One of the great things about running Fear Zone these last couple of years, and writing my book CHEAP SCARES! Low Budget Horror Filmmakers Share Their Secrets, is that I've been motivated to see innovative movies I might not have caught otherwise. Chief among these have been the Glass Eye Pix, produced in part by Larry Fessenden (HABIT, WEDIGO, THE LAST WINTER). Under his Scareflix banner, Fessenden has "presented" Ti West's THE ROOST and TRIGGERMAN; Glenn McQuaid's I SELL THE DEAD, and James Felix McKenney's THE OFF SEASON and AUTOMATONS. The Scareflix are very low budget films (shot on film), but are distinctive for their originality and indie sensibilities. At a time when horror fans bemoan the endless stream of Hollywood remakes, ripoffs and sequels, these are essentially art films.

McKenney made films before his Glass Eye association (CANNIBALISTIC!) and he'll make them after it, but his aesthetic sensibility fits well with Fessenden's. We've been reporting on his latest turn as writer-director, SATAN HATES YOU, for a year now and it's nice to be the first site out of the gate with a review. I've been intrigued by this little flick since the first time I heard of it and it's an audacious film.

Despite its title, SATAN HATES YOU is not about devil worshippers. Rather, it is about two people - Wendy (Christine Spencer, star of AUTOMATONS) and Marc (Don Wood, star of CANNIBALISTIC!) who both seem bound for hell because of their lifestyles: Wendy is a free spirited hedonist who seems willing to take any drug and sleep with any man and Marc is a loaner who happens to commit murder whenever someone questions his hetero-masculinity. Although Wendy and Marc don't know each other, they haunt the same bar and are surrounded by an assortment of televangelists, Born Again Christians, barflys, and a pair of bumbling demons who pop up sporadically like a Greek chorus, coaxing people to follow their baser insticts on the path to damnation. These roles are filled by genre favorites Angus Scrimm, Reggie Bannister, Debbie Rochon, Michael Berryman and Fessenden himself.

What makes SATAN HATES YOU unique is that, although a contemporary story, it was conceived to evoke 1960s and 1970s style Christian films (Christian "scare" films, McKenney elaborates in an interview), a high concept filtered through a very focused niche genre. Because the film isn't campy, the Christian characters are depicted as earnest, not foolish, and the main characters are portrayed as tortured souls - mostly losers - in need of salvation. The film is never condescending towards believers, which could easily have been the case. McKenney makes very clear that in the world of this film drinking, drugging, sexing, moshing, abortioning, and, oh, yeah, killing lead to eternal damnation, but anyone can be saved; after all, "God loves you, Satan hates you."

Eric Branco's seedy cinematography, which occasionally embraces cinema verite, successfully recalls indie films from the early 1970s. Gallows humor and gross-out special effects stemming from Marc's murderous actions will hold the attention of those lost in the film's grand scheme (I'm not sure how many people are familiar with the films that inspired it). And both Spencer and Wood generate sympathy in what could have been very unlikeable roles. The film contrasts psychedelic imagery and religious symbolism and builds to a pre-ordained conclusion.

There are so many wild ideas going on in SATAN HATES YOU that I had trouble wrapping my mind around its first half, but once I grasped the experimental approach I was completely immersed by its second half, when the various threads came together seamlessly. At 90 minutes, it's a fast paced film that packs in a lot of material and style. McKenney works with a much larger cast, and more diversified locations, than in the past. SATAN HATES YOU is a very difficult film to classify, which is exactly why it's a breath of fresh air, but the murder scenes, demons and a disturbingly over the top abortion make this horror more than anything else. I have no doubt that 20 years ago this would have been a successful midnight movie with a long lifespan; in today's market, overcrowded with undemanding fare, it falls on McKenney to find a way to market this film to the audience that will appreciate it, and you to search it out.

I ecourage you to visit McKenney's MonsterPants website, where you can view the trailer for SATAN HATES YOU as well as a mock "Christian comic" promoting the film.