Cameron Mitchell stars as Lieutenant Sterne, whose jewish neighbour dies a mysterious death. Just prior to this, he spotted a lookalike millionaire of a nazi, who killed his family during WW2. Of course, as the rational police detective, Sterne can't believe in this, even though the similarity of an old photo and the rich, greasy yuppie is astonishing.

Later on, he begins to doubt any logical explanation after more killings occur that seem to have a curious connection to a local famous atheist author's new book with the title "God is Dead". The author's wife (Faith Clift) is a true catholic, and seems annoyed with her husbands' recent book, which he calls the most important work of his life. She keeps bugging him about it, but accepts it nevertheless. A retired monk won't stop being in Sterne's way, warning him about the coming of Satan as the west seems to have lost the faith in God. Sterne starts to see a connection between this claimed loss of faith, the recent killings, and the warning of the coming of Satan. The film ends in a surprisingly over-the-top scene involving a raging surgery.

The serious subject of the eventual consequenses of atheistic tendencies in the western world is too heavy for the movie, as already mentioned. It turns out that nothing is never really questioned as the the consequence of not beliving in God is the acceptance of satanic killings; and who'd want that? The treatment of the subject is superficious, and seems like a cheap attempt at giving this cheap exploitation oddity a more serious tone that it deserves (which is actually a usual thing within these type of movies).

This film is packed with strange and goofy, overacted characters, like a cheesy selfconscious voodoo clairvoyant, the most confused jewish ww2 survivor portrayed on-sceen, and the suspicious yuppie boy whose "looks of evil" are filmed in close-up often through the whole movie. Faith Clift sets a new world record at reading dialogue out loud in a sterile monotonous tone. Though she is a doctor, it seems less than suitable for a character who's supposed to represent one of the remaining true believers in God among the cast. Cameron Mitchell does the usual little-below average job as the detective, but he's amusing and awkward as always, especially in a dancing scene at the local disco after having one drink. The rich-boy, this yuppie bastard who can manipulate women, has annoyingly boyish deceptive looks that seem to kill; now it's up to the reader to figure out who he actually might represent.

One thing I noticed instantly was the laughably bad editing, which interrupts any sign of flow inthe movie. At times it was done watchable, other times it was cardboard editing and acting. Perhaps my copy was the victim of a bad cut; I hope for the sake of the movie that this is the case. The longest running print should be 92 min. according to Psychotronic Video Guide, and mine was less than 90 minutes. According to IMDB, this movie was directed by three men: Phillip Marshak (as Philip Marshak), Tom McGowan, and Gregg C. Tallas (as Greg Tallas), which might explain the confused editing job.

All in all, this is for bad movie fanatics only, or for completist collectors of satanic cinema.

3 out of 10

- Reviewed by Lars S. B. Andersen