Satanik

Many of the other reviewers cite the suspect quality of this release on Retromedia. I just purchased this title from Sinister Cinema and the print quality is very good. The color is not as vivid as one would prefer but is not washed out in the least. Considering the movie is almost 40 years old the color of the print is really quite fine. The print has no jump cuts or jarring splices, the audio and video are in perfect sync and the print runs a full 84 minutes.My rating is specifically for overall print quality. As with most other reviewers, I found the movie a bit tedious but I'm glad that I watched it and own a copy. Kudos to Sinister Cinema as they are a consistent class act in regards to making hard to find titles available in the best possible presentation. Their Krimi releases are especially outstanding!

This Spanish-Italian co-production tells an interesting and weird story about Dr. Bannister, a woman that not only has the best years behind her, but also has a scarred face that makes her look like a freak. But in Madrid, a professor she knows has conducted some experiments on animals with a substance which regenerates cells. The experiments were successful, but the animals became aggressive. Because the professor won't allow Dr. Bannister to be the first human guinea pig, she kills him and consumes the substance. She becomes a beautiful young woman, but also a vicious killer when it comes to keep her secret a secret.

The plot of the film is great fun, but Piero Vivarelli had not enough skills and money to make a cool movie out of it. Also, the film becomes boring after a good start and doesn't manage to regain a fast pace even though the film's running time doesn't exceed 83 minutes. And as the setting changes to Swiss city Geneva for the last third of the film, it sometimes even looks like a vacation movie as we see how beautiful Geneva is (which it is indeed - but it doesn't help to push the plot forward...). So, with a more talented director, better actors and a bigger budget, "Satanik" could have become an obscure Italian classic. But, as it is, it's just a lacklustre and boring crime film that isn't really worth looking for. Rating: 3 out of 10.

A brilliant scientist by the name of "Professor Greaves" (Nerio Bernardi) has just invented a serum that rejuvenates cells and reverses the aging process. His assistant, "Dr. Marny Bannister" (Magda Konopka) desperately wants the formula due to the fact that she is scarred and ugly. However, Professor Greaves is cautious and wants to do more research before even attempting to try it out on a human being. Dr. Bannister then kills Professor Greaves and ingests the serum which turns her into the young and beautiful woman she always wanted to be. But there are two important factors which Dr. Bannister failed to take into account. First, the formula unleashes savage and primordial desires into whoever takes it. The second factor is that the serum wears off after a period of time and the person reverts back to their previous form. What follows is a murderous rampage by Dr. Bannister who is not averse to using her beauty to further her evil desires. Although it was originally filmed in Italian, the English dubbing was very noticeable. Also quite noticeable was the fact that a scene or two was cut rather abruptly. This gave the film a kind of choppy feel. Still, Magda Konopka looked great and the film had a nice late-60's atmosphere to it. All things considered I give it an average rating.

Deformed, aged female scientist kills fellow scientist in order to steal formulae for rejuvenating cells and reversing the aging process. She takes it and turns into the beautiful, evil Satanik (Magda Konopka) who goes around, seducing and murdering wealthy businessmen.

She dresses very stylishly in late-60s mod clothes and manipulates those around her, looking a lot like the late Marisa Mell from the DIABOLIK film. Coincidence??

However, in spite of all this, it's amateurish and sloppy without the James Bond pop-art gadgetry that DIABOLIK had had. Even the Madrid and Lake Geneva filming locations don't make up for this.

The soundtrack is by Manuel Parada & Roberto Pregadio and it isn't bad at all, consisting of lush orchestration with a little fuzz guitar used as an embellishment. Perfect for one of those European Loungecore CDs that came out in the 90s.

The Retromedia DVD also uses a substandard grainy color print that's in poor shape, with an explanation at the beginning saying that this was due to the age of the film. Bull ! They either didn't bother looking for a better source or they couldn't find one at all. There are only a few stills of Magda and that's it.

Sloppy & poor all around, this one gets a 3 out of 10.

The level of success of SATANIK as a film is entirely dependant upon the audience viewing it. An audience expecting something along the lines of OPERAZIONE PAURA or CASTLE OF BLOOD will be disappointed. This isn't a horror film. Even an audience expecting a giallo in the Argento / Fulci tradition is bound to be dissatisfied by the lack of creative violence and relatively mild gore. In 1968 the target audience for this film were the readers of the hugely successful fumetti neri that had already led to popular cinematic spin-offs of DIABOLIK and KRIMINAL. When viewed in this light, SATANIK becomes a much more successful, though no better, film.

In most respects the film is fairly faithful to its literary origins. Marny Bannister, a brilliant but horribly disfigured scientist, ingests a chemical formula that transforms her into a beautiful, but soulless, homicidal femme fatal. Though the base premise relies upon science fiction rudiments, the stories in the original comics tended more towards the Rialto Edgar Wallace krimis than any genre effort by Antonio Margheriti. Horror elements did crop up in the comic, notably the Dorian Gray like character Alex Bey and Satanik's long running battle with the vampire, Count Wurdalak, but such fantastical story lines were interspaced with more conventional crime thrillers. It is from the latter that SATANIK the film takes its inspiration.

It is easy to dismiss the movie as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde done up as a travelogue, but it is unlikely that film audiences familiar with the comic original would have been disappointed. In terms of plot all the fundamentals have been transferred from the comic into the screenplay, with some scenes lifted almost verbatim. The casting of the central role is excellent. The beautiful Magda Konopka displays both the proper malicious delight in her newfound beauty and callous disregard for her pawns and victims and even very much resembles her comic book counterpart. Where the film falls short is in structure, directorial ambition, and resolution.

Other than the avaricious desires of our central character, there really is no central narrative to the film. To its detriment, it is more a series of episodes, strung loosely together. While the same criticism could be easily leveled against the film version of DIABOLIK, that film enjoyed superior pacing and visual interest thanks to the brilliance of director Mario Bava. Indeed Bava could have done much for SATANIK as the direction of Piero Vivarelli is only workmanlike throughout, lacking in ambition and dynamism. The most blatant weakness of the film is its final few minutes. The ending of the film seems hurried, hackneyed and uninspired, owing more to a bland requirement to see justice done at the end then to provide a satisfying conclusion. Something akin to the last moments of SILENCE OF THE LAMBS or the original HALLOWEEN would have been far more effective.

This film is available on DVD in North America in an unspectacular, cropped 4:3 English dubbed release. A superior widescreen DVD release is currently available in Europe, with the original Italian audio track. The Italian DVD has no English audio or subtitles.

Historical Note: SATANIK is closely adapted from the Italian comic series created in 1964 by writer Max Bunker and artist Magnus (pseudonym of Roberto Raviola). In the same year the pair also created the character "Kriminal" whose modus operandi and skull and bones costume were usurped by the character "Killing" two years later. When the fumetti Killing stories were reprinted in France the character was renamed "Satanik" and eventually "Sadistik" in America. This character was brought to film as "Kilink" in a series of productions from Turkey. The original Satanik series was renamed "Demoniak" when reprinted in France, so as not to be confused with the already existing "Satanik" title. And of course an entirely different character called "Demoniak" already exited in Italy.