Due to devilish deeds beyond the kin of mortal men,
we here at The Goods were unable to deliver
a frightful film for you last night,
so tonight we present a...
Demonic Double Feature!
The Devil Rides Out (known in America as The Devil’s Bride) is adapted from the 1934 Dennis Wheatley novel of the same name by Richard Matheson and directed by Terence Fisher in 1968 for Hammer.
The film stars Christopher Lee in his favorite role as Nicholas, Duc de Richleau, an aristocrat, adventurer and occultist who rescues the son of a friend and his girlfriend from a devil-worshipping cult taking refuge at the home of friends.
There, the cult leader pays a visit and forces them all to endure a night of black magic attacks designed to corrupt the souls and force the group to give up or give in to the power of the devil. All of which the Duke leads the group through with great effort and costing the life of one of the group.
What follows is much the same as before, a smart and well told morality play that has good triumph over evil. And it makes one sad that Lee was never able to take up the role of his lifetime again, considering there are eleven more novels featuring the Duke that were never adapted.
Regardless, here is a look at the picture itself:
The second part of our double feature is…
Adapted from the M. R. James story “Casting the Runes”, the 1957 British horror film Night of the Demon (known in America as Curse of the Demon) revolves around an American psychologist investigating a satanic cult’s involvement in murder.
In our first feature, we find skeptic Dr. John Holden (played by Dana Andrews) who intends to expose cult leader Julian Karswell (Niall MacGinnis) as a charlatan. Over the course of the film, however, Holden discovers the occult powers to be real and that a curse has been placed on himself.
Due to artistic differences, the production was fraught with conflict between the writer, Charles Bennett, and director, Jacques Tourneur, on one side and the producer, Hal E. Chester, on the other. The former had no plans to show the actual demon, leaving it up to the imagination of the viewer, but the producer inserted shots of it at the beginning and ending of the film anyway.
In any case, here is a look at the tale:
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