Product: The Devil's Bride [VHS] (1968)
Rating: 5.0
Hammer horror's finest hour?
Were I to identify Hammer's finest film, it would almost certainly be a close call between the 1958 Horror of Dracula and this impressive occult thriller from 1968.In The Devil Rides Out, adapted by Richard Matheson from the book by Dennis Wheatley, the Duc de Richleau (Christopher Lee in perhaps one of his two or three greatest roles) finds himself in a battle with the forces of evil in the guise of satanic ringleader Mocata (a sinister Charles Gray). Terence Fisher directs a riveting and intense "fairy tale for adults" in which darkness and light collide, and God triumphs over the Devil. The suspense and fear are effectively conveyed through Fisher's sharp direction, James Bernard's macabre and sometimes frenetic musical score, and Arthur Grant's brilliant lighting and photography, which comes into its own in the justly famous library scenes in which our protagonist and his allies must defend themselves against a nightlong satanic assault.