Director: Terence Fisher
Year: 1968
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: The Devil's Bride
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Gathering together in a large mansion, a group of Satanists uses the friend of a Duke to finish their ritual, unaware that the Duke has occult powers as well and uses them in a war with the Satanists to save his friend and stop their plan to bring Hell on Earth.
Review:
This was quite enjoyable and offered some enjoyable scenes throughout. What really gives this one a lot of good points is how much fun this one has with its demonstration of the occult throughout here, from the initial opening party where their rude treatment spurs the discovery of the symbols that dictate the discovery of the group and their return visit where the demonic figure appears to them and nearly corrupts them before some last-minute rescues and the influence asserted over the follower during a hugely enjoyable car chase where he uses his powers to first break free and then escape his clutches following the high-speed pursuit through the woods which is a fantastic highlight.
These displays here are given a really impressive amount of time here through these scenes that there's a really fine amount of action in here, not only the fine car-chase but also a rather fun black mass ceremony where the rituals and decorations are performed for the raucous crowd, the invocation of the goat-headed man appearing and leading into the frantic rescue attempt that makes for quite a fun time here. The attempts to break their circular protection field are quite fun as well, with the howling, freezing cold winds and frightening apparitions that continuously approach them, which is quite the enjoyable effort here as they all continuously battle them in an extended, one-on-one sequence. As well, the finale back in the cult's den is quite impressive with the powers again on display and really giving a fun overall sense of action with the fire crawling up along the walls, which lets this one come along at a fine scene to close this out nicely, as these positives all make up for the few flaws.
The main issue here is a serious continuity error over the weakness of the coven area, as despite the conjurations and spells he produced, it seemed that all he could do was hypnotically control people as long as they were looking in his eyes, so if you look away, he really has no power over you, which is quite a silly change that drops this somewhat. The other flaw here is that it has a tendency to employ one of the most hated traits in a film where the one character who knows what's going on never explaining anything to the outsiders when performing rituals or actions of great importance that are going to save someone, so when they do something logical in a situation, you get a feeling he'll kill them right then and there for messing up the situation when it all could've been done away with had he simply shared his knowledge so they know what's going on and what's happening as they have no experience in the subject matter. Still, it wasn't a bad film at all.
Overview: ****/5
Very enjoyable Satanic cult effort with a lot to like about it, this comes off as a rather solid entry in the company's catalog with more than enough here to hold this one up against a few drawbacks. Those with an appreciation for this era of the genre, who are intrigued by the concept overall, or who are fans of the creative crew, will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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