To The Devil A Daughter

"Absolutely the last time I do a book adaptation," thought Christopher Lee.

To The Devil A Daughter is Hammer Pictures' adaptation of Dennis Wheatley's novel of the same name. This effectively was the last of the Classic Hammer Horror series that had previously dominated the international horror market with Gothic films starring the likes of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. With To The Devil A Daughter, Hammer went out with a bang.

Catherine, a nun in the heretic order, the Children Of The Lord, has been raised since birth to worship the demon Astaroth and has been groomed to be his avatar (not those blue things) in the world. The ritual to make this happen is going to go down on her 18th birthday. She innocently believes that Astaroth is good, just like her church told her. Her father, a former member of this same Satanic order, is terrified of what is going to happen to his daughter. To keep her out of the order's clutches, he asks his friend, occult writer John Verney, to pick up Catherine at the airport when she comes home for her birthday and hide her away.

Father Michael (Christopher Lee) of the Children Of The Lord uses his black magic powers to try to get Catherine back in time for the All Hallow's Eve ritual, while Verney uses the knowledge and contacts he has acquired from years of writing occult novels to keep her safe and put a stop to Father Michael's plans.

There are lots of good ol' devil-movie staples: snakes, blasphemous images, weird-sounding British telephones, blood orgies... All the things you look for in one of these flicks. But even with all the on-screen madness, it sometimes seems that some plot things have gone on just off-screen, or maybe just before we begin a scene, that we're missing. This may be a result of it being a book adaptation - perhaps the book fills in those blanks. The movie is suspenseful and creepy, but sometimes a little bit hard to follow.

The story is fascinating, the acting is pretty good, and the Satan-fu is fairly strong. There are some scary and shocking moments, but in the suspenseful vein of Rosemary's Baby moreso than the action-packed Exorcist or something. The Satanists have more of a complete plan and methodology than in many of these movies, although the final goal is still a bit unclear. I guess they just want Astaroth to be alive in the world. Maybe he wants to breathe the air, walk among the people, take in some cricket matches... The means are definitely more well-defined than the ends. But still, it beats just saying, "we want Satan to win the great eternal boxing match. Go Big Red!"

There are a lot of rules about where the demons will and won't go and what they will and won't do.  Again, a fascinating mythology that is probably better understood in the book than in the movie, where they simply state the rules when necessary and we just have to go along.

Christopher Lee makes for an excellent evil priest and Nastassja Kinski is good as the innocent tug-of-war victim Catherine.  Maybe this one should be in line for a "director's cut".  The facile, over-too-quick ending is a let-down after a good build-up.  Maybe they can restore the exciting payoff they allegedly filmed and then inexplicably cut.

Note: This movie is the source for the clip of some Latin and Christopher Lee's line, "It is not heresy...  and I will not recant!" from White Zombie's "Super-Charger Heaven."