Overview: 'Mr. Sardonicus' - Desperate to retrieve a winning lottery ticket, a greedy baron unearths his father's corpse. An enormous jackpot is his reward, but not without a price his face is frozen permanently into a hideous grin. 'Brotherhood of Satan' - Children are mysteriously disappearing, their parents are being violently murdered and strangely enough, no one has been able to leave!

Blu ray Verdict: 'Mr. Sardonicus' is a gothic, campy, and very amusing film! William Castle is the director and the cast is good, sure, but it's Oscar Homolka who steals the show as the fiendish one-eyed servant! Actually, the supporting actor looks like David Hasslehoff and the sets reminded me of the Mel Brooks classic 'Young Frankenstein'!

The main character, Baron Sardonicus is an imposing figure too, as you would expect. Man I love his outfits - talk about swagger jagger! And his towering presence commands you to watch him! I dare you not to once started. And did I mention he's wearing a creepy mask? No, well, he is!

As far as the horror aspect goes it won't make your skin crawl but it's still a fun film, believe me.

In 'Brotherhood of Satan,' a secret coven of wrinkly senior citizen witches (lead by the great Strother Martin) cast a spell on the small town of Woodley preventing anybody from getting in or leaving. The purpose of this entrapment isn't cause the old folks are lonely and want somebody to talk to No! they want the children so they can take over their bodies and be young again. Not a bad idea.

The sheriff (played by Peckinpah favorite L. Q. Jones) is getting sick and tired of being stuck in this smelly ol' town so him and his posse start investigating where all the kids have disappeared to. Will they find them before it's too late?

Very interesting story, but the direction by veteran TV director Bernard McEveety comes off kinda stale, almost like a made for TV movie. I did get the creeps a few times (especially at the doll scene - yikes!), but I think that the lack of violence and the improper director kept the film from reaching its full potential. Still very much worth watching. These are both Widescreen Presentations (1.85:1 / 2.35:1) and enhanced for 16x9 TVs.