Watch Devils of Darkness For Free

I'll tell you why so serious

Don't Believe the Hype

Blistering performances.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

In a remote village in Brittany, Count Sinistre (Hubert Noel) is reactivated as a vampire four hundred years after being buried alive for his crimes. He kills and reactivates a gypsy girl called Tania (Carole Gray) to be his bride in blood. Meanwhile, writer Paul Baxter (William Sylvester), is holidaying with friends in the village. Two of them discover the resting place of the vampires whilst exploring caves and are murdered and another, Anne (Rona Anderson), is drowned after she discovers Sinistre's secret. However, Baxter and antiques dealer, Madeleine (Diana Decker) escape back to England. But, Sinistre is close behind as Baxter has stolen his secret Talisman, a gold necklace carved in the shape of a bat. Meanwhile, we learn that Madeline is involved with Sinistre's cult and that she helped him move to England. In addition, Baxter's new girlfriend, the model Karen Steele (Tracy Reed), is in grave danger as Sinistre intends to make her his new vampire bride...Notable as the first British horror film to bring vampirism into a contemporary setting, but it is a disappointingly tame offering with little in the way of thrills or suspense thanks to Lance Comfort's flat direction and since most of its horrors take place off screen. Lyn Fairhurst's screenplay has promise with its inclusion of themes like reincarnation and witchcraft as well as vampirism. Sadly, however, they are poorly integrated into the basic plot and we are left with a mish mash of occult mumbo jumbo that make very little sense.Nevertheless, there are still some things to enjoy here. Reg Wyer's Eastmancolor camera-work is atmospheric including a beautiful shot of Tania lying in her coffin surrounded by red blossoms as the Count sets about reactivating her as an Undead. Another great set piece is a portrait of Karen, painted by Sinistre, which gushes blood when Tania slashes it with a knife in a jealous rage since she knows that Karen is to replace her as the Count's vampire bride. The film has no real outstanding merits in the acting field and William Sylvester, who was excellent in Lance Comfort's notable b-pic thriller, Blind Corner, here playing a writer turned vampire hunter is a rather dull hero. We don't think much of Baxter's chat up techniques either. At a party where he meets Karen for the first time, he invites her back to his flat by saying: "If you get hungry, I know a place where the scrambled eggs taste great. I cook with a non stick saucepan." Overall, Devils Of Darkness, is a big disappointment considering its status as Britain's first modern day vampire film and the fact that a promising plot is left woefully underdeveloped. It is a film that I would like to see remade because, with a better developed script and a stronger cast, it could well be a front rank genre offering. But, there are some bright moments and die hard fans of British horror cinema, like myself, will love it anyway as it is in itself a pleasant reminder of a period of British filmmaking that has long since disappeared.

I'm at a loss as to how the actors were able to go through with this film with straight faces. However, two points of the film have some merit to them. The dance scene in the beginning was fabulous; in fact, it didn't fail to draw you into the movie, despite the bomb effect you are treated to after that. The only real acting that caught my eye was that of Karen, the love interest. She too came in at a time when you were about ready to give the whole thing up. Again, she had the quality of drawing you into the relationship that was being cultivated between the main characters. Other than that, it was more or less of a bad TV movie, guaranteed to give you a few good laughs.

Devils of Darkness starts in Brittany in France where English author Paul Baxter (William Sylvester) has had car trouble & thus checks into an inn in a small town on a festival celebrated by the locals called All Soul's Eve. By a coincidence Paul finds that his friend Anne Forest (Rona Anderson) is also staying there together with her brother Keith (Geoffrey Kenion) & his mate Dave (Rod McLennan) who are potholing & exploring some local caves. The cosy reunion soon turns to tragedy when Keith is found dead & Dave goes missing, Anne is comforted by the sinister Count Sinistre (Hubert Noël) who happens to be a Vampire from 1588. Count Sinistre kills Anne, the local police try to pass it off as suicide but Paul doesn't buy it & insists on the bodies of Anne & Keith be taken back to England for proper autopsies. Count Sinistre needs to stop this & silence Paul or risk being exposed...This British production was directed by Lance Comfort & is an obvious attempt at recreating the success of the Anglo horror film that was so popular at the time with the likes of Hammer & Amicus studios churning out all sorts of Gothic inspired horror flicks which the general public lapped up. The script by Lyn Fairhurst was one of the first British films to deal deal with Vampire mythology in contemporary Britain, certainly Hammer's previous Dracula films had been set in Victorian England rather than the swinging sixties like Devils of Darkness. One has to say that Devils of Darkness is a rather flat & often tedious film, the plot starts off alright but there's no mystery or intrigue as everything is spelled out straight away like who the Vampires are, what has actually happened to everyone & nothing is left unanswered so to speak. The film quickly settles down into a fairly talky affair with little or no significant action, despite being largely about Vampires there is not one single shot in the entire film of anyone with fangs, there is not one single blood drinking or neck biting scene either & apart from a couple of dead bodies turning up with puncture wounds on their neck you would be hard pressed to know that Devils of Darkness featured any Vampires at all. The film also has a Satanist angle but again nothing really comes of this & both the Vampire & Satanist plots feel very underdeveloped & almost at odds with each other like Fairhurst had two separate ideas & then decided to just combine them underplaying them both in the process.A real product of it's time Devils of Darkness has aged badly although that's not really it's own fault is it? For instance the parity scene is embarrassing to watch, the way people talk to each other, the fashions, the clothes, the interior decor of character's homes & outdated science (snakes do not hypnotise their prey with fear!). There is very little in the way of horror in Devils of Darkness, there's no real suspense or atmosphere & no blood or gore. The cinematography is interesting, shot in colour the film was obviously designed to stand out with some really gaudy & bright sets (just check out the colour of some of the wallpaper!), some really colourful clothes & the Satanists at the end all dress in bright red scarlet robes. Then there's the terrible day-for-night filming, it doesn't look good at the best of times but here it's almost impossible to tell whether a scene is set at night or not & the brightness levels keep changing during the same sequence.With a supposed budget of about £110,000 Devils of Darkness wasn't as low budget as some British horror around at that time & the colourful sets & costumes probably was where the money was spent. It certainly wasn't spent of special effects (unless you count the worst looking rubber Bat in history) or action scenes that's for sure. The acting is pretty wooden & Hubert Noël makes for one of the most forgettable on screen lead Vampires ever.Devils of Darkness is a pretty disappointing British horror film that I am sure many will compare to the Hammer Dracula films of the period & it's not a favourable comparison at all, average at best but generally forgettable. One more thing, what the hell happened to Dave?! I guess he's still missing to this day...

I got this film as part of one of MGM's "Midnite Movies" double features. The second feature in the pack, Witchcraft (1964) was a good film so I had fairly high hopes for this one in spite of the low IMDb rating with it being the first feature. Naturally the two films share the subject of witchcraft, the only difference being that Witchcraft (1964) did it in an interesting way...and this film doesn't. The film adheres better to the "British horror style" that features in the films by Hammer and the other major studios, but it really has nothing on most of the movies brought out around the same time; films like this are made for entertainment and this one isn't entertaining! The plot focuses on Paul and Karin, a couple out holidaying in France. Not long after meeting a sinister French aristocrat, two of Paul's friends die and when his girlfriend mysteriously disappears, it becomes apparent to Paul that something funny is afoot. He then takes to following clues that lead to the revelation that the French count isn't what he seems!The film gets off to a promising start; we get a creepy opening sequences and then the characters are introduced, but it quickly descents into tedium. There's far, far too much talking and none of the horror elements are even bordering on being frightening, or even interesting. The film features themes such as satanic worship and vampirism and they really are wasted. The film also lacks lead performers with charisma - there's no Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee equivalent, which means we're left with William Sylvester as the good guy and Hubert Noël as the bad guy; both of which do little to interest their audience. Director Lance Comfort doesn't create much, if any suspense and the interplay between the characters is boring. The film does look rather nice which is really the only good thing I have to say about it, but that's only a small reprieve in a film so full of negative elements. Overall, there are far better films on this subject than Devils of Darkness; anyone that owns the Midnite Movies double only needs to look so far as the second feature. I have no reason to recommend this film!