Watch The Devil Rides Out For Free

Good concept, poorly executed.

Fantastic!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

A young man and woman have become involved with some devil worshippers. Apparently they are under an evil spell. About this time, the young man is visited by two friends of his now deceased father. Lucky for all concerned that one of the friends (Christopher Lee) is an expert in the occult. He recognizes the danger and determines to liberate the two.This story of the dark arts employs all the clichés of the genre and every prop a viewer would expect: candles, pentagrams, crosses, etc. The bad guys conduct ceremonies that look much like church services--plus ritualistic goat sacrifice--but the story is actually pretty muddy concerning the details of the threat and the characters involved, some of whom are summoned from darker places. The story does not have much to recommend it. It is standard fare for films about the occult. And the tone of the film is never very menacing. This is a tale that feels more like a detective story than a scary chiller.Still, the production values are good despite the fact this film was probably aimed at the drive-in crowd.

I'll just say it: Without an actor of Christopher Lee's caliber, this movie would have been somewhere between corny and laughable. But the director, and Lee, and a cast of talented, hard-working supporting actors, managed to pull this off and created a classic of horror. What's amazing, when you think about it, is that the creators had a screen play that just pulled out one worn supernatural cliché or gimmick after another - ritual sacrifice, satanic possession, rising winds, mental domination and hypnotism, séances, demons appearing in flames,you name,it was in there...all without any back-story or exposition. And the ending was a Deus-ex-machina that should have made me howl in disbelief, But it was all done so briskly and in such a matter-of-fact way that I just went along with it all and applauded at the end.Yes,some of the overt special effects were clumsy and even laughable (vis the giant spider). But most of the time events were simply suggested by the way the actors widened their eyes or grimaced or flinched...and THOSE moments were utterly convincing. I really, really like this one, and am glad I finally had a chance to see it.

THE DEVIL RIDES OUT (1968) *** Excellent horror film from Hammer Films with their star attraction, Christopher Lee in rare form as a well-versed duke who discovers a friend in peril with a Satanic cult enduring all of his free will and knowledge to battle the nefarious leader (Charles Gray) (literally) hell bent in taking his friends' souls (including the friend's girlfriend) with a battle royale. Sterling script adaptation by legendary Richard Matheson based on a novel by Dennis Wheatley with impeccable direction by veteran helmsman Terence Fisher and resplendent production design by Bernard Robinson. More suspenseful than scary yet told with great flair and visual elegance.

Through my excursions through the horror underground, I've heard many a praise of this movie, so I was excited to finally get a chance to see it. Perhaps all those years of praise had heightened my expectations just a bit too much because I found the film to be enjoyable, though far from classic.The movie differs quite a bit from Hammer's most famous output. There are no Gothic castles or spooky cobwebs, no classic monsters or great creature effects. Instead, the story takes place at the end of the 1920s and involves a black magic cult and plenty of somewhat informed mystic mumbo jumbo (the sort where the writer throws in a bunch of occult terms and Latin phrases and assumes the viewer doesn't know any better anyways). It is directed by Terence Fisher, who created most of Hammer's most famous works and is, sadly, never given the credit he is due as one of the foremost horror directors of all time.The story revolves around a reunion of 3 friends, one of whom is Christopher Lee in a rare "good guy" role, as Duc. However, the youngest of their trio, Simon, is missing, so our two heroes, Duc and Rex, go in search of the young man. They interrupt a coven of occultists planning something evil for the evening and kidnap Simon to save him from the group, incurring the wrath of Charles Gray as Mocata, the cult leader and maybe the best role in the film. Naturally, Mocata is not going away without a fight and we the rest of the film unfolds as a battle between Duc and Mocata for the souls of Simon and a young lady, Tanith whom they try to save from the cult.There are some really good scenes in the movie, which are memorable indeed. The initial rescue of Tanith sees Duc and Rex disrupt a satanic baptism complete with reveling worshippers and one of the coolest devil's ever put on screen (surely inspired by the Church of Satan's images of Baphomet). I found myself reminded a great deal of the Tom Hanks comedy DRAGNET in this scene. After refusing to give up Simon and Tanith to Mocata, he summons the forces of evil against our heroes, leading to a tense scene as they hide inside a Circle of Protection while being assaulted by a giant spider and the Angel of Death. The finale of the film is also a good scene where the forces of good finally show up to assist our group of heroes against Mocata.There is a lot that's really dry here, too. Though Lee and Gray are both excellent, most of the other actors are just role players stumbling their way through the lines. We get one of those silly love angles where two characters fall madly in love after knowing each other for all of about 12 hours, but it becomes an important device for the finale. I could have done with some more shadows and torchlight and something closer to an ominous setting. Instead most of the occult scenes involve a lot of hypnotism, hand wiggling and kitchen sink occult gibberish.All in all, I found it worth the watch if only to see a stellar performance by Christopher Lee and a movie that deviated quite a bit from the norm for Hammer Studios.