Daughters Of Satan [DVD]

rather disappointing film about witches and the supernatural starring tom selleck as a husband who's wife becomes interested in witchcraft after seeing what apparently is a portrait of herself as a witch from centuries past. eventually her interest in witches turns to obsession, she joins a cult, and then becomes a witch herself.
although the film lacks a strong storyline and plot, and the acting is awful (even selleck's), it does succeed at creating a dark, eerie atmosphere and the movie does have genuinely disturbing moments. the music is very fitting, too.
about what i said before in regard to selleck's acting, it truly is bad, but this is one of his earliest roles (maybe his first) and i don't think you should judge anyone by their first flick. aside from selleck, i dont believe any of the other people in the film ever made the step above B-movie status.
even though i've only given this film a 2 star rating, i think its worth sitting through atleast once for a chance to see a young and amateurish tom selleck, if for no other reason.
fans of tom may feel as though they've been "stabbed in the back" after witnessing the film's schocking surprise ending.

I found and rented this at a video outlet that includes alot of hard-to-find, little known films. The front cover has a hand-drawn and painted picture of Tom Selleck holding a knife, with tied-up witches in the backround. The tagline read,"When Satan meets Selleck, sparks fly!" The plot description on the back included the sentence,"Selleck fans will love every minute of it, right on the edge of their seats." All this had me thinking that Tom would be playing an Ash-type horror movie hero, where he would at first be menaced but then would ultimatly end up kicking evil's butt. Well, that turned out not to be the case. Tom's character makes a narrow escape from death once or twice in the film, but otherwise seems to be playing your standered horror-movie male victim.

Selleck plays Jim Roberts, a professional art expert who's been living in the Philippines for the past four months with his wife, Chris. Then one day Jim is visiting an art shop when he finds a painting from the year 1592, showing three women and a black dog about to be burned to the stake by Spanish witch hunters. Jim decides to buy it and take it home with him. (Good idea, buy a painting with a woman who looks exactly like your wife who's about to be burned alive so you can take it home to show to her. Yeah, I'm sure she'll really love you for that.) Anyway, his wife Chris is understandably creeped out by it.

Later on strange things happen. They hire a native housekeeper named Juana Rios. O.K., that's not so strange, but then Juana tells Chris she's a reincarnation of a witch who was burned to death centeries before, that her husband is the decendant of one of the men who burned her to death, and that she must kill him. Characters in the picture begin to fade away, and a black dog just like the one in the painting appears and tries to attack Jim every chance it gets, but Chris and Juana are able to calm it down. A Philipino psychiatrist, Dr. Dangal, tries to warn Jim that his loving wife is being used by outside forces against her will to try to kill him. The doctor is also a decendant of one of the witch-hunters, and he soon is killed. In Jim's one and only somewhat-heroic scene, he narrowly escapes getting killed by some of the male members of the witch cult. Chris soon seems to become a different person, and soon is reaching for a large knife whenever her husband is around...

(SPOILER WARNING!)

This film will probably upset especially people who are Tom Selleck fans, mostly because of the ending. (That is, apart from the torture scenes we see in the witch covent. Ah, the 1970s.) At the end, the three witches-Chris, Juana, and Kitty, a patient of Dr. Dangal's, drug Jim and put him in his car over a cliff, with blocks of ice holding his car in place. They then go to a diner. As to why they don't just kill him right away, maybe they need to have him die right at midnight, I don't know. (My memory is a little hazy.) Anyway, the blocks of ice melt, the car goes down the cliff in flames, and at midnight, the three women suddenly get back their own personalities and are suddenly wondering how they got where they are. Chris goes home, having the worst feeling that something awful's happened to her husband. But wait! Once she gets home, she finds Jim waiting to greet her! Jim is quite confused himself, having woken up in his car and then having gotten out of it just before it went off a cliff. Then as they go to bed, they see the black dog that always hated Jim in the house, though now acting quite friendly and tame. And the characters in the picture are now all back in it, with none of them fading out. Everything seems to be all O.K.

OR IS IT?!?! For just as we think the film's going to have a happy ending and Selleck fans can walk away with a faverable memory of the movie, just as Jim is cuddling with Chris and has his back turned to the painting, the woman who looks like his wife fades away, and then Chris, possessed again, takes a knife and quite litterally backstabs Jim. Cue end credits.

This is one of those films I saw as a kid on late night TV, and it scared the bejeezus out of me. Then I saw it by chance in college, and it was so silly and funny...but still a little creepy. Yes, bad acting, bad filmmaking, bad plot, but why do I still like it? I agree with another reviewer about the MST-3K quality to this film...plus beefcakey Tom Selleck thrown in for good measure. It touches all the 70's taboos: a bit grindhouse, a bit sexploitation, a bit of S & M, AND a kick butt ending you'll never see coming. I'd say it is solid B-movie fare.

I saw this movie on late night TV once.A tale of witches and a curse, set in The Phillipines, with Tom Selleck wearing Lacoste shirts.Very 1970's,Interesting looking actresses.Quite low key.This is like an old TV episode of "Night Gallery".It is even centered around a painting like the "Night Gallery" episodes always were.Just a little more "adult"(there is a scene or two of bare breasts).If you like Tom Selleck and you liked him in "Magnum P.I." then you should like him in this.Even though this is about 10 years before "Magnum" he looks and acts pretty much the same.He is even investigating the aforementioned painting.He has had that moustache a long time. This movie worked for me on a cross marketing basis.So impressed was I with Tom's Lacoste shirts that I went out and bought a couple in his colours.This film does have a twist ending.You may or may not see it coming.Overall,just a very mediocre film. More like a 70's TV movie.

OK, this isn't a bad film but don't sit and watch this with your teenagers. The graphic torture scene in the beginning of this film will probable limit your veiwing this film to the older horror buffs. It will cause great pyscological harm to any child unless he's related to Chucky. The plot carries the movie as Magnum (Selleck) living in the Philippines (So Hawaii), married to a beautiful woman. Turned possessed pyscho by a coven of native witches who want to end his miserable life. Classic B Movie Good vs Evil mixed with the some very sick (director's "Hollingsworth Morse") thoughts. Too, sexually graphic to see with kids, Tom Selleck fans may want to avoid this unless you like sick creepy stuff that stays with you forever.