"Suicide Cult" has to be seen to be believed.This utterly strange,ludicrous and somewhat fascinating pile of trash mixes astrology,CIA intrigue,Jim Jones-type mass murder and the second coming of Jesus Christ.So the Second Coming of Messiah is about to begin in ten days.There is also a secret branch of CIA called Interzod and the creepy leader of evil sect,who orders his followers to commit mass suicides.It seems also that the blonde girlfriend of the main character Alexei Abarnel is the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary.Extremely bizarre and disjointed horror film made by James "The Exterminator" Glickenhaus.The action is boring and the scenes set in India look very cheaply.5 out of 10.

Director/producer James Glickenhaus made some of my favorite films in the 80s. I loved THE EXTERMINATOR, THE SOLDIER, THE PROTECTOR and SHAKEDOWN. They were action films that grabbed you by the throat and held you there. So when I heard Severin was releasing Glickenhaus' first film, one I wasn't familiar with, I was excited to say the least. What I ended up watching was something different than the rest.

THE ASTROLOGER follows an organization known as the Interzod Organization. Funded over centuries by various groups they're currently part of the US government. What the organization does is determine people's "zodiacal potential" to determine if they will be good or bad and act accordingly. Their current head is Alexei Abernal (Bob Byrd) who has determined that the second coming is about to happen. The only problem is whether or not the child will be born to a good or evil father.

While all of this is going on Alexie's wife Kate (Monica Tidwell) has seen a fortune teller who is concerned about what her future holds. Somehow the woman could tell when she gave her date of birth it wasn't correct. Kate is also having issues with Alexei since even though they've been married several years he still hasn't had sex with her. Could it be there is a connection between her and the birth being predicted?

Add to this a mysterious stranger, the leader of a suicide cult who has appeared in Kate's dreams. Kajerste (Mark Buntzman) is a mystic from India who plays a part in what is transpiring as well. But just what part he will play isn't known until the end.

So is the movie any good? Well yes and no. It has a truly interesting story based on the book by John Cameron (Glickenhaus' father-in-law) and plenty of story on hand. Perhaps that's the biggest problem though, it feels like it has too much story. The convoluted plot is drawn out in lengthy back and forth dialogue filled moments without a lot of other things taking place. This gives us a slow paced film that suffers slightly because of it. In spite of that the movie is interesting and holds your interest.

Made on a shoestring budget and Glickenhaus first feature film he even notes that the movie provided him the opportunity to learn from the experience, the biggest lesson being films need more visual actions to hold an audience's attention. Watching this film compared to his others you can see he learned the lesson well. The film does show promise for a young first time director though.

The acting here isn't the worst in the world but it is very dry. Byrd plays the role as well as can be but still has difficulty putting any emotion into the part. That he has no other credits to his name isn't surprising. Perhaps the only cast member to appear in more films is Tidwell who parlayed her appearance as a Playboy centerfold into this film and 5 more. She shows potential here but it went unused as most of her films offer less acting and more of her displaying her charms.

For fans of Glickenhaus and those who long to have a complete collection of the director's films this is a treat though. Severin has gone out of their way to make this a quality offering beginning with a 4k scan of the original negative from the director's personal answer print. While the film stock isn't great you won't get a better picture. In addition to that they have a number of extras that make picking this up worthwhile. They include "Sign of the Times" an interview with Glickenhaus discussing the film, "Monica Tidwell Remembers THE ASTROLOGER" an interview with Tidwell, "Tales from the Set" interviews with filmmakers Brendan Faulkner and Frank M. Farsel, "Zodiacal Locations" a look at the various locations used in the film today and a reversible cover using the other name the film was released under, SUICIDE CULT.

I've praised Severin before as I have Arrow Video and will continue to do so. Why? Because they are rescuing forgotten films that fans have sought out over the years and been forced to own multi-generational bootleg copies of. Their respect to these films and their handling of them needs to be encouraged and applauded. So if you're a fan of Glickenhaus or this film, this is the copy you need to own.

Let me see if I can explain this one. Alexei (Bob Byrd) leads a secret government group called InterZod, which calculates a person's life path via their Zodiacal Potential. Their main focus is an Indian guru (producer Mark Buntzman),who may or may not be evil incarnate, and Kate (Monica Tidwell),who may or may not be the second coming of the Virgin Mary and is married to Alexei. Director James Glickenhaus' debut feature isn't indicative of his later action packed work at all, but it is certainly one of the oddest films I've seen recently. Based on a 1972 novel by John Cameron, THE ASTROLOGER throws so much stuff at the audience in the first 25 minutes that you'll need a notepad to keep up. It doesn't help that there is some chaotic editing going on. I felt just like the U.S. Senator character when a woman says to him, "None of this makes much sense to you, does it?" I'm sure the book has lots of grand ideas, but Glickenhaus just doesn't have the budget to pull it off (it looks like he got a reel of footage of real footage from India and shot the rest of the India scenes in the woods of New York). That said, you'll never be bored and will probably get a laugh or two out of it (the rescue mission to get Kate from a gypsy camp had me dying). I give it a 10 rating just for the insanity.