One day in the mid 1970's, my Dad decided to recount to me the story of the film he'd watched last night. Once he'd finished his tale of hypnotic eyes, skeletons on horseback, giant spiders and the Devil in the form of a goat I made him promise to let me watch it the next time it was on. The film was, of course, 'The Devil Rides Out'. When I finally saw it, perhaps a year or so later, I was astonished. It was BETTER than he had described it.
I love this film, it has everything apart from Peter Cushing. It's scary, it's funny, it's thrilling, it's preposterous, it's Hammer, it's Dennis Wheatley and it's quite brilliant. Highly recommended.
Got to agree with you 100%. I was absolutely blown away the 1st time I saw The Devil Rides Out. Christopher Lee and Charles Grey were great in it. After seeing the film I went out the next day to buy the book.
ReplyDeleteseconded!
ReplyDeletemy first glimpse of this was a clip of the Goat of Mendes (the devil himself!) in the classic Arena documentary Heavy Metal Heaven. it was being used to illustrate some of Black Sabbath's lyrical influences and packed quite a punch even in such a small dose. needless to say the rest of the film lived up to that moment!
might also have been the first time I saw Christopher Lee actually speak in a film, never mind play a good guy as it had been strictly capes & hissing only up until that point.
You got me into this one from the old Unmann Wittering blog...funniest part imo is close to the start when Christopher Lee discovers a chest full of chickens then punches his nephew's lights out for dabbling in the occult.
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