Satan's Playground (2003)

67% of critics liked it
(6 reviews)
20% of users liked it
(151 ratings)

Writer/director Dante Tomaselli's horror picture Satan's Playground (2005) -- the filmmaker's third feature outing -- subverts horror expectations and genre clichés by deliberately suspending point-by-point logical threads, carefully steering around gore, and enlisting an acting ensemble not of… More Writer/director Dante Tomaselli's horror picture Satan's Playground (2005) -- the filmmaker's third feature outing -- subverts horror expectations and genre clichés by deliberately suspending point-by-point logical threads, carefully steering around gore, and enlisting an acting ensemble not of teenagers, but of actors who are predominantly well into middle age. The picture involves the Bruno family -- siblings Donna (Felissa Rose) and Paula (Ellen Sandweiss), Donna's hubby, Frank (Salvatore Paul Piro), and autistic son, Sean (Danny Lopes), and newly single Paula's baby, Anthony -- who are en route to a vacation in the New Jersey Pine Barrens when their car gets stuck in the middle of nowhere. In an effort to solicit help, they inadvertently fall prey to a clan of white-trash, backwoods psychotics, while several are picked off, one at a time, by a strange, unknown predator from out of the night sky. Cast with veterans of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Evil Dead movies, Tomaselli pays loving tribute to slasher movies of cinema past. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 21 min.
Directed By: Dante Tomaselli
Genres: Horror

In Theaters: Sep 25, 2006 Wide
On DVD: Aug 22, 2006
Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment

Critic Reviews

Dennis Harvey, Variety
[A] richly atmospheric exercise in surreal horror.
Felix Gonzalez Jr., DVD Review
A cast of cult horror film icons adds flavor to this entertaining feature from Anchor Bay Entertainment that stirs up a few shivers.
Felix Gonzalez Jr., DVD Review
... a dream world in which we are constantly pulled back just as we think we are at the brink of reaching reality.
Mike McGranaghan, Aisle Seat
An ambitious and surprisingly disturbing tale that's heavier on the thematic ideas than on the gore (which is admirably restrained).
Kevin Carr, 7M Pictures
It's aim is off, and its intentions are skewed. It's the result of a horror fan taking himself - and his film - way too seriously.
Johnny Butane, Dread Central
Satan's Playground let me down, a fact that I attribute primarily to the bad acting, nonsensical storyline, and lack of an appearance by the monster.
Jeremiah Kipp, Slant Magazine
Satan's Playground announces filmmaker Dante Tomaselli as a horror talent to watch out for.
Jeremiah Kipp, Slant Magazine
A storybook fairy tale on acid.
Johnny Butane, Dread Central
At the end of the day, Satan's Playground let me down, a fact that I attribute primarily to the bad acting, nonsensical storyline, and lack of an appearance by the monster.
Staci Layne Wilson, Horror.com
Come frolic in this freaky forest.

Read all 10 critic reviews

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Cast

Felissa Rose
as Donna Bruno
Ellen Sandweiss
as Paula
Irma St. Paule
as Mrs. Leeds

See full cast

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