The Devil Rides Out

For Hammer, director Terence Fisher had a definite penchant for the classics having filmed various stories featuring Dracula both with and without his brides, Frankenstein and his various problematic patchwork monsters, mummies, werewolves, operatic phantoms, both faces of Dr Jekyll, the gorgon and even a couple of outings for Sherlock Holmes where the so called 'great detective' entirely fails to notice that he's transformed into Sir Henry Baskerville in the second one.

In this, one of his final films, Fisher introduced us to the aristocratic occultist 'Nicholas, The Duke de Richleau' (Christopher Lee) in an adaptation of Dennis Wheatley's 1934 novel.  Here, the noble Duke and his good natured compatriot 'Rex Van Ryn' (a dubbed Leon Greene) spring to the aid of another friend 'Simon Aron' (Patrick Mower) who along with the glamorous psychic 'Tanith Carlisle' (Niké Arrighi) has fallen under the influence of satanic high priest 'Mocata' (Charles Gray).

Often cited as Fisher's best movie it certainly is a fantastically entertaining black magic romp filled with magic circles, spells, demonic conjuring, high speed chases and timely interventions. The script by 'I Am Legend' author Richard Matheson is breathless and it's cast, also featuring future prime minister Paul Eddington, are faultless with Gray in particular dripping with malice - as an aside I heartily recommend you take the time to watch him eat a ghost in 'The Gourmet'.  I have always thought the ending to be something of a cop out but it's not a huge problem given how much fun the rest of the movie is.

Buy it here - UK / US.

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