SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

utgard14 Hammer's last horror film is another adaptation of a Dennis Wheatley novel. They had previously done The Lost Continent, which sucked, and The Devil Rides Out, which also starred Christopher Lee and had a slightly similar plot to this. In that film, Lee rescues the son of a friend from a Satanic cult. In this film, Richard Widmark rescues the daughter of a friend from a Satanic cult. This time Lee's the villain. Playing the young nun pursued by Satanists is a teenage Nastassja Kinski. Also in the cast are the great Denholm Elliott and former Bond girl (here a sexy MILF) Honor Blackman.The Devil Rides Out was a superior movie in every way, not least of which was the script by Richard Matheson. This script is a mess and suffered through several rewrites. Dennis Wheatley was so disgusted by this movie that he told Hammer he no longer wanted them to adapt his work. Not that it mattered much as Hammer went out of business a few years later. Since this was released post-Exorcist, Hammer tried to get on that bandwagon and be as outrageous as possible. Most of this will seem pretty tame to modern audiences but was pretty shocking at the time. Hammer always had sex and violence as part of its horror formula but here with full-frontal nudity, some nasty sex scenes, and quite a bit of bloodiness, it makes most previous Hammer films seem like they should be rated G. Taking all of this into account, it's a watchable second-rate 'devil movie.' A good cast helps a lot. It's not the worst Hammer horror movie but it's far from their best. Look out for the stupid abrupt ending. Favorite quote: "98% of so-called Satanists are nothing but pathetic freaks who get their kicks out of dancing naked in freezing churchyards and use the Devil as an excuse for getting some sex." Sounds about right.

Sean Jump To the Devil a Daughter was an effort by legendary Hammer Films to update their Gothic horror formula for the contemporary 1970s. As such, it is mostly successful but lacks the confident dramatic touch that earmarked most of Hammer's better movies. The story is based on a novel by Dennis Wheatley and is more than creepy enough, revolving around an excommunicated priest (Christopher Lee) and his cult, who want to bring the devil into the world via a young and naive nun (Natassia Kinski). Richard Widmark is our protagonist, an occult writer who takes Kinski's character under his wing in an effort to protect her from Lee's machinations.The cast is terrific. Lee, as usual, delivers a standout turn as the defrocked priest, while Widmark is a very human and fallible but likable hero who soon learns he and his friends are in over their heads but can't bring himself to stand by and do nothing. Kinski is charismatic as the young nun who has no idea what the cult has in store for her, and her natural beauty certainly enhances the picture.The actual story, however, is unfortunately very up and down. I haven't read the source novel yet so I can't compare, but it seems like the scriptwriters didn't know for sure what direction to take with the various plot threads. This is especially apparent in the film's conclusion, which is terribly anti-climactic and left this viewer scratching his head bemusedly. At least it avoids the cheap "jump" non-ending of many modern horror films. There is also a rather unfortunate devil-baby which is too obviously fake to produce anything but wry smiles. Sometimes it's best not to show everything.Pacing isn't great either, and some of the subplots are quite boring. I think this is due, at least in part, to the very naturalistic tone the director adopts from the outset. It was probably hoped this would lend the picture authenticity, but it also negates excitement and tension. Altogether the movie plays rather more like a weird documentary than a horror film.To the Devil a Daughter isn't the worst of films, but it's not nearly as good as it should have been, either. Its interesting plot isn't developed with the necessary suspense and while the cast is outstanding, the script and direction let them down. Worth watching once for Hammer fans, as long as expectations are tempered accordingly...Curse of Frankenstein this is not.

BA_Harrison Popular occult author Dennis Wheatley was so pleased with Hammer's 1968 movie version of his novel The Devil Rides Out that he happily agreed to them making further adaptations of his work, even going so far as to granting the rights for nothing. It was an offer that, eventually, the ailing studio could not afford to ignore.Choosing to develop To The Devil A Daughter, however, was probably a bad decision: budgetary constraints meant that a faithful interpretation of Wheatley's book was impossible to achieve, and after much script wrangling, filming went ahead whilst further revisions were still being made.To add to Hammer's problems, star Widmark was not a happy bunny on set, being displeased with the non-Hollywood film making process employed by director Peter Sykes and his crew.However, despite all the problems, somehow, eventually, a finished product was delivered—only to suffer from some hasty re-editing when some bright spark commented that the original ending bore too much resemblance to that of an earlier Hammer movie, Scars of Dracula. With such a troubled production, To The Devil A Daughter is an understandably less than perfect film, but despite its flaws, it still proves to be an entertaining dose of Satanic nonsense.Widmark plays John Verney, an American occult novelist who is approached by a strange man named Henry Beddows (Denholm Elliot), who claims to be involved with a cult named The Children of the Lord, led by the sinister Father Michael Rayner (Christopher Lee, in fine form). Intrigued, Verney agrees to pick up Beddows' daughter Catherine (Nastassja Kinski) from the airport and look after her until they can meet again. In reality, Beddows is trying to protect his daughter from Rayner, who selected the girl at birth for a ritual—scheduled to take place on her impending 18th birthday—that will see her becoming an avatar for the demon Astaroth.With such a great cast (that also includes Honor Blackman), and Wheatley's well researched black magic mumbo jumbo forming the basis of the script, To The Devil A Daughter trundles along quite nicely for the majority of its running time, offering audiences plenty of fun devilish goings-on, including the nasty birth of a demon child (which exits via the abdomen), Blackman being stabbed in the neck with a metal comb, one poor character going up in flames, Lee terrorising a trembling Elliot over the phone, and the lovely Nastassja giving viewers an eyeful of her hot bod.Unfortunately, the messy finalé (which sees Lee's character disappear mysteriously after receiving a bump on the head) does mean that the film closes on something of a bum note and admittedly cannot hold a (black) candle to the real Satanic hit of '76, The Omen, but it's also nowhere near as bad as some Hammer fans would have you believe.6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.

JasparLamarCrabb There's not a single scary moment in this boring albeit well made Hammer entry. Christopher Lee is an excommunicated priest who somehow manages to promise to give the Devil a daughter. Richard Widmark is the hack horror novelist trying to stop him. The idea of teaming these two famous screen baddies is promising, but they share scant screen time together. A dubbed Nastassja Kinski plays a young nun and Denholm Elliott is her father, who tries to renege on his deal with Lee. It's a lousy movie all around and even manages to wastes Honor Blackman (as Widmark's sharp tongued literary agent). Based on the (presumably better) novel by Dennis Wheatley, this film surely exists solely to cash in on the EXORCIST craze of the early 70s.