The Devil Rides Out

As an 11 year old boy I used to tape late night Hammer horror films on VHS and watch them in awe before school. Fast forward to present day and viewed through very different eyes the sublime becomes the ridiculous. This uber-camp Dennis Wheatley adaptation chronicles Christopher Lee’s attempts to save a young friend from a Satanic cult.

I am loathe to criticise any words by Richard Matheson (author of I Am Legend) but the wooden acting is largely the fault of his terrible scribing here. Perfunctory lines fall clumsily from marble-filled mouths and reactions border on the preposterous. The aftermath of a confrontation with a chubby, vacantly smiling demon provokes the conclusion that “That wasn’t very pleasant”. Lee and villain Charles Gray are formidable screen presences who raise this pot-boiler above where it deserves to be. This was one of Lee's favourites roles but for me this film sits towards the bottom of the Hammer canon. [Alan Bett]