Director: Terence Fisher
Writers: Richard Matheson, Dennis Wheatley
Stars: Christopher Lee, Charles Gray, Nike Arrighi
Run Time: 1 Hour, 35 Minutes
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Synopsis
The Duc picks up Rex at the airport, and they’re both worried about their friend Simon, who hasn’t taken visitors in ages. They head over to his estate, where there’s a party going on that they weren’t invited to. Simon explains that it’s not a party, “it’s an astronomical society I’ve joined.” They meet Tanith and Mr. Mocata. Tanith says that “surely, there shouldn’t be more than thirteen here,” and the Duc knows what’s going on immediately.
Simon suddenly gets uncomfortable and rushes the Duc and Rex out; he says it’s a private party. The Duc wants to see the astronomical observatory, and it’ll only be five minutes. There is a telescope, but there’s also a big goat painted on the floor. Rex finds it all very amusing, but the Duc is getting upset. They find a bunch of chickens in a basket, and the Duc screams he’d rather see Simon dead than involved in black magic. They knock Simon out and carry him out the front door.
The Duc hypnotizes Simon. “You will wake up at ten a.m. tomorrow morning.” He places a big cross around Simon’s neck, and still under hypnosis, tells him to “never take it off.” They put him to bed.
Meanwhile, Simon tries to choke himself to death with the cross’ chain, so the butler removes it. Simon then runs off. They head back to Simon’s house, but he’s not there. Suddenly, the goat painted on the floor lights up and smoke comes out of it. They get a vision of… something. The Duc screams ”don’t look at the eyes,” but Rex looks at the eyes. Duc throws the cross at the thing, and it’s all right now.
They decide to track down Tanith, since Rex remembers meeting her at one point in the past. Rex picks her up and tries to keep her from going to the Satanic Baptism, which is tonight. She dumps him, and soon they are in an antique car chase. The Devil interfere, and Rex crashes his car.
Rex still manages to follow her on foot and manages to track them to a ritual in the woods. There are a lot more than thirteen people at this meeting in the woods. Mocata is in charge, and this is the baptism for Tanith and Simon. They sacrifice a goat, and Rex runs away and calls the Duc from a payphone. The Duc picks up Rex and drives there just as the celebration really gets under way. Baphomet shows up, and they begin the baptism.
Duc and Rex shine a car’s headlights on the proceedings to disrupt things. They grab Simon and Tanith and drive away. They all head to Rex’s brother’s house to regroup, and Rex and Tanith have a moment. Mocata comes to visit the family, and hypnotizes the woman who answers the door. This fails, but Mocata swears that “I won’t be back for them, but something will.”
That night, Tanith hypnotizes Rex while under Mocata’s influence and escapes. The Duc returns, and he’s ready to do battle. They get ready for a ritual of their own. They stand in a circle to defend themselves from the coming attack. There are many temptations to leave the circle, but the Duc is too smart for that. Then— The Devil Rides in! Morning comes, and Tanith is dead; the Angel of Death won’t leave empty-handed. Simon uses the opportunity to escape.
The Duc summons the spirit of Tanith, and she says she will help Rex. She tells them where to find Mocata and Simon. Simon rejoins Mocata, and now they plan to sacrifice Rex’s young niece. The Duc, Rex, and the girl’s parents come to the house and interrupt things. Mocata plans to trade the soul of Tanith for the child. Tanith returns in the girl’s mother’s body and has her say a few magic words. All Hell breaks loose, and the entire place bursts into flames, instantly killing all the Satanists and returning Tanith back to life. Time itself has been reversed! The Angel of Death took Mocata instead.
Commentary
Simon and Tanith both wanted to be baptized, but they don’t put up any fight or objection once they get rescued from the ceremony. You could argue that actually seeing the devil brought them to their senses, but there were a lot of people at the ceremony, and clearly, they’d all seen him before and didn’t get too weirded out by it. It also doesn’t really explain why Simon and Tanith signed up for all this, or why Mocata wants them to join so badly. It seems he went to a lot of trouble to get two new recruits.
The need for exposition is always there in a film, but the Duc just knows too much; he takes the mystery out of all of this. He’s more of a tour guide than a real character, explaining everything as we go along. It’s like having Gandalf on your team; he knows too much. Also, I’m starting to believe that all older British people are masters of hypnosis; they can all do it.
This was Christopher Lee’s personal favorite of his Hammer films. He’s fine in this, but being a hero really just isn’t his forte, and his character just isn’t that interesting— he’s too knowledgeable and too infallible. Charles Grey is his usual creepy self; I’ve never seen him be bad in anything. All the antique cars in this are really cool, and there are a lot of them. There’s a lot of good imagery and costumes here, although the ending was just a little too abrupt, and a lot of it didn’t make any logical sense. Still, it had a lot of good parts, so I don’t know why this isn’t more well known among the classic films.