Club Satan: The Witches Sabbath Review

Distributor: Extreme Associates Edition Details: Edited Version DVD Movie Specs: Genres: Feature Film, Horror Also known as: The Devil in Miss Gables Run Time: 75 minutes Rated: XXX Release Year: 2007 Director: Shane Bugbee Written by: Shane Bugbee, Amy Bugbee Cast: Heather Gables (as Paris Gables), Cassandra Cruz, Dakota Cameron (as Dakota), Mikael Svanberg (as Dark Funeral), Magnus "Masse" Broberg (as Dark Funeral), Matte Modin (as Dark Funeral), Benny Fors (as Dark Funeral), Bo Karlsson (as Dark Funeral), Matt Zane (as Matt "The Lord" Zane), Shane Bugbee, Kyle Stone, Frank Towers, Dominic Ross (as Dominic), Rick Masters, John West, Scott Lyons Release Specs: Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: none Video: Full Frame, 1.33:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 1

Club Satan: The Witches Sabbath is an adult horror feature movie from co-writer and director Shane Bugbee. Club Satan: The Witches Sabbath made some news upon its release due to the claim that the movie contained an actual black mass and because of a falsified press release from Extreme Associates stating that some of the cast and crew walked out of production due to the extreme anti-Christian acts being performed in the movie. There was also some news because Bugbee is, according to Bugbee himself, a high priest in the late Anton Szandor LaVey's Church of Satan; supposedly anointed by LaVey himself. However, viewers will quickly find that this was all hype by Extreme Associates to try and sell a poorly made adult movie.

Unfortunately for Bugbee, being a high priest in the Church of Satan isn't a qualification for writing or directing an adult movie. Extreme Associates should have paired Bugbee up with someone who was familiar with writing and directing experience because Bugbee's lack of experience shows. The movie is poorly constructed with little thought to story telling techniques.

The biggest problem with Club Satan: The Witches Sabbath is that the movie tries to go for shock value when Bugbee should have been more concerned with trying to make a cohesive feature movie. There isn't any coherency within the plot of the movie; the movie just meanders from scene to scene, none of which make any sense, obviously hoping the viewer is so shocked that they fail to notice all the deficiencies within the movie. Frankly, Club Satan: The Witches Sabbath is nothing more than a boring contrived mess.

The attempt at a story in the movie has Lilly (Heather Gables), who has gone 69 days since her last confession, confessing to a priest to deep dark sexual desires. The priest sends her to two nuns (Cassandra Cruz and Dakota Cameron) who abuse her and then throw her out of the church for being filthy and godless. Lilly is then lured by Simon Iff (Kyle Stone) to a black mass where Satan (Frank Towers) breaks her in.

The movie opens with Lilly going from her house to a playground where she plays before going to see the priest on a windy day. While this is going on black metal music is pumping in the background feeling very out of place. This drawn out opening is slow and serves no purpose to the movie. The black metal soundtrack plays through the movie, with no thought to whether it fits the scene or not.

The sets in the movie are poorly and obviously cheaply constructed. The black mass is held in a cramped set hastily assembled in Extreme Associates' warehouse and the exterior of their warehouse is used for most of the outdoor scenes. None of the sets or locations used look real and some of them are obviously reused with no redressing. The nuns use the same set as the black mass does along with what looks like a corner of the Extreme warehouse with garbage in it. The confessional is a small blanket on a floor. The audio doesn't always watch the video and almost seems to be more of a sales pitch for the director's cut than anything else.

The sex scenes are a major let down. Bugbee tries to go for shock over any attempt at eroticism. The viewer has no sense of a woman losing her innocence as the movie progresses. It is just one act after another that Bugbee seems to think would shock and offend the audience but just comes across as a juvenile attack on religion. Too much time is spent on “shock factor” and none on eroticism. It is doubtful any viewer will find the sex scenes here to be of much interest.

The finale of the movie was shot at the Key Club in Hollywood, California, when the black metal group Dark Funeral played there on January 21, 2007. It is completely unclear as to why Bugbee opted to include this footage since it appears to not have been shot by Extreme Associates. While it does feature Heather Gables, the footage looks completely different than the rest of the movie because it is in widescreen and the angles captured are horrible mostly capturing the backs of people.

Not everything about Club Satan: The Witches Sabbath is bad. The prosthetic work on Frank Towers' face to transform him into Satan was well done and looked really good. However, at one point there is a lot of black makeup applied over the prosthetic work which renders it impossible to see and looks odd.

There is absolutely no reason why any viewer would want to see this mess. Club Satan: The Witches Sabbath isn't a shocking adult horror movie, it is just a poorly and cheaply made adult movie. This reviewer doubts that even the most devout followers of the Church of Satan would be impressed by this mess.

Extreme Associates has done a good job with their DVD release of Club Satan: The Witches Sabbath. Club Satan: The Witches Sabbath was shot digitally and is presented in the academy aspect ratio of 1.33:1 in 480i. The very end of the movie is presented in non-anamorphic widescreen of 1.85:1. It is very hard to rate the video quality of Club Satan: The Witches Sabbath. The movie was shot digitally and then digital effects were added to most of the movie to create heavy grain, artifacts, and print damage. There is a little footage that wasn't purposely degraded. Most of the film features muted colors but there are places where there is hyper-color. Dark scenes are very murky with a lack of definition. This reviewer has to assume that the image looks as bad as it is supposed to.

The version of Club Satan: The Witches Sabbath offered on the DVD release is the edited version. Extreme Associates also offered a director's cut of the movie, which was only available as VOD through their website and never as a DVD. This reviewer doesn't know how much footage is missing from the director's cut. There is a portion of the sex scene called “Piss Christ Baptism” by Extreme Associates with Heather Gables, Cassandra Cruz, and Dakota Cameron that was cut. The cut portion has Lilly (Heather Gables) kneeling before a nun (Cassandra Cruz) with a vase and a cross with Jesus on it is inserted into the vase. The nun pees in the vase and then the cross is used as a baptismal tool on Lilly.

Club Satan: The Witches Sabbath is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo audio track. For the most part, the audio is good with clear and understandable dialog. There are some places where the audio is incomprehensible, but like with the video, this seems to be intentional and therefore can't be considered a defect in the audio.

Extreme Associates has included a few extras on this release. There is a behind the scenes featurette that runs for 14 minutes. There is a cumshot recap which runs for three minutes. There is information on the edited version and the director's cut in text form and a photo gallery.

Club Satan: The Witches Sabbath is a feature horror adult movie from Church of Satan high priest Shane Bugbee and Extreme Associates. Truly good horror adult movies are few and far between and, unfortunately, Club Satan: The Witches Sabbath is not a good movie in any sense. The plot is an absolute mess, the movie was obviously cheaply made, and the intention behind the movie was just to shock the audience — which the movie completely fails at. Club Satan: The Witches Sabbath is not recommended for any viewer. Extreme Associates has done a good job with their DVD release of Club Satan: The Witches Sabbath. The video is poor but it appears to be that way intentionally and the audio is good.

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