italamerican27-1 3 1/2 stars. With SATAN'S PLAYGROUND (Anchor Bay), filmmaker Dante Tomaselli uses a traditional drive-in movie story as a way to anchor the hallucinogenic style of his previous films. This tale of a vacationing family lost in the woods, assaulted by a supernatural entity and a freaky backwoods clan, is "old fashioned," as Tomaselli says on his commentary, "but laced with LSD." Running a taut and feverish 81 minutes, this visually striking throwback to 1970s horror classics was shot in 1.85:1 widescreen (16x9-enhanced here) and the atmosphere of dread is immeasurably aided by highly evocative Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. Tomaselli draws strong performances from genre heroines Felissa Rose and Ellen Sandweiss as potential victims and Texas Chainsaw Massacre hitchhiker Ed Neal as one of the crazies, which only adds to the retro feel. Even though Tomaselli clearly loves The Evil Dead and frequently tips his hat, his portrait of a dysfunctional family under pressure feels personal and sometimes scathing. It's never artsy for its own sake, though, and can just as easily be enjoyed as a spooky funhouse ride -- a character's paranoid walk down a hallway toward a secret room is a nailbiter that builds to a brutally abrupt jolt. While his commentary and an on camera interview with Tomaselli reveal him as a passionate genre filmmaker, the behind-the-scenes featurette is unfortunately an uninspired puff piece. For a more in-depth look at the director, we'll have to wait for Christopher P.Garetano's upcoming documentary The Horror of Dante Tomaselli (trailered here) - - but until then, this DVD is a fine addition to a strong filmmaker's growing body of work.

Anthony Laura It's been a long time since I rented a horror movie that simply looked scary. Satan's Playground stars some of horrors best known stars. I am not one of the biggest fans of the Evil Dead and Texas Chainsaw movies. However, I decided to give this film a watch. Upon the first few minutes of the film, I was immediately taken in. The way the film catches you from the beginning moments right up until the fade out to the credits is something that rarely happens with a film in this genre. Many people, I've read in reviews, have been turned away from this film because they think it is generalized with Evil Dead-type films. Please do not be fooled by this in any way. The truth is the psychological version of this film far beats the horror elements. If I had to make a fair comparison I would say it has the psychological elements of Halloween and the scare factors of Rosemary's Baby. Taking place in the New Jersey area, and following the characters whose subplots are just as interesting as what's happening in front of you, peels back every layer of horror in a reality based environment. Tomaselli is a genius and should go on record as becoming the next Craven in horror masters. He knows how to captivate his audience. Most importantly, he knows exactly what to leave out and lets the subtext speak for itself. As an avid moviegoer myself, I buy movies regularly, as opposed to most people who just rent. If there's one thing I can say for certain about this film is that this will go in my collection under "Things to Watch on October 31st/and Friday the 13th."

smittie-1 What a mess. And I had good feelings, too, after the first five minutes. After a competent, simple POV attack scene I waited with baited breath, anxiously pondering what horrific form the Jersey Devil would take, what terrible possibilities a film like this could play with . . . and the monster totally dropped out of the movie. The next twenty minutes consisted of three people in a car being "dramatic". Still, I thought, ol' Jersey D can't be far away, eh? No. I'm not even gonna lead you on anymore. After the "character" scenes the movie lurches into a load of bushwah about a psychotic backwoods family and a satanic cult, but you shouldn't bother taking notes, because none of it goes anywhere. At all. It's a completely empty movie, no motivation, no story, not even any scares. You could rearrange all of the scenes and it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference. And the Jersey Devil stays a POV shot the whole film. But hey, that's "nightmare logic" for you, right? Right?No, it's crap, and Dante Tomaselli should be called out on it. A bad movie's still bad, even if you can wax philosophic about it on your commentary track, and a movie with no plot can't get away with "nightmare logic" (director's words) if there's nothing else for it to fall back on.

spacemonkey_fg Horror director Dante Tomaselli is keeping the old school horror movie alive. You know, the kind of horror film that actually takes itself seriously in trying to scare the crap out of you. The kind of horror film that doesn't rely some much on computer effects or silly boo scares. The kind of horror film that concentrates more on creating a brooding threatening atmosphere instead of trying to make the next witty pop culture reference. Yes sir, the old school horror is alive and kicking in the hands of Dante Tomaselli. The story is about the Bruno family. A pretty normal family going out for a vacation in the middle of the Pine Barren Woods in New Jersey. They think its going to be a fun filled weekend with the family in a cozy little cabin, but when they get a flat tire in the middle of the woods things take a turn to the wild and crazy side. They encounter the Leeds family. A family of demented drug addicted freaks of nature who are interested in killing, maiming and making the life of the Brunos a living hell. Literally! Satans Playground starts out like a straight forward horror film with the family getting lost in the woods and all that and we get to meet yet another crazy demented family living out in the middle of nowhere. But thats when the normal, straight forward horror movie premise ends. After that it turns into a Dante Tomaselli movie and I loved that! To be quite honest, what I love about Tomasellis films is the dreamlike feel that they have. Even though Tomaselli aims for what others would consider a normal horror movie with Satans Playground, he still descends into his trademark hallucinogenic nightmarish world. So be ready for a movie that mixes it up. We get equal parts straight forward horror, and equal parts Tomaselli going crazy with his interesting dream logic and nightmarish images. He does a good job once again in bringing his nightmares to life.The performances were great all along. I loved seeing Felissa Rose disintegrate; she did a fantastic job of reacting to all the craziness going on around her. She dominates most of the movie with her solid performance and is quite obviously the lead in the film. Ellen Sandweiss who horror fans (myself included) know and love from Evil Dead gets a chance to once again run crazy through the woods as she did in her previous encounters with evil spirits in Sam Raimis horror classic . She also turns in an interesting performance as she goes insane looking for her lost baby. The most interesting performance in the film comes from the most unexpected of places: Irma St. Paul. She plays the leader of the crazy family and does a memorable take on the crazy mother role. She snorts coke, she hammers people with sledge hammers and she lies to the cops like a pro. I really enjoyed her character and would love to see her in another horror movie soon. Christie Sanford plays a deaf and mute women and Sanford effectively channels evil almost as perfectly as she did in Tomasellis first film Desecration in which she played Sister Madeline, the evil demonic nun. She has that evil cackle of a laugh and that demented look thats sure to spook anyone. Here she plays a child like killer who wears pony tails and walks around in her Pijamas bludgeoning people with a sledgehammer.Speaking of sledgehammers, I was a bit disappointed by the absence of gore in this film. Though Tomaselli has never been an extremely gory director ala Lucio Fulci, (Tomaselli tends to focus more on the horrors of the mind) I was expecting a bit more gruesomeness to take place on screen. As it is, there are killings and mayhem, but most of the time they happen off screen or are suggested. Except of course for that one gloriously gory scene that makes up for it. Wow when that scene came on I was cheering! As much as I like Tomasellis films I must admit that this movie had a glitch or two. There's a couple of things that I just could not pass up. I know that cops are often times portrayed in films as being completely incompetent, but in this movie they really take the taco. The way the cops act in this film seemed completely unrealistic to me. Or maybe the cop on this film was just a real idiot or something.Watching this movie with Dante Tomasellis audio commentary on will not only help you understand many of the films unexplained plot points (like the Leeds family true nature) and apparent logic gaps but its also a glimpse into a horror directors mind. This audio commentary is the way a real audio commentary should be like. Very scene specific! Rarely does Tomaselli diverge into talking about things we don't care about. He is really into his films, really into his world and what he is trying to convey through his films. So I highly recommend that after you watch the film, you watch it again but with the directors audio commentary. So in conclusion, this movie isn't perfect, its got a few glitches here and there. But it is a highly entertaining film with good performances. Plus its just fun, in Tomasellis own style. It has that old school charm of a 70s horror film. Its like taking The Evil Dead, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween and The Shinning and adding that twisted Tomaselli touch. No unrealistic CGI, no WB teenage stars. Satans Playground is low tech, old school horror, and it shows that a lot can be done with very little money. With a budget of roughly 500,000 I think that Tomaselli achieved a heck of a lot. I cant wait to see what he will do next!