Dante Tomaselli is a trippy guy who makes trippy movies. With only two films under his belt before the release of 2005's Satan's Playground, he's made quite a name for himself in the world of low budget, independent filmmaking and for someone who is still in the early stages of his career he seems to have built quite a following. This has all happened with good reason. His first two films, Desecration and Horror were not perfect but they were as atmospheric as can be and both movies contained some truly chilling imagery and utterly bizarre storylines. They were acid trip nightmares committed to film and while not everyone appreciated the surrealist aspects of these earlier two efforts, some of us jumped in with both feet and found that it all just worked.

With Satan's Playground Tomaselli has changed things up a bit, and one could even make the argument that he's gone mainstream. In a sense, this is true in that this is a far more accessible film than the two that came before it, at least as far as the narrative is concerned. Rest assured, however, there's still more than enough weirdness contained herein for fans of his headier stuff to sink their teeth into.

The film follows a family made up of Frank Bruno (Salvatore Paul Piro who has had bits parts in Sleepers and The Sopranos) and his wife, Donna (Felissa Rose of Sleepaway Camp) who are driving through the New Jersey Pine Barrens with Donna's sister, Paula (Ellen Sandweiss of The Evil Dead), her infant son, and their own son, Sean (Danny Lopes who Tomaselli has used in both Desecration and Horror) who suffers from autism. Of course, as they're driving through the wood in their wagon the car gets stuck in a nasty pothole and they find themselves stranded out there alone in the deep, dark woods.

Frank is the first to leave the car in search of help. He comes across a rundown old house not too far from where they were stranded and is relieved when an old lady named Ms. Leeds (Irma St. Paule of 12 Monkeys and Desecration) answers the door accompanied by her deaf/mute daughter, Judy (Christie Sanford, another Tomaselli regular who has appeared in both of his prior films). They let him in to use the phone but before you know it he's been slapped in the head with a hammer shortly after witnessing a Satanic ritual being conducted out by the side of the house. His wife starts to wonder where he is and soon enough, she's gone looking for him and she too comes across the house. Sean starts to panic in the car and he goes off looking for his mother leaving Paula and her baby alone in the car. With Leeds and her daughter out there doing the devil's work and her son (played by Edwin Neal of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre getting rid of the evidence, a gang of Satanists prowling the area, and an unseen creature or evil force watching and stalking the family, it goes without saying that they're going to find themselves in for one Hell of a night.

The story for the film is very simple and very straight forward. It is, essentially, one person after another heading to the house and having to deal with the evil that inhabits it. Underneath the surface, however, there's a bit more going on than that. The narrative is basic but the imagery and little details that haunt the film are a bit more complex than the simplistic nature of the storyline initially leads you to believe. There's a lot of sinister imagery in the movie that really plays up the unseen evil force that's out there (which we're introduced to by way of a few nods to Raimi's The Evil Dead what with the camera flying through the woods as it does). Additionally, there are a few occult traits to the house where Mrs. Leeds and her family live, from the palm reading sign to the way in which a certain room is decorated. Tomaselli ties it all in quite nicely to the urban legend of the Jersey Devil and the Leeds family and while the results are not perfect, they're still pretty impressive.

There are a few flaws in the film, most of which relate to the casting. First and foremost, Salvatore Paul Piro isn't believable as Felissa Rose's husband. There's too much of an age difference between the two and we're given nothing that explains why they're together. While this isn't really necessary to enjoy the story, it would have helped us understand what they were doing together in the first place and made their journey through the woods less puzzling. It also needs to be mentioned that there are a few times in the film where both Irma St. Paule and Christie Sanford overact. This was probably intentional, but it borders on camp in spots though the good outweighs the bad as far as they're concerned in that most of their screen time is well thought out and well executed.

Felissa Rose and Ellen Sandweiss are pretty good in their parts and while Edwin Neal doesn't have a ton of screen time he's amusing in his small but important part. Danny Lopes as the autistic Sean is quite good in the film, and he's far and away the most sympathetic character of the lot – when he starts calling for his 'mommy' from the back of the station wagon it's hard not to feel sorry for him, knowing that he loves her more than anything in the world as someone with a child's mind would but seeing how his family treats him.

What really makes Satan's Playground work, however, isn't the acting or the storyline so much as it is the atmosphere and the visuals. There are cinematic nods to both The Evil Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in here but even with those little tributes this movie definitely has its own unique style. The smoky lighting and colored tones are reminiscent of a lot of sixties and seventies Italian horror films, which were obviously an inspiration for Tomaselli, but the locations and sets have a uniquely North American look to them which makes for a really interesting contrast of styles. The movie looks better than it's fairly low budget should have allowed for and if nothing else this is a fantastic looking film.

Know going in that Satan's Playground will leave you scratching your head over a few things. Yes, Tomaselli is playing it much straighter here than he has in the past but this is still an odd film despite the simple story structure. It won't answer all your questions nor does it need to. It's a pretty accomplished work for someone with only two films under his belt prior, and one of the better and more creative low budget features to come out in some time.

Video:

Anchor Bay Entertainment's 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen presentation of Satan's Playground looks pretty solid. Shot on super 16mm, this is a pretty colorful film with a lot of smoky scenes and if the authoring had been off it would have resulted in a lot of pixelation and messy visuals but thankfully that's not the case here. Color reproduction is quite accurate and even when there's smoke or fog in the frame (which is more often than not) detail levels remain strong. Flesh tones look lifelike and accurate when they're supposed to and sufficiently sickly when they're not supposed to and the blacks stay pretty deep throughout the movie.