here, whether planned or accidental is truly a spellbinding, downright eerie early slasher movie masterpiece. Released several months prior to John Carpenter's Halloween in the U.S., it's often hard to believe that slasher movies existed prior to Carpenter's classic. Carpenter's film is of course, the much more focused and polished of the two, but really, the two shouldn't even be compared. Yes, The Redeemer is a slasher movie, but it's influences are more along the lines of The Omen meets Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians. In fact, I would bet that somewhere in the early concept stages, that phrase was uttered a time or two. The original book certainly has the same "metering out justice" angle that this film has. What is most interesting, however, are the parallels to the modern horror blockbuster, Saw. Not only are the killer's motivations in Saw strikingly similar, but there is a use of a killer puppet at one point in The Redeemer and upon close inspection, the two puppets are very reminiscent. I suppose if you are going to borrow something from a movie, you might as well borrow from one that 99% of the population has never heard of, right? Of course, the David Fincher thriller Seven would also later utilize the "punishing of sins" motif.
The Redeemer has only seen a pair of home video releases, the most recent of which was an mid-80s VHS by Continental Video under the "Class Reunion Massacre" title. It was very nearly planned for release on DVD by Code Red, but as of this writing, plans for that release have unfortunately fallen through due to the lack of a suitable print to use. It did receive a brief unauthorized dollar store double feature release by public domain hounds East West Entertainment. This release is not recommended, however, due to it being nothing more than the VHS version copied on to DVD (and very poorly, I might add). For me, The Redeemer is a very easy movie to love. It is a slasher movie made and released before slasher filmmakers knew what worked. There was no template to copy at this point, so the film has a great "anything goes" vibe to it. I don't know why so many are divided or downright loathe the film. I think perhaps some viewers can't let go of their own politics and belief systems enough to realize that there was no sinister right wing or "Bible thumper" agenda at work here. One could use the same arguments (if one choose to do so) against the condescending morality that Jigsaw displays in the Saw series. But, you rarely see such criticisms levied at that series. Perhaps I am overpraising it, I'm not sure. One this is for certain, I truly, truly love this slasher movie and wish it would find the audience it so rightly deserves. Essenital!
