This film was so awful it provoked laughter rather than shudders. Tom Selleck is the major reason to see the film, done at the beginning of his career. Fortunately it did not end his career. Along with everything else in the film, he also is awful, and that is probably because the script was so bad and the direction was probably nonexistent.The first 15-20 minutes were terribly slow, and I was tempted to stop watching. But then, it suddenly became totally absurd. And enjoyable. Such as an unmotivated chase on foot through Manila. And Selleck and his wife visit a picturesque picnic spot and she finds a ceremonial dagger in the picnic basket, and while Selleck has his back to her and is talking about how scenic the place is, she makes to stab him, only to quickly hide the knife each time he turns to look at her. Hilarious.There is a scene in which Tom's pink shirt matches the pink shade on a desk lamp. And there was a red and white typewriter on the desk (it's a sad comment when you spend time admiring the details of the set decoration.) There is a scene where a woman Selleck meets at their shrink's funeral invites him over for a post-funeral drink (without his wife), and she invites him into her bedroom to check a painting, and again, he is talking about the painting with his back turned to his hostess, and when he turns to her she has removed all her clothes. He continues the conversation as though nothing had happened.The witches all belong to the "Manila Assembly of Lucifer." That is actually in the dialogue. And probably they're also listed in the Manila Yellow Pages, under "Churches-Satanic." Many of the actresses seem like they were found in porn films: substandard acting but exceptional breasts. And there's an invisible dog, a mortician who photographs naked female corpses, and so many other completely insane touches.Personally, I really enjoyed the film. But I can't give it more than three stars, because objectively it is rather bad. And if Tom Selleck had not been in it, but another actor giving exactly the same performance, I'd probably give it a 2.

"Daughters of Satan" is nothing special, but is still hard to resist on the level of an entertaining "late show" feature. It *is* irresistible to see a young and studly Tom Selleck in a horror film, a Tom Selleck who's already sporting that famous moustache.He plays James Robertson, an art expert working in the Philippines who purchases a painting for himself depicting the burning of three witches. One of the witches bears an uncanny resemblance to his wife Chris (Barra Grant). And that's just the beginning of the weirdness to follow, as both James and Chris start to encounter strange individuals, including Kitty (Tani Guthrie) and Juana (Paraluman). Also on hand is eternally jolly Filipino icon Vic Diaz as an art dealer as well as Vic Silayan as helpful doctor Dr. Dangal...not to mention a Rottweiler who's friendly to Chris but who always gives cat man James a hard time.The opening sequence very much lets us know right from the start where this is heading, so suspense is limited. This film, produced by Aubrey Schenck ("Frankenstein - 1970", "Robinson Crusoe on Mars") and directed by TV veteran Hollingsworth Morse (now *there's* a name for you), is more about enveloping the audience in an appropriately odd and dreamy ambiance. It has some violence here and there and voyeurs will appreciate the breast shots from our leading lady. There's a lot of great scenery to enjoy, and a very '70s but effective music score by Richard LaSalle.The movie is an acceptable diversion, as far as it goes, but it does rather get bogged down in talk sometimes. Still, some of the actors, especially Guthrie and Paraluman, are fun to watch, and Selleck is good as the frustrated, puzzled hero. Grant is less satisfactory (although she does look fine). Plus, the movie is worth sticking with just for the kind of downbeat ending common to cinema of the 1970s.If you're a genre fan who loves seeking out obscurities such as this one, you should have a fairly good time with it.Six out of 10.

Vic Diaz was so good in The Big Bird Cage that I just had to see him again to see if he was as funny in all his films. He was in 112 films and is considered the jolly evil fat man of Filipino exploitation cinema. It may take a while to track them all down.As a bonus, this is Tom Selleck's (Magnum P.I., Blue Bloods, Jesse Stone series) third film. He even has a mustache then.Jim (Selleck) finds a painting of a witch burning, and the with looks like a dead ringer for his wife Chris (Barra Grant). Suspicious things start occurring. She blurts out the exact date of the burning, and a dog in the painting disappears after she sees it for real. Things just get stranger from there.It's all about revenge for a 16th century crime. Very interesting.

"Daughters of Satan" is a movie about three women who are actually reincarnated witches, re-born to take revenge on the man who burned them at the stake. It's a slow-paced bad dream that holds together much better than most old horror movies. Tom Selleck stars as a man who buys a strange painting of a woman who looks like his wife… when he gives it to her she starts to "remember" her past, and so begins the violence and nudity.This is one of those good "bad" horror movies that isn't just about moving from one violent bloodbath to the next... you get to breathe with the characters and ponder the outlandish situation in which they find themselves, which only makes it all the more believable. It's like that realization during a nightmare that you're having a nightmare, when you try to wake yourself up but you just can't come out of it."Daughters Of Satan" is not a great movie by any means, but it has it's own illogical occult madness that somehow winds up making sense. I'm prejudiced because I saw the last 40 minutes on late-night TV and spent five years tracking it down to see the entire movie. It was worth it, for me anyway...GRADE: B-