I’ll say it!  I’m a sucker for hype!  If a horror film slowly develops any sort of positive spin around its name, I’ll be all over it like fava beans on liver (wash it down with a nice Chianti) and be first in line at my local video store to pick up a copy of the title.  When the word gets out that a film is “destined for cult status” I’m always a bit careful before any quick approach.  I find that much of the time, these films loose my interest with jumpy plot twists and characters that are sillier and more over the top than exciting elements to the story line.  Don’t get me wrong, it works in many films such as Army of Darkness and Rocky Horror Picture Show, but in most cases, films such as these come up very short in substance along with overall attempts at acquiring 90 minutes of enjoyable film viewing.  They may think they’re funny…but I rarely do.  Now, I’ve heard a lot about Dante Tomaselli’s films.  I’ve heard that it’s a shame that such a skilled director is damned for all eternity to have such lousy funding and overall sketchy production setups for his films that otherwise, have interesting plots, characters, and positive attributes and ideas to lend to other filmmakers in the horror industry.   Still, Tomaselli has acquired a good name for himself as an accomplished surrealist in independent film.  Satan’s Playground is his third film and happens to be my first from his library.  To be honest, with this film, I saw little in terms of Tomaselli’s promising technique that would even come close to backing up all the hype that has already surrounded him in his still very early career.

So now we have a group of mostly related individuals who are having a little bit of car trouble.  Like it or not, these people are our main characters.  Some of them sense that there is something evil lurking in the woods that surround the treacherous countryside but never the less, each of them decided to venture out to find help at a nearby battered down house that is the home of a very sadistic and evil family.  Cult members and the famous Jersey Devil haunt the surrounding woods and at times it seems our characters will have no place to run or hide to any places of safety.  Right away you’ll assume that Satan’s Playground will not give us a happy ending.  If you have devils, crazy cult members, and deranged psycho killers on your tail…gooood luck to ya.  These travelers are in for the worst…and so are you!

A long list could be made in terms of what goes wrong with Satan’s Playground.  The acting is horrendous to the point where the action in the film becomes horribly boring and repetitive.  This is a major disappointment seeing how this is Ellen Sandweiss (Within the Woods, The Evil Dead) we’re dealing with here and her underwhelming return to life in front of the camera.  Granted, acting talent throughout Sam Raimi’s masterpiece was not up to par with most independent films, but none the less, it almost worked to the films favor.  This is not so in Tomaselli’s third film and the acting talent here just adds to the overall miserable quality of the film itself.  Funny too, because Tomaselli, in many cases throughout Satan’s Playground, tends to mimic camera techniques originally associated with Raimi’s Evil Dead.  Ghostly figures (traveling by motorcycle it seems) haunt the surrounding forest in Satan’s Playground.  We’re constantly forced to watch through the spirits perspective as it chases down it’s potential pray.  These sequences are actually done quite well and these rather small groups of actors respond realistically to the mysterious horror that hovers around this dreary forest.  It’s when the characters are forced to react to each other is when the film becomes very unbelievable and amateur in nature.  There is no chemistry between any of the characters and there reactions to each are seem robotic and unnatural.  A complete miscast on every character but one, Irma St. Paule as the distraught palm reader (and witch) Mrs. Leeds.  Her character gets tiresome but mostly she adds a refreshing addition to the film…but, just wait till you find out about her horrible secret!  Ooooooooo crazy!
       
Of course, it’s not just the actors in the film that bring it to its overall downfall.  Although the plot is very interesting, the scenes are presented to us in an incredibly repetitive fashion.  How many unknowing travelers are going to knock on Mrs. Deed’s door?  How many times will Judy knock em out and drag them away?  When will the film end so I can make myself a sandwich…a big one?  These are all questions you’ll be asking yourself over and over again in between constant yawning.    Atmosphere alone is going to do little to add to the films excitement level.  Dante shows camera skills, but as a screen writer and overall scene coordinator he is miserable and amateur at best.  You’re not going to walk away with much after you see this film.  You will just be disappointed even if you acquire an interest in the mysteries behind the Jersey Devil or even independent horror in general.

I recommend this film to fans of The Evil Dead and other similar styles of low budget independent filmmaking.  It’s always interesting to see where current directors grab there inspiration from and even solute other filmmakers in their own personal works.  You’ll still be very frustrated with Satan’s Playground and find it hard to be interested in any kind of second viewing, but still, it might be good to follow along with Tomaselli as he manages to grab a small selected part of the medias attention.  In closing, I’ll say it again, I’m a sucker for hype, and in the end I altogether found Tomaselli’s third film to be a major disappointment in almost every regard.
 
My Score:  2/10