13 Nights of Shocktober: The Devil Rides Out

by A.J. 

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. There are a lot of horror movies out there, but as a genre, horror is still looked down upon by some mainstream critics and moviegoers. It doesn’t help that, admittedly, there are so few quality horror movies made but, like comedy, it’s a very difficult and subjective genre. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some recommendations for scary movies to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 9: Christopher Lee Memorial Night II, “The power of darkness is more than just a superstition. It is a living force which can be tapped at given moment of the night.”

The Devil Rides Out 

Christopher Lee is most famous for his roles as villains, which he was great at playing, but occasionally he got to play the hero and when he did, he was great at that, too. According to a few different websites, his heroic turn as Nicholas Duc de Richleau in The Devil Rides Out was one of his favorite roles. Made in 1968 for Hammer Films, The Devil Rides Out was directed by Terence Fisher with a screenplay written by Richard Matheson, based on a novel by Dennis Wheatley. In the U.S. this movie was released as The Devil’s Bride because executives thought the title The Devil Rides Out sounded too much like a western. Hammer is best known for its remakes of the Universal Monsters movies (Dracula, Frankenstein, and so on), and the sequels that each remake spawned, but this non-monster, non-remake is still everything you’d hope for in a Hammer film.

The film begins with Duc de Richleau and his friend, Rex Van Ryn, checking up on their younger friend, Simon, who has recently joined a suspicious “astronomical society.” Right away de Richleau, who is an expert on the occult, sees that this club is actually a satanic cult. He and Rex rescue Simon from being officially initiated into the cult, along with a young woman named Tanith, but then they all face the relentless wrath of the cult and their black magic.

The Devil Rides Out is a campy film now, and may have been even when it was released, but it is difficult to make a serious film about Satanists (with all of their magic spells, robes, funny names, and use of farm animals). It may come off as silly, but that doesn’t mean that the movie isn’t well done or spooky. The movie is set in 1929 and the production design is as good as Hammer’s Gothic horror movies. Simon’s room has large imposing windows and a satanic seal on the tiled floor. The Satanists wear purple robes, sacrifice a goat out in the woods during a ritual, and then dance around and act crazy. After breaking up that ritual de Richleau, Rex, Simon, and Tanith hide out at de Richleau’s niece’s country house. The country house and the English countryside provide a mood of isolation and slight distance from reality.

Not all of the visual effects hold up (adding to the camp value), but there is still some effective imagery, including the chilling appearance of the Angel of Death. The dated effects aren’t a big problem though because this movie relies mostly on the performances of the actors, especially Christopher Lee and Charles Gray as the satanic leader, Mocata. Most of the movie feels like a play; the second half of the movie takes place almost entirely in the country house.

There are a lot of great moments in this movie. In a car chase, Mocata uses black magic to lose Rex who is chasing after a possessed Tanith. First Rex's windshield turns opaque, then a fog is cast as the cars enter the woods. When Simon invites de Richleau and Rex into his room, Lee bounds across the room, throws open the closet, and is aghast at the wicker crate containing a chicken, which confirms his suspicions that his friend is about to join a satanic cult. At the country house de Richleau conducts a counter ritual that requires himself, his niece, her husband, and Simon to lie on the floor with their heads touching. It’s an image that is striking and silly at the same time. Actually, that’s how most things are in The Devil Rides Out, but you believe every moment of it because of Christopher Lee’s performance. He plays de Richleau with a believable authority and a commanding presence. Only an actor with real talent could be so angry at the sight of a chicken in a basket and somehow not go over the top. Lee is great at leading the rituals and casting spells. His serious performance gets us to take it seriously too. The Devil Rides Out is entertaining, spooky, fun, and even a little silly, but the real reason to watch this movie is for Christopher Lee’s performance.