Les Vierges de Satan

Heading the great Hammer Horror Revival was Terence Fisher, the director whose adaptations of the Universal horror classics, The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957), The Horror of Dracula (1958) and The Mummy (1959) sealed the studio's fate as the leading producer of British gothic horror for almost 20 years. Throughout the 60s, while half of Hammer's output were rather silly adventure yarns (The Viking Queen, The Vengeance Of She) and lazy exercises in generic conventions (Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb, The Old Dark House), Fisher created more adult-oriented horror - psychological, almost Freudian horror (The Gorgon, Frankenstein Created Woman), drawing on the sexual conflicts of the repressive English social climate starting to fray at the seams. Fisher's final film, Frankenstein And The Monster From Hell (1973) is British horror at its bleakest - a deeply disturbing and amoral portrait of amorality in the figure of Fisher's greatest creation, Baron Frankenstein as essayed by Hammer icon Peter Cushing. Over twenty years after his death he is still regarded as Britain's greatest ever horror director.

Fisher began work on The Devil Rides Out, the first of three Dennis Wheatley adaptations, in the summer of 1967. From the opening credits, an indecipherable mass of occult symbols appearing out of a red mist punctuated with James Bernard's ominous orchestral score, screenwriter Richard Matheson (I Am Legend author and scriptwriter of Roger Corman's Edgar Allen Poe series) sharpens Crowley's prose to create a frighteningly real world of dark forces at work beneath the genteel surface of the English aristocracy. At a reunion of old friends at a country estate, occult expert the Duc de Richelieu (Christopher Lee) and his well-meaning but impulsive lantern-jawed sidekick Rex (Leon Greene) discover their young comrade Simon (Patrick Mower) has become involved in `astrological society', a thinly-veiled satanic cult lead by the charismatic Mocata (Charles Gray). Richelieu and Rex kidnap Simon to prevent his Devil's baptism, but he escapes. Mocata then uses Richelieu's friends Richard (Yes Minister's Paul Eddington) and his family, and Tanith (Nike Arrighi), a young French beauty also marked for baptism, as bait to lure Richelieu to his destruction.

For a studio defined by its reworkings of Dracula and Frankenstein, Mocata is one of Hammer's most frightening monsters. Veteran Shakespearean actor Gray, best remembered these days as the Bond villain in Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and the narrator in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), conveys the palpable menace from his cold, unflinching steel-gray eyes and his carefully modulated voice, a master of hypnosis and mind control no doubt based on real-life characters from Wheatley's days in British Intelligence (some say Mocata is smoother version of the `Great Beast', occultist Alistair Crowley, whom Wheatley was acquainted with). Matheson's script changes the Mocata character from a swarthy European figure of Word War 2-era intrigue into an English `gentleman', more forcefully underpinning the tension between England's exterior pastoral elegance and class respectability, and its repressed bacchanalian urges. Wheatley, a British author best known for his black magic tales and costume adventure stories, was an avid collector of occult esoterica and was reportedly delighted with the film, as Matheson's script had expanded on his own research his Black Magic rituals with an eye for detail, drawing on Crowley's writings as well as Sumerian and Egyptian legends, occult and pagan texts.

Of course the film's focus is on the imposing figure of the six foot four Christopher Lee, by 1967 a genre superstar having played Dracula, the Frankenstein monster, the Mummy, Rasputin, even Sherlock Holmes. Lee had in fact pressed Hammer to purchase the rights for Wheatley's novel, and was delighted to play a character on the side of `good' after a decade typecast as Dracula.

Hammer films are characterized by relatively low budgets, compensated by taut direction and expert characterization, and a winning combination of tight studio sets and English country exteriors. The Devil Rides Out utilizes its stagebound scenario to chilling effect: Simon's cold gray observatory turns malevolent purely by adding scratching noises from a cupboard. The budget only lets the film down in its two major setpieces; both the final sacrificial ceremony at Mocata's mansion and the Grand Sabbat, supposedly a grand ritual orgy for Simon and Tanith's intended baptism, veer toward poorly-staged pantomime. When Mocata invokes Satan (`The Goat of Mendes - the Devil himself!') at the Sabbat, the sight of a rather wretched figure with pin-on horns and raccoon eyes tends to blunt the scene's horrific implications. Indeed the film's scariest scene is set in an empty room; Richelieu, Rex and the family take refuge inside a chalk circle and are confronted by a series of apparitions conjured by Mocata. Again the scene is only marred by the final ghastly figure: a horsebound Angel of Death, whose mask drops to reveal a cheap-looking grinning plastic skull.

The Devil Rides Out was an artistic triumph but not a commercial success. Perhaps it was the unfamiliar tone of the film, or the fact Christopher Lee had his fangs filed down; two further Duc de Richelieu adventures starring Lee, Strange Conflict and Gateway To Hell were abandoned. Hammer's next venture after The Devil Rides Out, The Lost Continent (an ambitious reworking of Wheatley's Jules Verne style adventure novel Uncharted Seas) went wildly overbudget and Wheatley was not impressed, citing a number of plot changes by director Michael Carreras. The third Wheatley adaptation, a grotesque updating of To The Devil A Daughter with Richard Widmark and an embarrassed Christopher Lee, was Hammer's horror swansong in 1976, and the company sank soon after. Maybe it was the curse of Dennis Wheatley after all - still, for us horror iconoclasts, we still have The Devil Rides Out, a film that remains after 35 years one the finest examples of the gone but never to be forgotten house of Hammer.

Last night I saw this film for the first time in 35 years. Time has been kinder to it than it has to many Hammer films, but this one is less driven by effects and make-up and more by dialog.

That's all for the better because once again, when need be, Hammer fails in the effects department. I had forgotten how the theater went wild in 1968 while looking at the cheap tarantula effect - was it growing or not, the perspective changed constantly.

Some of the effects are of the "stop the camera" variety, no more convincing here than on "Lost In Space." But still, it is the performances, situations and the dialog that engage us. Christopher Lee, who brought the project to Hammer, seems to be enjoying himself as the Duc de Richleau, finally getting to play a hero. His longtime friend Rex, played by Leon Greene (but voiced by Patrick Allen) is a real stalwart guy, given to punching out windshields when necessary, climbing into car trunks, and throwing a crucifix from a running board to eliminate the specter of the devil himself.

The best scene has Lee and company in a circle in which to protect themselves from the evils sent by Mocata, played by Charles Gray with a suaveness that matches the twinkle of his blue eyes. Mocata tries every trick in the book, including trying to make it appear that the daughter of the household is being threatened by the tarantula, as well as an Angel of Death on horseback (it is a large room). Meanwhile, outside, Rex has a potential female victim tied up for her own good, she later becomes a medium when the previously "threatened" little girl is kidnapped - to take the place of the medium on the sacrificial altar!

Nike Arrighi plays the "medium" - a young woman who was to have been re-baptized as a servant of the devil, but whose life now hangs in the balance between the black magic of Mocata, or the efforts of the Duc de Richleau, and she has more talent than most of the Hammer actresses of the period. The Duc's friend Rex falls for her, but is hard pressed to keep up with the spells of Mocata, who will stop at nothing to reclaim his servant.

What really helps the film is a great sense of period - somewhere midway between the two world wars. The props (especially the vehicles) and costumes are quite right, and the landscapes are far more diverse than the usual Bray Studios trappings. There's no doubt that the team sought to make this one special and shoot on some real locations - and it's perhaps here rather than in the effects that the budget was concentrated. All in all, despite some shortcomings, a very enjoyable Hammer film, a solid Richard Matheson script from a superior Dennis Wheatley novel makes for exciting viewing, far superior to the previous Satanic Hammer film "The Witches" (aka "The Devil's Bride") and equal to the later adaptation of Wheatley's own "To the Devil A Daughter" - the last Hammer film which may have its less than sterling reputation for that measure alone.

The Devil Rides Out (AKA: The Devil's Bride) is produced out of Hammer Film Productions. It's based on the 1934 novel of the same name written by Dennis Wheatley, with Richard Matheson adapting the screenplay. Directed by Terence Fisher, it stars Christopher Lee, Charles Gray, Nike Arrighi, Leon Greene, Patrick Mower, Sarah Lawson and Paul Eddington. Filmed in Technicolor with Arthur Grant the cinematographer and the music is scored by James Bernard.

1930's England and Duc de Ricleau (Lee) finds that his young friend Simon Aron has gotten himself involved with a Satanic cult led by the evil Mocata (Gray). As the Duc and his friends try to save Simon from the cult, Mocata and his followers summon the forces of evil to aid their cause.

It was meant to come out a bit earlier in the 60's, but Satanism, an always iffy subject, would have seen censorship strip Hammer's ideas for the film to the bone. So the studio waited a few more years and finally got the film out a couple of years shy of the 70's. It's a film that now, more than ever, is rightly viewed as not only one of the best film's to have come out of Hammer, but also as one of the best British horror movies ever released. There was much in the film's favour from the off, it had the studio's best director in the chair, the charismatic Christopher Lee in the lead and the talented Matheson (I Am Legend/The Shrinking Man/Hell House) writing the screenplay. The latter of which managing to streamline Wheatley's potent, but long, source material into a fast paced hour and a half movie. It's also, thanks to Wheatley, well researched, which when finding the story is set in more modern times, gives the film an authentic sheen as it rides on into the macabre.

On the surface the plot seems to be a standard good against evil battle, but it's not just a battle, this is a war on terror. Lee's determined, bastion of good, de Ricleau is not just fighting to save the soul of those he cares about, the film makes one feel that it's a battle he must win: for us all. Tho only blessed with the usual standard Hammer budget, the film has immense attention to detail, the power of black magic and the occult is painted vividly, with Fisher ensuring that nothing is hokey, this is serious stuff. The director, too, favouring atmospheric dread over short sharp shocks. What action there is is quality, sure the effects are hardly Oscar winning fare, but the impact is big. So too are the number of memorable scenes that puncture the story, the centrepiece of which is the night our "good" characters spend in floor drawn pentacle, fighting off the forces of darkness, some suggested trickery and terrifying manifestations testing their resolve, with the majestic Lee holding court with virtuous nobility.

The rest of the cast are uniformly excellent, with stand outs being Gray, excelling at silky villainy, even tho he's not on screen a great deal, and Eddington, who neatly plays it deadpan opposed to Lee's serious attempt to drive home the seriousness of what is going on. Noteworthy, too, that it's one of those rare occasions to see Lee playing the good guy. Grant (The Plague of the Zombies) makes wonderful use of the Technicolor, his lensing for the fire and brimstone finale is particularly memorable, and Bernard's score is eerie for the build up sequences and demonically boisterous for the critical moments: one of the best scores to accompany a Hammer film. It's not high cinematic art, and certainly not an overtly horrific film; in that you wouldn't recommend it to the boo-jump thrill seeker, but it's troublingly scary, adult and dripping with cold dread. A picture that closes in on you and challenges the myths and nightmares that lurk in the dark.

Up alongside The Wicker Man and Witchfinder General as one of the true greats of British horror. 9.5/10

A classic, vintage horror, another classic from Hammer Horror.

Expect the usual Hammer attributes, terror, shock, scares, and a lot of mesmerism. It doesn't stint on the terror factor here, even now it packs a punch, with some sinister concepts.

It looks incredible, it's so well shot, with gorgeous sets and costumes, it is very well produced.

Of course Christopher Lee is the headline, and as always he doesn't disappoint, but he is well supported, Charles Gray is terrific, it's all about the eyes, great also to see Paul Eddington.

It's one of those films that time has been very kind to, it simply doesn't date.

Excellent, 8/10.

Dennis Wheatley's black magic novel gets the Hammer horror treatment, with Christopher Lee relishing the chance to play the good guy for once as the Duc De Richleau, an authority on the occult who does battle a group of Satanists (led by Charles Gray) for the soul of his friend. Made the same year as Rosemary's Baby, it was one of a number of films that brought Satan out of the shadows during the onset of the Summer of Love and is one of Hammer's best movies. Directed by the legendary Terence Fisher (The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), Dracula (1958), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) and The Mummy), from a screenplay written by Richard Matheson (of I Am Legend fame, the novel that spawned Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price, Omega Man with Charlston Heston and I Am Legend with Will Smith), it received praise from Wheatley himself and Christopher Lee said in interviews that it was one of his favorite onscreen performances. The cast includes Niké Arrighi as the sexy satanic neophyte Tanith Carlisle and Sarah Lawson and Leon Greene. The grinning Goat of Mendes in the film was played by Eddie Powell, who was Christopher Lee's stunt double in Hammer's 1958 adaptation of Dracula.