Daughters of Satan

James Robertson (Tom Selleck) buys a painting depicting witches being burned at the stake, one of whom bears an uncanny resemblance to his wife (Barra Grant).

This is Tom Selleck before "Magnum PI", but still with the same great mustache... much, much better than the film "Runaway". Some of the stunts are pretty cool (like flipping over a horse). I would like to believe Selleck did them himself, but I am not so gullible.

The film opens with a pretty intense scene, possibly a sacrifice, and soon after we are treated to a story of a satanic knife... definitely a solid start to a movie.

Director Hollingsworth Morse worked almost exclusively in television, and it shows, though not in a bad way. The quality is television quality, but the story really holds strong for the full length.

The film takes place in the Philippines... and it makes me wonder: was this a decision because of the plot (which does revolve around Spanish conquistadors) or because of budget? The Philippines were a notorious hotspot for low budget films... curious.

Vic Diaz was so good in The Big Bird Cage that I just had to see him again to see if he was as funny in all his films. He was in 112 films and is considered the jolly evil fat man of Filipino exploitation cinema. It may take a while to track them all down.

As a bonus, this is Tom Selleck's (Magnum P.I., Blue Bloods, Jesse Stone series) third film. He even has a mustache then.

Jim (Selleck) finds a painting of a witch burning, and the with looks like a dead ringer for his wife Chris (Barra Grant). Suspicious things start occurring. She blurts out the exact date of the burning, and a dog in the painting disappears after she sees it for real. Things just get stranger from there.

It's all about revenge for a 16th century crime. Very interesting.

Early Tom Selleck film where he and his wife encounter a coven of witches. The coven think that Selleck's wife is a reincarnated witch from a painting. It is always good to see the great character actor Vic Diaz but even he can't help with the fact that the material here just isn't that compelling. Some good exploitation like when Barra Grant as his wife is strapped down naked and whipped. But there are too many slow scenes that drag on agonizingly and I think the film could have been boosted with more shots of the exotic Philippine locale. Not terrible but story needed some sort of adrenaline shot somewhere in the middle.

Low budget shot-in-the-Phillipines quickie has Tom Selleck being pursued by his suddenly homocidal wife and two other women. Seems that Tom is the descendant of a Spanish Inquisition witch hunter who burned a certain trio of accused women to death and was cursed by the dying women that their spirits would kill all of his descendants. The spirits have possessed the wife and two other women(an American jet-setter and and RN from Manila)to do the deed. Enjoyable pap with future MAGNUM PI star, directed by Hollingsworth Morse, who usually directed TV shows like FAMILY AFFAIR and H.R. PUFNSTUF!It's a long, long way from Living Island!

After buying a strange painting at a sale, a man begins to suspect something sinister is occurring after noticing his wife's resemblance to a figure in the painting and comes to realize that a coven of witches are involved and tries to stop them before he becomes a victim of their wrath.

This was an admittedly fun witchcraft movie, though it does has a few minor areas of improvement to really work itself out of it's overall hum-drum feel. That's the main fault of the pacing in this one feeling just so dreary that nothing really exciting happens, with everyone tending to talk about the proceedings since the film plays it off as a mystery about painting and the reincarnation which can be fun but overall it tends to just drag the pace out. That said, the mystery angle here is actually inviting due to being a rather creepy mystery surrounding the painting, the few action scenes are rather well-done and it's certainly got enough horror elements to keep it enjoyable. Plus, any film that opens with topless female whipping definitely has it's head in the right direction. Overall, not bad but has some problems.

Rated R: Violence, Language and Nudity.