“Hocus-pocus, mumbo-jumbo, black magic.” That about sums up The Devil Rides Out, Hammer’s fantastic adaptation of Denis Wheatley’s devils ‘n’ demons page-turner. If you’d seen it in on its release in July 1968, it would have been billed with Slave Girls, made by Hammer as an opportunity to recycle sets and costumes from One Million Years B.C. There was nothing cut-rate about the deadly serious The Devil Rides Out, a stylish dig into the wild wild world of Satanism.
The Devil Rides Out was filmed between 7 August and 29 September 1967. It might have been the Summer of Love, but darkness was in the air. The Beatles Sgt. Pepper had been released in June and featured the beastly Aleister Crowley on its cover. Wheatley’s books were bestsellers. Within a year, Mick Jagger would declare his “sympathy for the devil”. As purveyors of exploitation cinema, Hammer’s fingers were on the pulse.
More importantly, The Devil Rides Out has stood the test of time. Partly, this is due to its serious tone. It’s also due to the 1930s setting, when Wheatley's book was published. If set contemporarily, it would now scream kitsch. Most of all though, it's due to the assured performances of its leads. Christopher Lee, imperiously playing the knowledgeable Duc de Richelieu, has said it’s one of his favourite roles. Charles Gray’s evil warlock Mocata oozes menace. As the bewitched Tanith Carlisle, Nike Arrighi is suitably detached. There are shocks, and they still shock.
On DVD, this has been repeatedly round the block. The selling point here is a fantastic restoration of the image and soundtrack. The extras include a talking heads-driven making-of (where it’s revealed the US title The Devil’s Bride came about as the distributor thought the original implied it was a western), a similarly talky one on Wheatley at Hammer, and a look at the restoration. An episode of 1990's World of Hammer is included, but Oliver Reed's narration is inaudible. Hammer’s Rasputin the Mad Monk (Lee’s most wild performance) and the Pharonic yarn The Mummy’s Shroud are concurrently released. But The Devil Rides Out is the draw. Brace yourself for “the Goat of Mendes, the devil himself”.
Watch the trailer for The Devil Rides Out