Disciple of Death

Disciple of Death was one of two film vehicles designed to promote 47 year old Austin Churton Fairman alias Mike Raven, ballet dancer,lieutenant of infantry,classical actor,television producer,occult researcher,sculptor,interior designer,lobster fisherman,pirate radio disc jockey and in the early Seventies horror film star contender. The other film, 1971's Crucible of Terror-the story of a mad sculptor and a possessed kimono-is now something of a ubiquity of late-night television and the Raven vehicle most people will be acquainted with.

Like Crucible of Terror,Disciple of Death was shot around the Cornish coast despite Director Tom Parkinson having been known to refer to it as one of the most God-forsaken desolate places he'd ever seen or heard off. Parkinson had a TV background,making an acclaimed documentary on Irish racehorse Nijinsky before embarking on a brief horror career. Slow to start Disciple of Death is a period piece set in an 18th century Cornish community a decision that seems ambitious and/or foolish given the ultra-low budget (£50,000 mostly raised from a bank loan taken out by Raven). A couple,Julia and Ralph forbidden from seeing each other by her parents,pledge their love for one another by slicing their thumbs with a knife inadvertently spilling their blood on a grave which resurrects ‘The Stranger' (Raven), a disciple of Satan who integrates himself into the community by masquerading as an long absent Lord of the Manor.

Two surprisingly gory set pieces follow,The Stranger interrupts an awkwardly coy sex scene by stabbing the man in the back,who then thoughtfully vomits blood onto his hysterical girlfriend's cleavage. Next Ralph's sister Ruth (Virginia Wetherell) finds herself bound and gagged on the Stranger's altar and offered the chance to be a willing sacrifice to the Stranger. She understandably refuses,‘then die and be my slave' rants the eyeball rolling Stranger before ripping out her heart and drinking her blood from a chalice.

Ralph and the slightly tipsy village parson (Ronald Lacey) seek help from Jewish Mystic ‘the Old Cabalist Melchizadech' (Nicolas Amar) who prances around in a red cloak and a fake beard and whose mannerisms are strangely reminiscent of Old Mother Riley. Clearly intended as a stab at comic relief-its impossible to interpret these scenes any other way-this only sends what up until this point has been a deceptively serious horror film completely off balance with actor Nicolas Amar prone to much hysteria pitched acting and mugging. Worse still this all pans out as little more than a plot irreverence. Ditto the film's next act in which the Stranger summons a vampire dwarf in a red hat (played by one Rusty Goffe) to shoot fire balls at Ralph and the Parson during their hellish trek across the Cornish coast. A prolonged segment undoubtedly inspired by Parkinson's experiences making Crucible of Terror in which the only way to the set was a winding footpath down 300 foot cliffs.

It has to be said that Raven looks allot like Christopher Lee,previously the recipient of a rather desperate name check in the Crucible of Terror press-book which drags up an obscure fact about Raven once appearing in a non speaking role at the Old Vic alongside ‘the now famous horror film star Christopher Lee'. Here the comparisons are far more blatant with Raven affording himself many ‘Dracula' moments,appearing as a shadowy figure in young girls' bedrooms and cutting in innumerable close ups of his blood shot eyes. Clearly having a marvellous time Raven's performance is enthusiastic and anything but subtle,having put up most of the budget himself he clearly couldn't be controlled. Your reaction to Mike Raven horror star depends on how endearing you find the sight of an actor caked in blue stage make-up,evoking fires with his hands and relishing every word of dialogue like ‘my task on earth is to supply my master Satan with an endless supply of virgin sacrifices'.

The publicity to Raven's films do much to paint him as a sinister quantity. Yet in spite of such calculated horror star image building the most memorably chilling sections of Disciple of Death involve not Raven but the Stranger's back from the dead female victims haunting the Cornish countryside dressed in long,flowing white dresses. The highlight being when an undead Virginia Wetherell temporary breaks free of the Stranger's influence and wanders off to pay brother Ralph a night time visit,her ghostly face staring at him through the window. Such moments hint at the poetic, gothic horror film that Raven and Parkinson were clearly aiming for after the contemporary Crucible of Terror. However the quality of the rest of the film is such that it is temping to write off any effective moments in Disciple of Death as little more than a series of ‘happy accidents'. For the majority of the film remains amateurish in the extreme,shot in two weeks mostly at the houses of Raven's friends it is as close as the 1970's British horror film ever came to a home movie. The confused,disjoined tone is best summed up by the scene in which Ronald Lacey returns to the house of the Cabalist Melchizadech who for reasons unexplained has transformed into a skeleton, something that doesn't prevent Lacey from attempting to strike up a conversation with the corpse (‘I'm sorry to disturb you…it can wait'). It's a scenario that seemingly has even veteran thespian Lacey at a loss as to whether he should be playing the scene for comedy or expressing terror. An equal sense of bewilderment is sure to befall anyone who has seen the film,not that there can be that many. It originally went out on a double-bill with The Devil's Nightmare,before disappearing into complete obscurity having-unlike Crucible of Terror–never received any UK television screenings or a video release over the years. The film may have doomed Raven to be only remembered as an also ran in the grand old scheme of British horror films,but with all the Edward Lionheart overtones to his dedicated yet ultimately hammy performances and subsequent critical mauling he remains if nothing else an intriguing footnote.

With this, I now have the dubious distinction of having gotten all of would-be Horror icon Mike Raven's four films under my belt. While the first two were middling efforts for genre brands (Amicus' I, MONSTER and Hammer's LUST FOR A VAMPIRE {both 1971}), the last couple – the recently-viewed CRUCIBLE OF TERROR (also 1971) and the movie under review – were independently-produced and also more personal projects. None of this quartet has a good reputation, and I am not sure DISCIPLE OF DEATH even has one at all, considering its sheer rarity (the print I watched is so ragged, with vertical lines running across the screen practically all the way through, that it feels like the film emanates from a couple of decades prior to the actual release date!) – even if one write-up I read of it in the entertaining "British Horror Films" website actually singles the movie out as the worst ever watched by that particular reviewer – but I do know that Raven took its critical lambasting and commercial failure so badly that he retired from acting there and then to take up sculpting and sheep farming in Cornwall!

Well, while the picture is certainly nothing to write home about, I could name a few genre outings – from this vintage alone – that I would personally rate lower! What this has working against it is that, lacking a solid financial backing, the end result inevitably comes across as amateurish at best (the faded look, already mentioned, actually accentuates this)! Then again, the hoary script (by director Parkinson and Raven himself under an alias) does not help any: the star is a Satanist (the title, by the way, is fairly idiotic and, if one wanted to look down upon the whole, he could well dub it DISCLAIMER OF DRECK!) who was executed but, since a couple of young locals (the squire's daughter and a struggling farmer, whose union is frowned upon by the girl's father, sporting the bushiest eyebrows you ever saw!) choose to pledge their love with a blood pact conducted – of all places – over his grave, he is revived 50 years after the fact (and instantly picks the pretty wench for his own partner!).

Naturally, Raven assumes control of his old property – but, unbelievably, none of the townsfolk seem to have been around at the time of his demise, given that nobody recognizes him...save for a gypsy woman whose daughter he had killed back in the day: she spits in his face at the first opportunity, but is gotten rid of by him before long. The protagonist's distinctive looks (a mix of The Who bassist John Entwistle and actor Ron Moody, which is appropriate in view of Raven's background as a radio disc-jockey!) are particularly well-suited to the period setting: during the course of the film, he enslaves a number of girls (who have all refused to share a hellish afterlife with him!) – among them, the hero's sister – but, after a while, he seems to lose his power and ages considerably!

Aiding the youngsters in their opposition to the diabolic influence of the "Stranger" (as Raven is credited during the end titles) is town parson Ronald Lacey – eccentrically made-up to resemble Peter Bull! Since the villain's powers are ineffective in the daytime, he conjures up a fiend from the beyond thanks to the elements of air, fire, water and earth)...but all he can muster is a dwarf who laughs heartily when his devilish pranks work and make a fist and stamp his feet when they do not! The side of good, however, does not have it any better: Lacey refers the boy to a Jewish alchemist, who seems to belong to the "Monty Python" universe: he literally has a mirror into the outside world and also procures his visitors with some "kosher Yiddisher magic" (as if we were suddenly thrust into some adventure from Greek Mythology!) in the form of nothing more remarkable than a flask of holy water, a bag of sand and a tiny golden talisman. Before having even embarked on their quest, however, the two bungling heroes realize they need more assistance from the magician but, when Lacey goes back inside the cave, he finds it in a state of disarray and the Jew himself a web-shrouded skeleton...so the Parson begs his pardon and sheepishly steps outside again! Eventually, the Man of the Church and the 'Little Fella' from the Pits of Hell engage in a duel – which basically just sees Lacey lying down on the ground and allows his vertically-challenged opponent to climb on top of him and tear voraciously at his throat!

The finale, then, obviously has Raven being defeated – by having the Jew's talisman shone in his face{!} and his own yanked from around the neck and burned – but he still contrives to entrap the lovers (with the help of his slaves) and leave them at the mercy of the hero's sister, who is made to turn the wooden flaps of a windmill with her feet, thus literally stretching out the youngsters who are tied to them. Inevitably, a fire saves the day, so that a surprisingly serene Raven can only make his way back to whence he came.

Julia(Marguerite Hardiman)accidentally releases a stranger(Mike Raven)from the depths of hell with a drop of her blood.The stranger is cursed to supply his master Satan with the blood of virgins until he can find a maiden to spend eternity with him.Using Julia's blood to control her the stranger plans to make her his eternal bride,unless her boyfriend Ralph(Stephen Bradley)can stop him and free Julia."Disciple of Death" is extremely cheap horror movie with inept special effects and amateurish acting.Some scenes resemble much better Tigon's horror classic "Blood on Satan's Claw".Still I had fun watching this cheesy piece of trash and I can't wait to check out the other Mike Raven's vehicle "Crucible of Terror".6 out of 10.

This marvelous indie Gothic fantasy really stretches the limits of what can be done on a small budget, with an exceptional screenplay and good performers. Taking place in an undefined country, in an undefined time, the film depicts a primal battle between the forces of good and evil, centering on a young man and his beloved. An early blood ritual between the two lovers invokes the insatiable demons of antiquity, dooming the couple and their community to the regressive terrors of entrenched conservatism. Evil soon enters, in the form of a dark charismatic stranger, a landowner with decidedly malevolent intentions. An old witch sees the evil stranger for what he is, and is summarily dispatched for this dangerous knowledge. The village parson is on to the dark stranger, and he and the young man must make a terrifying journey to confront and conquer this evil which threatens to decimate their community. Amongst many other treats, there are some rousing blood sacrifices, with some effective gore, plus an amazing "magic mirror" montage sequence. The monster's harem of the undead are a joy to behold, and the devil has an impressive chamber of horrors. The film excels in effective sketches of various period archetypes, each overdrawn almost to the point of caricature - very much in the spirit of the Andy Milligan horror films of the same time period. In addition, there are several surreal characters which seem straight out of a Russian folk tale. This magical film effortlessly takes us to another world, where life is cheap, dumb and brutal, and evil sucks the life from the innocent with impunity. A groovy period organ score, featuring familiar ditties by Bach and others, nicely accentuates the antediluvian nature of this insular fairy tale world. Adorable little indie films such as this put the bloated corporate product of Hamer Films to shame.

'Disciple of Death' (1972) remains in many inexplicable ways a bizarrely entertaining, if somewhat rudimentary period Brit-shocker 'starring' that wan-faced fright-light, Mike Raven, a radio DJ, turned vanilla horror impresario. This mesmerisingly dramatic void whose strident, razor-sharp goatee provides a welcome respite from his lugubrious, and somewhat ephemeral charisma! Vengefully unleashed from hell by a drop of virgin's blood, 'The Stranger' (Mike Raven) proceeds to run devilishly amok in this once sleepy god-fearin' Cornish village!

All that being said, I do secretly admire the stalwart, Dunkirkian effort, Raven expends in his wholly specious attempt to be the consummately creepy B-movie Bogey Man! To be fair, it is, Mr. Raven's theatrically rigid, implausibly grand mannerisms as vile necromancer 'The Stranger' which ultimately makes crude satanic oddity 'Disciple of Death' such a riotously amusing exercise in home-brewed horror hokum! Do watch out for a modest cameo from luscious future Dr. Who & 'The Omega Factor' star, Louise Jameson as an evilly zombified, sinisterly be-shrouded Satan serving succubus! The divinely absurd plot, rustic FX, mirthsome dialogue, and Raven's stupefyingly sulphurous shenanigans elevate 'Disciple of Death' to that of unmissable schlock!