Heartland of Darkness

After arriving in a small town, the owner of a local newspaper uncovers a conspiracy involving a slew of strange murders around the area revolving around a fanatical preacher that supposedly leads a Satanic cult, and the more he spends time there the more he uncovers their ruthless plans.

Overall, this was a generally enjoyable if somewhat flawed effort. Among the brighter parts of this one come from the stellar setup involving how the cult operates and carries out its activities that offer up their gradual discovery. With the series of murders appearing as soon as he gets there and the inquisitive nature of his proposition to get the paper running immediately resulting in publishing the articles that bring about the furor over their instances looking into what's going on, this all generates the kind of engaging setup that becomes far more immersive over time. The gradual reveal of the power and control the cult leader brandishes over everyone else, from their refusal to help him uncover the truth to the type of help willing to carry on the secret activities of the cult keeps this one moving along nicely building the mystery as to what's going on. That allows for some decent scenes here with the priest exerting his influence and control over others attempting to stop them, featuring some decent Action scenes throughout the town to accomplish this which has some exciting aspects here. There are some issues to be had with this one. The biggest problem is the highly convoluted and twisted nature of how the case gets unraveled since it seems almost as though he shows up at the town and things go South. Rather than slowly get indoctrinated or uncover the truth through a gradual slow-burning series of events, everything seems to get shoved into his face the second he arrives bringing about a rather unlikely scenario where he's allowed to roam free despite knowing what's going on from the start. For a cult trying to keep their presence a secret would not go through the move they do, this becomes quite frustrating that they would go through what they do as everything is so open that the utterly lame attempts at covering everything up only reveal what's going on further with how lackluster they are at concealing everything. This is almost hand-in-hand with the overlong finale which is unnecessarily overdone and features several rushed and underwhelming situations merely to get a bigger payoff but comes up short which all end up bringing this one down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Violence, and Nudity.

A single man with a teen daughter (Dino Tripodis & Sharon Klopfenstein) moves into a small town outside Columbus where he purchases a newspaper and hires a reporter (Shanna Thomas). Unfortunately, macabre slayings are occurring and they trace them to the town's dubious pastor (Nick Baldasare) and his goons. Queen of the Bs, Linnea Quigley, is on hand as one of the minister's disciples.

"Heartland of Darkness" was shot in 1989 and originally titled "Blood Church," but only a 35-minute workprint was available for promotion. It sat on the shelf (or was lost) for over three decades before post-production was completed with the addition of a few digital effects. It was finally released in late 2022. A similar thing happened to "Grizzly II: The Mutation," although that flick wasn't an Indie like this one.

The story was birthed from the American satanic panic of the 80s, which continued to spread around the globe in the 90s. Movies like "Bay Coven" (1987), "Spellbinder" (1988) and "Race With the Devil" (1975) come to mind, although those had way more funds with which to work.

Yet "Heartland of Darkness" is just as entertaining if you can forgive some lame acting here and there, e.g. The Sheriff. Dino Tripodis (Paul Henson) and Shanna Thomas (Shannon) are actually quite good for a B production while Baldasare (the "reverend") and Quigley tend to ham it up.

Redhead Shanna Thomas stands out on the feminine front. Speaking of which, all three of the women are shown top nude in brief flashes, except for Quigley who, to be expected, basks in showing off her wares.

The gore is quite good for such an old flick, even shocking. There's also some decent action, but Shanna Thomas isn't convincing as a martial arts practitioner in the climax.

At the end of the day this is colorful Indie horror from the late 80s with some questionable acting and predictableness, yet the filmmaking is certainly adequate and there are enough staples of the genre to make it worthwhile for those interested.

The film runs 1 hour, 42 minutes, and, was shot in Granville, Ohio, which is a 20-minute drive east of Columbus, with one sequence filmed in Columbus and other stuff done in Los Angeles.

GRADE: B-/C+

As an independent filmmaker too (I have also directed Linnea Quigley) I was really impressed with this. The word "ambitious" keeps coming to mind. Explosions, car chases, multiple locations, assassinations, big cast... not your typical low-budget indie film. The behind the scenes extras are just as interesting as the film. The acting is average but the cast give it their best, and the female reporter and the "daughter" (who is clearly 20-something) are easy on the eyes. Oh, and Linnea too, of course. Decent amounts of blood/gore and bare flesh. Overall the cult story was fun with a couple of twists, and a (mostly) happy ending. The Visual Vengeance limited edition bluray is highly recommended.

I managed to see 35 minutes long version of "Blood Church" with Linnea Quigley.The footage is raw,often dark and grainy,but the film looks certainly interesting.It deals with satanic sacrifice,murderous priest,who enjoys sacrificing virgins on his altar of blood and his church of devilish disciples.Sexy horror queen Linnea Quigley appears in three scenes and she is partially nude in two of them.Apparently 35-minutes long print of "Blood Church" was made to send around to potential investors in order to gather additional funding for the film.But the film was never finished or remains unreleased to this day.You can see for example cemetery sex scene between Linnea Quigley and Nick Baldasare or her sleazy death scene.7 out of 10,because "Blood Church" had a lot of potential.