Watch The Redeemer: Son of Satan! For Free

To me, this movie is perfection.

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

"The Redeemer" follows a group of six adults who are conned into attending a high school reunion party at a the remote academy they all graduated from. Among them are a vain actor; an avaricious lawyer; a woman who married for wealth; a frivolous (albeit kind) woman on her umpteenth divorce; a lesbian in a committed relationship; and a man who is a lite gourmand. When they realize they are the only ones there, they grow somewhat suspicious of the supposed "reunion," and it isn't long before they find themselves locked inside the building. Like rats in a cage, they are systematically knocked off according to their "sinful" proclivities. Oh yeah, and did I mention that the film is inexplicably bookended by the literal son of Satan emerging and entering a lake...or something?Opinion on "The Redeemer" (also released as "Class Reunion Massacre") seems to be divided, with some reviling the film for its religious overtones and sloppiness, while others herald its surreal disposition and dread; I tend to fall in the camp of the latter for a handful of reasons. While it is admittedly no masterpiece, "The Redeemer" does weave a spell on its audience, and the entire thing feels like it could have been borne out of the writer's fugue state. A large part of this weirdness is due to the bizarre supernatural angle that is woven into the film; the beginning and end almost feel as though they are part of a different movie entirely, while the mid-section is a fairly conventional (albeit atmospheric) slasher. In the beginning and end, there is a boy coming out of a lake and interacting with a lunatic preacher (i.e. the killer); the boy is ostensibly the son of Satan-at times one wonders if the boy is the childhood version of the preacher/killer-the reality is that we'll probably never know. Promotional material for the film tried to tether it to the success of "The Omen," which leaves me wondering if these bookended sequences were added as an afterthought to cash-in on the "supernatural child" motif that was en vogue at the time.The bulky midsection of the film is remarkably atmospheric, at times reminding me quite a bit of another oddball proto-slasher, "Savage Weekend." There are a few artful sequences leading up to the characters' arrival at the school that predate similar sequences in countless slasher films, and there is an unnerving score that permeates the entire film. The killer's appearance alternates from victim to victim, though each is marked by theatrical pontification; some, such as a shotgun murder, are twisted and ingenious in a tongue-in-cheek way while others, such as a protracted murder in a bathroom, are far more grim and unpleasant to watch. Each of the adult characters have a bit of personality and humanity to them which is supplied by capable performances, so there is an emotional gravitas to the film that makes the killings feel particularly mean-spirited; it also lends a potentially subversive ethos to the proceedings, as the extent to which the characters are truly "sinful" remains questionable as we watch them like lambs to the slaughter.In the end, it all comes crashing down in the same way it began. Who is the boy with the three thumbs, and why does he come out of the lake? What is his connection to the killer? Why this particular group of "sinners"? Is the film a commentary on religious delusion, or is it a mythological Christian morality tale dressed as a slasher movie? Was the director on acid? I don't have patent answers, but I can say that I find the film endlessly perplexing. Accidental or intentional, there are macabre strokes of genius here. For those who are attracted to the weirder side of the slasher spectrum. 8/10.

We are at the slasher era and flicks pop up like flies. A lot of them were rip offs or just so bad but being bought due the VHS cover. Others were so weird that they became OOP. This here is one of those although nowadays it's available on DVD full uncut. It's a rare piece. It starts with a boy fully clothed coming out of a lake. That's already some weird stuff. And he has two thumbs on one hand. Whatever, it was made by first-time actors and directors. Only Jeannette Arnette made it somehow into the scene, she appeared in series like Invasion and The Fringe. But overall it's so odd. You hear a priest telling what's good and bad, then it's of to someone cutting out pictures of students out of a book and every time you have a flash forward to the person seen in the picture. Once all six persons are cut out and shown they meet at a class reunion. Why we did have to see those flashes is still a question, once they are at the reunion they start telling about themselves. After 40 minutes the killings starts but never becomes messy or bloody. Most of them are off-camera or you will see other mistakes made by rookies. A burned victim, dead of course is sitting in a chair but you can easily see him breathing. The killer disguise himself in so many ways that you will argue afterwards with geeks what you just saw. It's surely is a slasher but it is not made for everyone.

I needed that extra thumb to point straight down to the depths of hades where this monstrosity belongs. Terrible writing, coupled with worse editing, made for a nightmare of a movie. From the too-long opening, until the ridiculous and un-decipherable end (I probably crapped out on the spelling of that one)I watched in horror as a junior high-school student with a cheap video camera attempted to be Hitchcock. I think that I am a worse person for watching this. Well... maybe not, it did lower my standards for any movie... of any genre... ever. Only a few movies have graced my wall of shame, and I proudly place this one with them. Right next to Double Dragon. All that said, I had a great time watching this with a friend, and just tearing holes through it. Great cheese-filled fun in here. But, unfortunately, the cheese is rotten.

(There are Spoilers) What really disturbs me, as well as a lot of the people who've seen this movie, is how it uses revenge against a number of innocent, if not at all that biblically observant, persons in "crimes" that they committed that almost everyone watching the film did at one time or another in their life: #1.Greed #2.Arrogence #3.Hunting for sport #4.Stuffing oneself with food, mostly cheeseburger's. #5.Having extra marital affairs and finally #6. Falling in love with someone of the same sex.We first see the Redeemer, T.G Finkbinder, posing as a priest at a Catholic School giving a fire and brimstone speech to his congregation that includes this little boy Christopher, Christopher Flint, who earlier walked out of this lake and hitched a ride to the priest's school. Chris was earlier threatened by the school bully, Daniel Elliot, with a knife for not laughing at one of his corny jokes. Daniel for his actions which were nothing more then having a big and abusive mouth was given the death penalty at the end of the film.The movie then switches directions in what seems to be a totally different story with the graduating class of the 1967 Stuart Morse Academy coming together for a class reunion. It turns out that the priest is behind all this and is targeting the six former classmates for his brand of righteous indignation in punishing them for the horrendous "crimes" that they all committed over the last ten years. You get the feeling right away that this Redeemer is a bit off his rocker in his righteousness. The Reedemer for some reason that's never explained in the movie brutally murders the school janitor, Erick Kjoenes,who as far as we know didn't commit any of the "crimes" that the Redeemer would consider to carry the death penalty.With the unsuspecting former Stuart Morse alumni now gathered together in the school all the doors are locked and the telephone lines cut off, by the crazed Redeemer, as their left to their fate, a brutal and sudden death as we sit through and watch in horror the Redeemer go into action. Using all kinds of weird disguises the Redeemer first murders the gluttonous former high school football star Terry,Nick Carter, by burning him alive. The fun loving and beautiful Jane, Nikki Barthen, somehow makes it out of the school and trying to get help runs into the Redeemer, dressed as a hunter with a fake wig and even faker silly looking mustache. Acting as if he's trying to help the Redeemer blows Jane away with his shotgun just like she killed a number of pigeons earlier in the movie taking target practice.The out of control Redeemer continues his deadly rampage by running through the conceited Roger, Michael Hollingworth, with a flying dagger, dropped from he celling, that penetrates his skull. Later in the most brutal and sickening act in he movie he has Cindy, Jeanetta Arnette, trapped in the Lady's room and in what seems like a good ten minutes beats abuses and finally drowns the terrified young woman in the bathroom wash basin. The scene has to be one of the most shocking scenes ever put into a horror/slasher film with it not having a single drop of blood in it.The killer for some reason takes off his disguise when he confronts John, Damien Knight, and gives him this whole line of BS of why he deserves to be killed. This has to do with John, a lawyer, overcharging his customers and defending and getting off those who are accused of horrible crimes, like the Redeemer? Then after a brief struggle, where he seems to have gotten shot by John with his own gun, blows John's brains out. The last and final member of this bloody class reunion the gay or lesbian Kirsten,Gyr Patterson, is trapped on the schools stage and after grabbing the Redeemer's gun can't seem to be able to fire it. The Redeemer uses one of the evil puppets, pulling it's strings, to sneak up from behind and slice poor and hysterical Kirsten's head off.The movie ends as we go back to the Catholic School and hear the Redeemers, or this time priest, harangue to his congregation with tales of sin and redemption. Later as he goes back to his room we notice that he was wounded, by John?, with his midsection bandaged up and blood seeping out. The young Christopher who seems to be the power behind the Redeemers murderous actions is then seen going back from where he came from the bottom of the lake. This, more then anything else, is what really spooked me about the movie when we see both the Redeemer and Christopher have double thumbs looking like they were Devil hoofs as the movie finally ends. In fact it was the double thumb that miraculously healed the Redeemers wounds by him just rubbing it over them!