Raw Meat

Raw Meat [QuickFix]

Original Title: Death Line

Directed by: Gary Sherman

UK, 1973

Horror/Thriller, 87min

Imagine the opening of a movie where a man is searching for something in a variety of sex-shops and live act clubs… yeah, one get’s certain mental images of red lights and naked ladies don’t you, because that’s what we are used to... But this is a stiff upper lip, British film, so there’s no nudity allowed, instead every possible shot of James Manfred OBE [James Collins] mooching around seedy clubs, fades in and out of blurriness until he get’s down into the subway where “something” attacks him. This fade in, fade out fest which finally lands in an initial attack, setts the premise for this little delight of seventies horror. Then the fun starts as Inspector Calhoun [Donald Pleasance], a somewhat erratic and farcical inspector – quickly recalls several other incidents of people going missing at Russell Square tube station and starts an investigation into the strange disappearances.

Donald Pleasance, Christopher Lee, and a raving mad cannibal down the old London Subway! Do you need much more of a reason to watch this movie? Well if you do, how about me mentioning a small but fun part by Clive Swift who any one familiar with the terribly funny, Keeping up Appearances, will have a good laugh at seeing here. Then there’s some pretty grotty seventies special effects, and that American retitling from Death Line to Raw Meat to perhaps aim more attention to the cannibal theme of the movie.

Pleasance is brilliant in this flick; he’s somewhat odd and quirky which adds a great touch to the usual detective part. At times he’s damn right funny, like in the scene where he tries to convince a pub landlord to let him and Rogers keep in drinking despite it being past closing hours. Giving the poor man a choice of letting them drink or being busted for selling alcoholic beverages after closing hours. I completely love the prestige of Inspector Calhoun refusing to hand the case over to MI5, despite Detective Sergeant Rogers [Norman Rossington] claiming that with Manfred, being a man of the Queen the case should belong to the MI5, but Calhoun refuses, if someone dies in my mansion, then it’s my case. This all peaks when MI5 Agent Stratton-Villers [Christopher Lee] turns up to taunt Calhoun claiming that it’s “his” case. Yeah it’s a small cameo, but production value and a selling name on the poster. Never the less after a series of new murders down the subway, they come to the conclusion that Manfred must have been murdered too, which makes Calhoun do a little happy jig. As said, this movie is completely owned by Pleasance.

The cannibal man [Hugh Armstrong] tends to his wife, Mrs. Cannibal [June Turner] in her last moments of life – and oddly enough she looks pregnant - and then he get’s all emotional – which in some way could create some kind of empathy for his character. After all this is the end of his family line, and we know nothing of the society that has been living down in the subways apart from their burial chamber filled with rotting corpses and generations of Cannibals. In his grief-stricken state the cannibal takes to violently slaughtering people, trying to rape a chick and biting the head of a rat. This is where several scenes had the BBFC up in arms, and saw them slash several minutes of the movie upon its original release in mid seventies… And may I say that for seventies it’s perfectly fitting violence of the era, an effective shovel to the head effect gimmick, and a impaling, complete with dangly bits of flesh on the end of the pole.

Raw Meat uses a classic investigation plot that ends up taking a twist down atmospherically and damp subway horror. Just think of the best parts of Christopher Smith’s Creep 2004, without, the squealing mutant, and with some really effective scare moments. But it’s not all old geezers in tweed and trench coasts, there’s also a generic and what the adult filmmakers considered trendy and hip young couple – Alex Campbell [David Ladd] and Patricia Wilson [Sharon Gurney] who live through the movie via their subplot. They are the last people to see OBE – they find him on the stairs out, and where Alex presumes the old bloke is drunk, Patricia worries that he might be ill. It’s also this concern for fellow people that later rives Patricia into the subway looking for answers, hence making her an important part in solving the mystery of what resides below… this despite the fact that we already know what it is! Because the genesis of the underground dwellers is already presented within the first half hour when Inspector Richardson [Clive Swift] tells Calhoun and Rogers about the Victorian miners that got stuck down in the underground when a cave in trapped them during the building of the subway. Then film editor Geoffrey Foot – who also edited John Hough’s magnificent The Legend of Hell House this same year – cuts to the half eaten arm of a victim and an atmospherically tense, but slow pan of the underground lair, giving us a grim tour of the cannibal’s domain.

There’s a little fun detail, which means nothing really, but fun to take into consideration. Alex reads a newspaper with the headline “I Stayed at Michael X murder house!” which obviously leads on to think of that other iconic performance Pleasance would give five years later. The one of Dr. Loomis in John Carpenter’s genre defining Halloween 1978

I find it fair to give Raw Meat a 4 out of 6, because it was entertaining little piece of fluff, had a great atmosphere and Pleasance is magic. This despite it trying to stick a last minute shock in there which is so lame I’d scream aloud, if not for the fact that Sherman followed this up almost a decade later with a real gem, the strangely creepy and highly atmospherically dense, Dead & Buried 1981.

The Gorgon

The Gorgon
Directed by: Terrence Fisher
UK, 1964
Horror/Mystery/Fantasy, 83min

I can’t really understand genre fans that don’t like Hammer films! How can you not like Hammer films? For years I’ve been fucking annoyed that watchers of genre cinema all seem to be so polarized, they either only want the gore, the violence, the nihilistic carnage, or even worse, the ones that draw a line with The Exorcist, Jaws and Alien and determine that everything beneath them is automatically unwatchable trash.

Well obviously these people are not really fans of genre cinema. Let's just say that they like a few quick scares, and keep Hollywood in business. Fans of genre cinema take it all in, and leave no rock unturned in their search for the next thrill. The audience above are joined by the fact that they completely ignore the fluff… whilst supposedly claiming to like genre cinema. Well, the fluff is really what makes it all worthwhile. It’s the stuff that keeps the really good from the really bad. It's within the realm of the fluff where the important movies really are found. Such as the Hammer films. Looking at them historically the Hammer movies where the first gore films. Yeah, screw Hershell Gordon Lewis, screw the Japanese Chanbara flicks, Terrence Fisher’s The Curse of Frankenstein 1957 is the first splatter flicks. When Peter Cushing’s Baron Frankenstein shoots Christopher Lee’s creature in the head with a shotgun and Lee holds his hand up to his face as the blood pours out of the concealed hole in his head, it was deliberate. When Lee’s eyes turn red and the blood seeps from the side of his mouth in The Horror of Dracula 1958, Fisher with makeup artists Phil Leakey and Sydney Pearson knew exactly what they where doing and knew that they where pushing the limits of things… and they created a complete new horror ingredient that people had never seen before, which in it’s own turn made Hammer Studios the minor success story that it was to become.

Terrence Fisher also helmed 1964’s The Gorgon based on a script by screenwriter/director John Gilling – who would later also direct some of the better later movies for Hammer, such as The Plague of the Zombies and The Reptile both 1966, and ended up directing the Paul Naschy penned La cruz del Diablo (Cross of the Devil) for Naschy in 1975.

Let’s set up The Gorgon – Something is luring in the dark of Castle Borski just outside of Vandorf. Seven unexplained murders in five years have Inspector Kanof [Second Doctor Who, Patrick Troughton] a frustrated man. When young woman, Sacha Cass [Toni Gilpin], goes missing and shortly after, her bohemian boyfriend, Bruno Heitz [Jeremy Longhurst], is found hung from a tree. It all looks like a closed case, and the town Judge rules it all as a murder followed by suicide. Nobody but Bruno’s father Professor Heitz objects and points out that Cass body was actually turned to stone… the town of Vandorf obviously want’s to keep something a secret, and he will not leave until he’s unveiled the mystery and cleared his son’s name. Doctor Namaroff [Peter Cushing] and his assistant Carla Hoffman [Barbara Shelley] run the village mental institute and all seems fine, until Professor Heitz second son, Paul [Richard Pasco] arrives with the same ambition to solve the curse of Vandorf. Carla and Paul take a liking to each other, and plan to take off as soon as Paul has figured out what goes on at Castle Borski, which obviously set’s up an interesting little triangle drama between Paul, Carla and Doctor Namaroff. Towards the final act, Paul’s mentor, Professor Karl Meister [Christopher Lee] also comes to the small village and together with Paul they aim to put an end to the rumors that, Magaera [Prudence Hyman, in one of her few onscreen credited parts in a Hammer flick] – one of two lesser know sisters to the legendary Medusa - resides in the woods of Vandorf.

It’s obvious that Gilling has a passion for detective stories – he wrote several crime/detective screenplays, and directed loads of super detective shows, like The Saint, The Champions and Department S. This is seen in the way he constructs the script to The Gorgon, as the movie primarily is a horror movie with an investigation plot. Gradually the audience know what is going on – the gorgon, and the subplots – and with a Hitchcock-ian structure, Gilling and Fisher lead us down a path that is more detective story than horror.

Red herrings are laid out for us to stumble on such as the Martha [Joyce Hemson] character who we blatantly are lead to believe is the Gorgon, and there’s very driven dialogue to make us pose further questions such as when Carla with panic in her voice says to Dr. Namaroff that “She has come back!” Everyone seems to have something to hide, facts they dare not proclaim, truths not yet spoken, which obviously propels the narrative forth.

Obviously the horror comes through the loan of a legendary icon, the Gorgon, Medusa or Mageara as she’s called here, and the heavy gothic vibe that seeps though the movie. Hammer movies are at their best when they ooze of EuroGoth created through the wonderful set design of Bernard Robinson, those great matte painting landscapes, and James Bernard’s magnificent scores – of which The Gorgon holds one of the darkest he composed for Hammer.

The motif of death is very dominant in The Gorgon and despite using a legendary tale we all know by heart – stare in her eyes, turn to stone – they put a spin on it, where characters don’t turn to stone in the flash of an eye as in the old Harryhausen flicks, but more of a sadistic torment as they slowly turn into stone statues. One character even writes a letter home, telling of the pain and despair he feels in that very moment. That’s kind of heavy, even for a Hammer movie. Also they bring a familiar spin to the story when it becomes apparent that the second night of the full moon is when the attacks occur, something we all know from Werewolf folklore.

Building tension and then gradually releasing it is what Hammer movies are all about. God knows they made their fair share of movies that did nothing but build only to present a semi-shocking reveal at the end. This is also true with The Gordon. The initial attack if you will shows us the exact path that Sasha Cass takes, the religious nook by the roadside, the full moon, and the looming structure of Castle Borski. These elements all become referents later on as Professor Heitz walks the same path, it’s not rocket science and we know he’s walking right into danger. Returning imagery, locations and motifs are all important tools for building anticipation as the next time we see them we are aware of the threat they pose.

Characters are kind of stiff and restrained throughout The Gorgon. There’s no real arcs with evolving characters here, and there’s nor really anyone to feel for to start with. Secrets are kept, science argues against fantasy and every one – especially Dr. Namaroff act as skeptics when it all comes around. So there’s a use of something called the contrast frame at work here, where even the men of science deny to acknowledge the Gorgon – which the audience by the way, knows exists – it becomes logic that we tend to empathize with Paul and Carla. They are after all the only characters to stand up for there beliefs, and even though we as an audience are miles ahead of them both, we tend to favor them.

Although one must not forget the many subplots that are irking their way in, of which the Paul – Carla one is the strongest. There’s also the whole protection racket that comes with Dr. Namaroff. It’s almost eerie the way Cushing sluggishly floats around, stopping here and there for a pose to show us that he’s lost in thought, because despite being the skeptic of the piece, he knows what’s going on… Or at least, has an idea, which is why he becomes a human shield for Carla. He won’t let anyone near her, and does his best to protect her. But he’s so overprotective of Carla that it becomes painfully obvious why she falls for Paul, as he offers her the freedom she looks for. Away from corridors of Dr. Namaroff’s institute, away from Vandorf. Ironically it’s merely a metaphorical freedom and her real freedom comes in a completely different form during the final moments of the movie courtesy of scarcely used Christopher Lee’s Prof. Karl Meister.

The Gorgon, is still one of those Hammer movies that sums up all that was great about Hammer horror, the atmosphere, the somewhat stiff stage performances of the cast, lurking death, gothic horror and, for the time period, acceptable special effects. Perhaps not as impressive as his work on The Horror of Dracula, you still have to give Sydney Pearson credit for the Medusa and her head of snakes. It get’s the job done, the turning to stone transformations, although primarily only make up, work and the final decapitation scene is still something of a classic Hammer moment. When it all comes around, the movie may be a tad on the slow side, but then again that’s what draws me into the world of Hammer. The slow meditative approach, the modest scares and the clean cut closure, which almost all Hammer movies end with. There’s never any lingering around for no reason at all in the world of Hammer. Kill the monster, cue the end credits, let’s all get up off the couch, and sod off to bed.

The Resident

The Resident

Directed by: Anti Jokinen

USA/UK, 2011

Horror/Thriller/Hammer, 87 min

Distributed by: Nordisk Film

I, like many others, did a little happy jig as I learned the infamous Hammer Studios was rising up from the dead. Then the concern that they wouldn’t manage to keep that atmosphere, vibe and style that was Hammer started to set in and it suddenly felt like it may have been a real crap idea after all.

Rumours flourished, movies where announced, facts stated and only time would tell if Hammer would rise from the flames or simply poop out a few turds and sink like a brick to the bottom of the sea of shame.

After seeing a couple of their still quite small output, I’m going to go on record and claim that this is a Hammer which in some ways equals what they had going for them forty years ago, when they took the world with storm and became the stuff of legends.

The first movie to be released by the resurrected company was Finnish born Anti Jokinen's The Resident, starring Hillary Swank and Jeffery Dean Morgan. Then there’s the big hook, which should appeal to all fans of Hammer Horror, the grandmaster of the all, Screen Icon Sir Christopher Lee also holds a part in the movie. It’s an ingenious move of Hammer to bring Lee on-board, because there are almost no words to explain the signals this sends to fans. If Lee is there, then it’s for real.

The Resident sees Swank – who I don’t really like at all, which was my main problem with the film – as young nurse Juliette. She works long, late shifts and within the first few minutes we see her save the day as she get’s in there and saves a patient with a heart condition – full with open heart surgery like moment and stapling together the injury. This obviously starts to create the character Juliette, she’s a no bull shit girl and she has no fear of getting her hands dirty to do her job.

She’s also in the midst of searching for her own apartment – which we later learn is s due to moving to N.Y. to live with her boyfriend Jack [Lee Pace], only to have him be unfaithful to her in their bed – which brings her to Max [Jeffery Dean Morgan] and his beautiful large building where there is an apartment available… This is a huge old style apartment which definitely makes an avid genre fan think of movies like Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby 1968, The Tenant 1976 and even Michael Winner’s The Sentinel 1977. Although this movie goes a completely different way in the later half, it does hold a great gothic vibe with trick doors, peepholes, two-way glass and secret rooms behind the walls of the apartments.

Half an hour in, act two presents a rush of insight that will run shivers down your spine. What we have thought be a chance meeting that will lead to a stalking ex-boy friend – or some satanic cult preparation, with Lee as cult leader which I was hoping for – ends up being a stalker story of a complete different style. And a damned fine one too as this movie does go pretty far – as per usual for Hammer it never get’s too graphic, but it goes far enough to create that awesome buzzing vibe that comes with Hammer flicks. Needless to say, when all is revealed the movie kicks in on all pistons and the thriller turns to survival horror, and a damned tough fight to settle the score and bring balance back to the world breaks loose.

Obviously one could have requested more Christopher Lee, but the simple fact that he’s in it is good enough for me. The flick could have been more horror oriented, but being one of three flicks released by Hammer this year where all three use horror elements in three completely different stories them it’s still a pretty good movie, and has some pretty disturbing scenes packed in there.

One thing I really couldn’t stop smiling about afterwards – and yeah, it’s a real geeky thing, but for me as an old Hammer fan, it’s a very obvious nod to the older movies – and that was that the movie clocks in just over 85 minutes… and if you know your Hammer time, you know that the majority of classic Hammer flicks all clock in just over 85 minutes.

To sum it all up folks, Hammer are back kicking and screaming stronger than ever. To date the three movies released, Let Me In, Wake Wood and The Resident, have all been impressive in their own rights. Yes I was appalled by the idea that anyone remake Let the Right One In, but then I saw the movie, talked to John Ajvide Lindqvist about it and accepted it as the damned fine movie it is. But the atmosphere, vibe and quality of those movies have been top-notch, and the only ingredient that I feel may be missing is the cosiness of the old flicks. There’s something safe with the old Hammer flicks that I love. They are perfect late, late night movies to which one can drift in and out of sleep to as the movie plays on and on and on…

Hollywood better watch it’s back once again, because there’s a new kid in town and this one already has three contemporary classics under it’s belt. Long live Hammer the future is bright as the Phoenix lights up the sky!

Image:

16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1

Audio:

Dolby Digital 5.1, English dialogue, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish and Danish subtitles are optional

Extras:

TBA

The Curse of Frankenstein

The Curse of Frankenstein
Directed by: Terrence Fisher
UK, 1957
Horror, 82min
Distributed by: Sandrews Metronome/Warner Bros.

It’s close to midnight, the kids are asleep, the wife has just gone too bed. Perfect time for a relaxing stretch out on the settee with a cup of tea and a top notch Hammer film that I know will within the span of ninety minutes have me happily drifting in and out of sleep as the plot squirms forth on the TV screen. As Wallace and Gromit love their cheese, I love me a Hammer film every now and again. I always have, I always will, as they are an important part of my fascination for the horror genre, and where one of the definitive starting points in my life long passion for low budget movies.

But the 1957 classic The Curse of Frankenstein, a film I’ve been returning to over and over a gain ever now and then since seeing it on the telly as a kid, still fascinates me in many ways, and challenges me to keep awake, as I want to see the movie come full circle. And on the way there will be cold blooded murder, grave-robbery, decapitations, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and James Bernard’s wonderful score.

I’m going to be bold here and suggest that Terrence Fisher's 1957 Hammer Horror The Curse of Frankenstein is where the first gentle streaks of exploitative blood and violence where put on screen. Sure there had been movies what showed scenes of horror gone before, but this is where they first hit the audience in full colour, and only there for speculative effect. It should be pointed out that the Japanese Chanbara shouldn’t be looked at as splatter flicks, as they are a completely different genre. Sure the blood does spray all over the place, but it does so outside of the horror themed area – well not until Nobuo Nakagawa and others like him started putting the Kaidan plays of Kabuki on celluloid at least.

So all that humbug that H.G. Lewis was the godfather of the gore movie, and John McCarty’s eighties document Splatter Movies on the genre, can all be laid to rest. The yanks didn’t create splatter and gore, they simply made the claim that they did. Frequent readers will know that I previously have argued that the slasher genre of the late seventies and early eighties would not have been if not for the low budget Gialli and horror flicks out of Europe and neither do I feel that the gore films of the mid sixties would have arrived if not for pioneering studios like Hammer and their little series of groundbreaking flicks. And while I’m at it, those H.G. Lewis films weren’t especially good back then and they certainly haven’t aged well as their naivety and campiness mean nothing anymore, and really didn’t back then either.

Instead I claim that splatter/gore, call it what ever you will has it’s roots in the late Fifties Hammer films.

There must have been a shitload of surprised faces as Bray studios when fifty three year old Terrence Fisher, and his thirty year old screenwriter Jimmy Sangster realised that their venture into classic horror ground with the spice of Eastmancolour and blood became an unexpected box office hit not only in the UK, but also a global success as far away as the US and Japan. A worldwide phenomenon that would spawn several remakes of the Universal horror’s in a spanking new packaging, and kept the Hammer studios running for almost two decades to come.

You know the story - it’s the classic Frankenstein tale by Mary Shelly with a Hammer spin on it. And here’s the quick fix if you haven’t seen it: After a short bookend opening where a worn out and shattered Baron Frankenstein [Peter Cushing] sit’s in his prison cell awaiting execution, he tells his tale to the priest that has come to save him. The flashback movie begins…

The young Baron Victor Frankenstein and his tutor of many years Paul Krempe [Robert Urquart] perform a series of experiments, and after bringing a dead pup back to life, they see how they can revolutionise the world of medicine… but in two completely different ways. This lays out the fundamental rift between the two men and it’s also the conflict that will separate the two friends indefinitely. Victor goes about building his beast to Krempe’s despair, who demands that he stop this terrible experiment. Finally after a freak lightning storm the monster is awoken! The cameras rushes forth to a harrowing close up of the snarling scarred beast [Christopher Lee] and James Bernard’s score goes all in.

Despite the genius of creating life, Victor is unable to keep the beast captive and it obviously escapes only to kills off a blind man and his son. It’s done off screen but with James Whale’s 1931 classic in reference you know what happens. The beast is recaptured and strung up in the lab once again. Frankenstein has an affair – even if only suggested in a brief snog, the sort of scenes Cushing loathed doing, but being the damned fine actor that he was, he did exactly what the part required from him. What a trooper. – with this maid Justine [Valerie Gaunt, who would return to the screen with Lee, Cushing and Fisher the following year in Dracula 1958 also based on a Sangster script.] and when his cousin Elisabeth [Hazel Court] whom he has been acting as guardian for, arrives at his house with the intent of marrying him, there’s a conflict that Frankie Boy solves by luring Justine into the room housing the monster he’s created. Some splendid editing and suggestive images of the off screen killing where to become Hammer Horror trademarks, and also the cynicism of their main antagonists. When Justine’s screams fades off the soundtrack there is a hard cut into a breakfast scene where Frankenstein coldly asks Elisabeth to pass him the marmalade. It’s a cold-hearted testament to the Barons lack of affection for stuff outside of his research and his dedication to his scientific abomination.

The rift between Krempe and Frankenstein grows throughout the movie, and after the final confrontation, where Frankenstein is forced to kill his creation to save Elisabeth; the game grinds to a halt. Back in the prison cell, the priest is appalled by Victors’ tale, and in a sinister twist Kempe makes a final entrance. Victor begs Krempe to tell the priest of the monster he created, so that Frankenstein can be acquitted from the charge of killing Justine… but Krempe denies knowing anything of any monster, and as he leaves the prison with Elisabeth on his arm, Frankenstein is walked off to the guillotine.

Definitely among one of the finest Hammer Movies, The Curse of Frankenstein is a real gem for many reasons. It’s the first Colour version of Frankenstein, the first time Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee where together in a horror movie, and the first of many fantastic screenplays that Jimmy Sangster would write for Hammer. And last but not least, it's still a damned good movie!

Where American movies had been running with the themes of a world gone wild due to the side effects of Nuclear power with their many giant monster movies - THEM 1954, The Giant Gila Monster 1959 and so on, or guzzling on communist paranoia films – Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1956 etc, the chilling dreadfulness of The Curse of Frankenstein was a fresh wave of Gothic Horror. A wave that soon would sweep over the globe and make Hammer studios forever associated with period piece horror.

Also the movie brought with it a fresh vain of dark cynicism previously not found in horror pieces. As in The Curse of Frankenstein, you have a leading character sentenced to death. Sure he’s been breaking the laws by playing god for the last eighty minutes and guzzling down jam sandwiches after killing his mistress, but the “good guy” Krempe turns on him in the last minute and not only sends him off to his death with a lie, but he also steals his wife to be. I still find it as fascinating that Sangster chooses this disturbing twist at the end of the movie, and it’s a frequent returning trait of his, positive characters going against their character in the last moment. But perhaps this is what makes his scripts so interesting, he dared to challenge the norm and character arcs that he built thought out the movie.

Now that claim that this is one of the first movies to use gory violence for speculative effect may seem somewhat odd, as there are not really too many scenes of carnage in the film compared to films in the same niche that followed. But keep in mind that the audience had not seen these sorts of images – Cushing wiping off a fair amount of blood on his apron after decapitating the initial corpse, severed hands, cold and bloody being unwrapped, Christopher Lee’s monster makeup, all pale, bloated and riddled with oozing bloody scars enhanced by a furious push forth zoom the first time he’s exposed, and then there’s that shot gun blast to the head of the monster which at the time must have been astonishing for the audience. Cushing races his hand to his forehead as blood pours between his fingers. Sure with today’s standards there are scarier things on the shows that my kids watch, but back in 1957 this was met with outrage! The censors slapped an “X” on the film, and with that controversial rating, the kids of the time just lapped it up. Hence the success of Hammer, movies that still today has a passionate and affectionate legion of fans that spend time in the company of these fantastic movies.

Fast-forward fifty years and these movies are now released with the PG certificate, and nobody would ever believe that they where groundbreaking pieces of cinema that it indeed where.

Image:

1.85:1 – Anamorphic 16x9

Audio:

English Dialogue, French or German Dub available, and subtitles in every possible language imaginable.

Extras:

Pretty lame edition, it’s only got the Theatrical Trailer and a cast and crew test loop. Hopefully the revitalised Hammer as part of Entertainment mogul Jan de Mol will start re-releaseing their movies with a full deluxe extras and the whole shebang.

The Devil Rides Out

The Devil Rides Out
Directed by: Terrence Fisher
UK, 1968
Horror / Hammer / Satanism, 96min
Distributed by: Anchor Bay Entertainment.



Story:
When young Simon gets seduced by a Satanic cult, it’s up to his guardian Duc De Richeleau to save him from the talons of evil. After entering Simon’s house late at De Richleau finds evidence of satanic rituals and is confronted by a demonic presence. At the same time Simon disappears mysteriously from the safety of Du Richleau’s mansion, forcing him to go up against the Satanic forces that have mesmerized Simon. A battle that cult leader Mocata does not fear at all, as he promises De Richeleau and friends while leaving them after a visit, that he will not return to their house, but “something” will come during the night…



Me:
Hammer, hammer, hammer. I love hammer movies, I started wathing them when I was a little lad, I used to read illustrated versions of their movies in the House of Hammer comics, I used to go home from parties just to fall asleep to late night airings of Hammer movies when I was studying at university. And thanks to home video and DVD there’s always been a decent selection of Hammer titles in my library so that when the urge hits me I can pop one of those fabulous movies in and fall asleep before it reaches midpoint. But this in now way means that Hammer movies are bad movies, quite the opposite. They are great movies well worth re-watching on more than one occasion.


The Devil Rides Out is a great example of Hammer on top of their game, you really can’t go wrong with Terrence Fisher directing perhaps one of his finest Hammer movies, with a screenplay by genre legend Richard Matheson, based on a book by Dennis Wheatley, grand master of the occult novel, and to top it off with Christopher Lee in the leading role and a great James Bernard score. That’s a set up that warrants a great movie. And it is, The Devil Rides Out is a fantastic movie, and in every way the antithesis of To the Devil a Daughter, the Wheatley/Lee/Hammer movie that bashed the final nail into Hammer's coffin some ten years later.

The Devil Rides Out sees Christopher Lee in the role of Duc De Richleau, a role he plays to perfection, and I’m quite positive that there’s more of Mr. Lee in this character than in his many portrayals of Count Dracula. De Richleau is a wealthy gent who together with Rex Van Ryn [Leon Greene] have promised to take care and act as guardians for younger upper-class chap Simon [Patrick Mower] (Although he looks old enough to take care of himself…) This leads to them arrogantly interrupting a party which they soon understand by the clumsy slip of the tongues the guests make, is in fact a party for the Satanists! As Simon tries to explain that the party is for invited guests only De Richleau forcefully lingers in the house, and as Simon politely shows them the door, De Richleau demands to take a look at Simon's attic observatory so that he can take a look at the stars. In the observatory he finds what he’s looking for, two sacrificial chickens, he’s proven his point and now because of the promise made to Simons father, has to save min from the satanic cult. This leads to the introduction of the secondary cast and the lead antagonist, the satanic cult lead by Mocata excellently played by Charles Gray [Possibly most know for playing James Bond’s nemesis Blofield in Diamonds are Forever in 1971 and the 1975 cult fave The Rocky Horror Picture Show where he’s the “Criminologist” and narrator of the movie]. After sneaking up on the secret Sabbath in the forest, racing their car and throwing a cross at the devil himself making him go up in a cloud of smoke to the horror of the Satanists, they snatch Simon and Rex’s love interest, Tanith with them. Tanith [Nike Arrighi] who also is a prospect awaiting initiation into the Satanists coven Then the movies shifts up a gear as Richleau and friends battle the various evil apparitions sent before them, giant spiders, fake incarcerations of the Eaton’s daughter Peggy, and the Angel of Death himself!

Needless to say all other characters are out acted by Lee who surely gives one of his all time best performances here, and he probably does this as he had a personal interest in the movie. Being fed up with playing the Count and the way the Dracula movies where going, he insisted that Hammer buy the rights to his acquaintance Dennis Wheatly’s novels. Said and done that’s just what they did, and this time around they made a damned good job out of it, but the next time, in the diabolical To the Devil a Daughter (worth watching only for Lee’s depraved satanic priest and a young Nastassja Kinski) they got it all wrong and bailed out halfway through making it a terrible movie and the one that sadly became the final movie released from that great studio.

Although Hammer films always where shot on tight budgets, short schedules, reoccurring actors and the same locations they always made movies that looked great. Period clothing, wonderful mattes, suggestive effects all work wonders, but among the most impressive production design in The Devil Rides Out is the amazing amount of period vehicles they rallied up for the shoot. Set in the 1920’s they manage to conjure up somewhere in the vicinity of fourteen various automobiles from that time period. Really an impressive feat considering the tight budgets that they shot these movies on. They could have made do with one or two cars, but no, every Satanist has to have on for that drive out into the forest. Also The Devil Rides Out is one of the first movies to actually deal with Satanism, Black Magic and the contemporary battle between Good and Evil in a serious approach, which possibly could be part of the reason that the ending comes all too easy, kind of sudden, somewhat confusing and really could have been better. But all in all if you get that far you will probably accept Christopher Lee’s cheesy explanation when he answers Simon’s question, But what happened? The Devil Rides out is a highly entertaining and a great movie, not to say one of Hammer’s best movies outside of their trademark Gothic Horrors.


Image:
Spherical 1.66:1 here presented in 16x9 Anamorphic


Audio:
DolbyDigital 5.1, Dolby Surround 2.0 and French Mono. No subtitles available.

Extras:
Well I’ve chosen to go for the US (out of print) version, as the version included in “The Ultimate Hammer Collection” lacks the extras featured on the overseas release. The extras on the US version are: An interesting and informative commentary track featuring Christopher Lee, Sarah Lawson and Marcus Hearn co-author of The Hammer Story, Theatrical trailers for the film, both US and UK versions, and then there’s the documentary. This is where the Anchor Bay edition make’s it worth the purchase as they enhanced each release with a thematically linked edition of the documentary series World of Hammer. Each episode dedicated to showcasing the best of Hammer and all narrated by former Hammer star Oliver Reed. This episode is the HAMMER episode and tells the story of this magnificent production company.

Although the US single movie edition is Oop, there is a great release available which features not only The Devil Rides Out, but also Don Sharp’s 1966 Hammer movie Rasputin : The Mad Monk, with yet another great Christopher Lee performance.