The Devil Rides Out

Christopher Lee takes on some satanists in Southern England

In London & the south of England in 1929/1930, an expert on the occult & his associate (Christopher Lee and Leon Greene) clash with a cult of Satanists led by a man with the power of mesmerism (Charles Gray). Nike Arrighi and Patrick Mower are also on hand

"The Devil Rides Out" (1968), also known as “The Devil’s Bride,” is a supernatural thriller from Hammer based on Dennis Wheatley’s 1934 novel. Cinema started to flirt with satanism in the early 60s with Roger Corman's "The Masque of the Red Death" and England's "Devils of Darkness," which were shot in 1963 and 1964 respectively. You can trace it back further if you consider "The City of the Dead," aka "Horror Hotel," which was made in 1959. The overt satanism is surprising for films shot way back then.

None of them paint satanism in a positive light, but goat-sucking LaVey capitalized on this new interest and sprung his "church" of satan in 1966. "The Devil Rides Out” and "Rosemary's Baby" went into production the next year. Rob Zombie’s “The Lords of Salem” (2012) is a worthy modern example of the genre.

The setting is great, including the old automobiles; and the woodsy Baphomet sequence is superb, as well as some other effective scenes. Meanwhile Gray is appropriately satanic-looking as the villain (not to mention borrowed by Marvel Comics 5-6 years later). Unfortunately, the mesmerism angle is overdone and I didn’t find myself caring about the protagonists. On the surface, it’s one of the more notable films of the genre, indeed, but its shallowness in human interest lowers my view.

The movie runs 1 hour, 35 minutes, and was shot in Elstree Studios, which is just northwest of London, and places nearby, like Black Park Country Park, which is a dozen miles southwest of the studio.

GRADE: B-/B