Satan's Playground
by Dante Tomaselli
List Price:
Our Price: $4.29
You Save: $5.69 (57%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.81 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Danny Lopes, Edwin Neal, Ellen Sandweiss, Felissa Rose, Irma St. PauleDirector: Dante Tomaselli
Brand: Fox
Cinematographer: Timothy Naylor
Writer: Dante Tomaselli
Producer: Anthony J. Vorhies
Producer: Christa Avery
Producer: Milka Stanisic
Producer: Millie Stanisic
Producer: Tony Rullis
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 81 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-08-22
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
DVD Reviews of Satan's Playground
DVD Review: Stars of THE EVIL DEAD, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSAC RE and SLEEPAWAY CAMP collide in a tale of unrelenting horror!
Summary: 5 Stars
SATAN'S PLAYGROUND is the celluloid equivalent of one of those old fashioned wooden turntables they sell at Sharper Image. The turntable is bedecked with a newfangled cd and mp3 player but it plays "records" and "45's" of a bygone era. SATANS PLAYGROUND is-like that record player-a beautifully crafted hybrid of old time horror potently mixed with the latest tricks of the trade. It's a retro tv program beamed through an iPod.
Director Dante Tomaselli's third feature in 6 years is a begiling stew of maniacal old women, a family in jeopardy and the Jersey Devil lore. A priceless performance by veteran Irma St. Paule-she is the actress who cursed the character in STEPHEN KING'S THINNER- sets this sleek horror engine in motion and for nearly 90 minutes never runs out of gas.
Tomaselli's storytelling is a campfire tale gone awry. Like those childhood stories it was never the tale being told that compelled you to listen till the end-it was how it was told and the twists and turns it took to reach a shocking ending. You never are quite sure what will happen to these characters and no rules are followed. The director bludgeons the viewer with set pieces that stay with you long after the movie fades to black. Disturbing scenes of torture, babies in peril and an overall feeling of dread render this a unique viewing experience. While Tomaselli's detractors have felt he's lacking in the scenarist department(who is more nonlinear and slight on dialogue than the revered David Lynch?)-his painterly, mystifying and bewildering visual power resonates . His film is a blank canvas saturated with visceral brilliance .
Shorn of all it's pungent visuals, SATANS PLAYGROUND is still your Daddy's horror film. From the outdoor 70s setting, to the amazing score and including the use of modern day horror icons-Ellen Sandweiss from THE EVIL DEAD, Felissa Rose from SLEEPAWAY CAMP and Edwin Neal from the original TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE -Tomaselli winks at his knowing audience who grew up on seeing these stars from countless trips to their local video store. By heaving no sense of place or time in his movie-the director gives his viewers=brilliantly-a comfort zone of recognition and all the baggage that comes with it. It adds a layer of backstory and texture that most new modern horror movies are seriously lacking.
Felissa Rose is back with an elegant vengeance in a role far removed from Angela in SLEEPAWAY CAMP. While there's no questioning her gender here- for a woman she still has balls. Rose is a 2006 scream queen that is maimed and tortured and still perseveres. She pulls off a complex role of mother of a autistic teenager and Satanic battler very nicely. Ellen Sandweiss is back in the woods a quarter of a century after THE EVIL DEAD. It's a surprising, subtle performance that is the most sympathetic of all. Sandweiss is still a looker and Mothers everywhere can relate to her arc here. Neal looks as if he walked off the TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE set right on to Tomaselli's without skipping a beat. He defies the test of time and is quite good as a misunderstood monster of a villain. The aforementioned Irma St Paule is the blackened heart of the piece-a frantically throbbing performance. In a small but pivotal role, Christie Sanford scares you senseless as the child/woman that is in her own world. It's a chilling role and Sanford who has worked with Tomaselli on 3 movies-seems to have an iron clad patent on kooks-and she does it brilliantly. Also a vteran of Tomaselli's three features is the handsome, bewitching Danny Lopes as the autistic teen. Lopes' role is nearly mute but he conveys to the audience a true portrait of a person locked in a prison he cannot escape. Felissa Rose is his mother-her character is as tortured ouwarfly as Sean the teen is tortured internally. lopes has a future-he command sympathy in a very unsympathetic film. He's the tootsie roll center of this tootsie pop film-all gooey and warm and hard to reach in the cany colored, hardened shell which is the films tone.
SATANS PLAYGROUND is a feast for the eyes and ears. It recaptures the feel of a Seventies horror classic while being an upwardly mobile horror film of the now and the future. It is scary, thoughtprovoking, manipulative fun that will disturb you and give you nightmares. Horror has been thriving as of late-not surprising as its a catharsis for the true horror in the world we live in. SATANS PLAYGROUND =if you go into it with no expectations-will wallop you senseless. For those of u who know Tomaselli's previous films-HORROR and DESECRATION-we have the privilege of seeing a talent form before our eyes like a new pod in INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. It looks like all the other horror films but has a sinister side to it that enthralls. A perfect Halloween treat.
Description of Satan's Playground
SATAN'S PLAYGROUND - DVD MovieBestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
The Initiation of SarahSony; Release date: 2007-10-30; DVD
Best price: $2.40
Price in other shops:
House of the DeadLIONS GATE HOME ENT.; Release date: 2004-01-27; Published: 2004-01-01; DVD
Best price: $3.03
Price in other shops:
Frontier(s) (Unrated Director's Cut)FRONTIER; Release date: 2008-05-13; DVD
Best price: $7.33
Price in other shops:
Halloween VI: The Curse of Michael MyersRelease date: 2011-04-26; DVD
Best price: $2.50
Price in other shops:
SeveranceMagnolia Pictures; Release date: 2007-09-18; DVD
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
Bad RonaldWarner; Release date: 2009-11-17; Published: 2009; DVD
Best price: $11.49
Price in other shops:
Dark ChamberRYKODISC; Release date: 2008-02-26; DVD
Best price: $3.74
Price in other shops:
Black Death (+ Digital Copy)MHE; Release date: 2011-05-10; DVD
Best price: $14.49
Price in other shops:
HorrorELITE ENTERTAINMENT; Release date: 2003-05-27; DVD
Best price: $3.55
Price in other shops:
DesecrationRelease date: 2000-03-14; DVD
Best price: $67.89