Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Best movie ever!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Possibly the reason why this film isn't better known is the title – well, one of the titles. 'Satan's Blood/Don't Panic' is as generic-sounding as it gets, and there are many other horrors with similar monikers. It would be a shame if this has stifled its reputation, because this is very enjoyable.A young couple Ana (Marianna Karr) and Andres (José María Guillén) are apparently recognised by some old school friends. Although this second couple Bruno (Ángel Aranda) and Berta (Sandra Alberti) don't register, the foursome agree to return to Bruno and Berta's isolated country house. The house manages to be magnificent and oppressive at the same time. And that is when the fun really begins.Ana is pregnant in this film. This is mentioned a couple of times, although she shows no signs of her four-month gestation. There is a moment when, sharing a bath, Andres asks if the child is still 'in there' – at least, that's what the subtitles tell us; I'm not sure they're reliable. In any case, the pregnancy is never alluded to again.Terrible things happen. Satanic rituals, elongated trance-sex, foursomes, murder and the creepiest china doll you may ever have seen. The doll in particular is featured in a very frightening way – sitting in the background in many early scenes, a slightly out-of-focus third person in many early two-way conversations. When it is eventually revealed fully, it is that much more sinister because we are familiar with it without really being aware of it. That and the needle-like mechanical sound effects that accompany it, make its brief appearances the most memorable in a film ripe with startling imagery.From the outset, Bruno and Berta are clearly malevolent. When not indulging in satanic worship, they are snuffling from dog bowls or committing atrocities on Blackie, Ana and Andre's pet Alsatian, with graphic resulting scenes that will send any dog-lover scurrying from the room.'Satan's Blood' is a terrific ride, a well told tale with only the inevitable lingering sex-scenes slowing things down and threatening to puncture the atmosphere. Taken as a whole though, it wouldn't be as effective a film without the moments of 'euro-sleaze'. Recommended.

The death of Generalissimo Francisco Franco in November 1975 meant not only the end of a 39-year repressive regime for the people of Spain, and the ushering in of democracy, but the dawn of a new freedom in the cinematic arts, as well. With the effective ending, in 1977, of the strict censorship laws that had hamstrung filmmakers for decades, a new looseness was engendered. Films could now be released that contained nudity, sexual themes, and violent and horrific elements...provided, of course, that the film was tagged with the "Clasificada S" label, that "S," of course, standing for "sex." Released in 1978, "Escalofrio" (which opened in the U.S. with the title "Satan's Blood") was one of the first pictures out of the gate to take advantage of the new freedoms.In the film, the viewer makes the acquaintance of two couples. Couple A, Andres and Ana (a lawyer with his four-months-pregnant wife, and played by Angel Aranda and Sandra Alberti), are taking a joyride through the streets of what I can only assume is Madrid (the city looks just beautiful, wherever it is) when they are approached at a traffic light by a couple in another car. Couple B (Bruno and Berta, played by Jose Maria Guillen and Mariana Karr) invites Andres and Ana over to their place, Bruno claiming to be an old college buddy of Andres', although the young lawyer has no recollection of him. Whereas most sensible couples might politely decline the offer, Andres and Ana follow Couple B to their house in the middle of nowhere. And what follows, after drinks and a go at the ol' Ouija board, is a weekend of escalating madness, featuring as it does attempted rape, a Satanic Mass, a four-way orgy, suicide attempts, canine and human homicide, the resurrection of the dead, nightmares, a decapitation, a hit-and-run incident...and a particularly creepy walking doll....Anyway, "Satan's Blood" ultimately makes very little sense, but for once, this viewer did not particularly care. It's the ride that matters here, and it is a thrill ride that grows progressively wilder and crazier as the picture proceeds, finally coming off like a full-blown nightmare. In the film's funniest moment, Andres declares, "What a fun weekend...we should have stayed home!" Practically begging for its "S" label, the film dishes out not only that oil-anointed four-way orgy, but full-frontal nudity on the part of the gals (but not the guys; I suppose THAT would have been too much for even the "S" rating!), a playful tub scene between Andres and Ana, and, in a prologue that bears little if any relation to the rest of the picture, the rape of a young woman by the officiating priest at a Black Mass. Shootings, stabbings, wrist slittings and other bits of mayhem surely sufficed to earn the film an "S" on their own, and the filmmakers have thrown in numerous instances of assorted weirdness (such as those bowls of meat around the house!) to make matters feel even more off-kilter. Directed with an eye toward maximum freakiness by Carlos Puerto, and featuring some genuinely scary (and yet at times lovely) music by Librado Pastor, the picture is one that will certainly be remembered. Spanish audiences back in the day must surely have been amazed by the sex and carnage unreeling on their neighborhood screens, and were no doubt shocked by the image of a framed picture of Jesus Christ catching fire and exploding. Filmgoers today, however, might be a bit more shocked at the sight of the pregnant Ana drinking coffee and liquor and smoking not only cigarettes, but cigars as well...AND, supposedly, after having lost her first baby! Just one more bit of strangeness, in a movie filled with so many.Further good news regarding "Satan's Blood" is the fact that it is now available in a beautiful print, with excellent subtitles, on a DVD from the always dependable folks at Mondo Macabro. (What an amazing roster of titles this outfit has built up over the years!) As usual, this Mondo Macabro DVD is just jam packed with extras, including a highly informative essay on the film, stills, an alternate opening, the superfun M.M. trailer reel...AND a 30-minute lecture on the history of 20th century Satanism by noted authority Gavin Baddeley. The editors of the wonderful reference book "DVD Delirium 3" are so correct when they say, in regard to the film and the DVD package itself, "Moody, shocking, and wonderfully constructed, this one's a definite keeper"....

People who enjoy this film because of it's nudity and sex scenes should really consider if they are film goers or not. I don't mind watching a sex scene here or there but the movie is classified as horror! There were a couple of terrifying moments but they didn't last, then, the sex scene once again. This is not film making at it's best. Spain has produced some "GREAT" films in the past but this one does not come anywhere near good.You want to sell your films to people who enjoy watching nude women flaunting their bodies, then go and direct porn. For me, a good film needs a storyline and good acting and not have to resort in a film to have sex scenes and naked woman all through the film.

Not sure how, but it slipped my mind that I'd seen this before, though it started coming back to me as I was watching.After an opening scene of a black mass, Andy and his four months pregnant wife Ana (who shows no visible signs of being pregnant) are out for a drive with their dog Blackie, when they come across a couple in another car who claims to know Andy. He doesn't remember the guy from school, and thinks some of the other things the man says are wrong (Last Year in Marienbad?), but they agree to join them for a drink at their house. The dog doesn't like the couple, and Andy has second thoughts when the drive to the house turns out to be over an hour over dirt roads in the middle of nowhere, but they do enter the couple's large gated estate. Once there, various things conspire against them leaving....Really well made sleaze/satanic horror. As is said in the novel The Crying of Lot 49, "True pornography is given us by vastly patient professionals."The documentary on satanism and satanic horror included on Mondo Macabro's DVD is well worth watching.