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To the Devil a Daughter (1976)

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15 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
This is NOT a third rate horror movie!, 9 September 2003

Author: Carl S Lau from Los Angeles, California

This is not a film for the occult horror film aficionado. "To the Devil...a Daughter" has already received a few whithering reviews that are all justified. Dennis Wheatley, the author of the book, condemned it because there was little resemblance to his novel and what appears on screen, except for the title. Currently available on wide screen 16X9 anamorphic transfer, the DVD contains a 24 minute documentary with recent commentary by Peter Sykes, the director, and Roy Skeggs, the producer. "To the Devil...a Daughter" is a well done film that demonstrates what a first rate director is capable of with a limited budget. This film turns out to be the horror film equivalent of "Casablanca" because the movie as originally scripted was not filmable. Hence, with the start of production, the script was continually being written on a day to day basis by Gerald Vaughan-Hughes, an uncredited screen writer. "To the Devil...a Daughter" followed the genre setting "The Exorcist" and "Rosemary's Baby" and was the last Hammer film because it was too little and too late.

"To the Devil...a Daughter" is one of the earliest Nastassja Kinski films and must have been seen by Roman Polanski who realized her potential. It is not a chessey film, but does have a few pieces of cheese in it. The most obvious one is the full frontal nudity scene of a very young Nastassja. Yes, it is cheesey, but from an editing view, is more shocking than titillating. In her first scene, it is apparent that there is more than a passing resemblance between Nastassja and Ingrid Bergman - innocent, clean beauties. In one of the scenes, Nastassja was having a problem actually getting the tears that the director wanted and there had been quite a few retakes. Richard Widmark said to the director, "when I say turnover, turnover, it's going to happen." Sykes started the film rolling and Widmark hit her right "in the chops" and the tears came and he said, "OK, now act." The cast is first rate and included Richard Widmark (who was pretty disgusted with the film and threatened to walk out on it), Christopher Lee (of horror film fame), Honor Blackman a renown actress at the time in Britain (known to American audiences as Pussy Galore of the James Bond "Goldfinger," and Denholm Elliot as the German bad guy in "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

It is best to watch "To the Devil...a Daughter" with no expectations and let the film naturally unfold, without preconceived mental baggage. If one is steeped in the occult traditions, then this movie is not for you because of its glaring errors - all made up by the afore mentioned screen writer. Otherwise, the mood of the picture is quickly set by Richard Widmark's,

"98% of so called satanist are nothing but pathetic freaks who get their kicks out of dancing naked in freezing church yards and use the devil as an excuse for getting some sex, but then there is that other 2%, I'm not so sure about them."

Christopher Lee's role as the maniacal, ex-communicated priest brings to mind the great performance of Boris Karloff as Imhotep in the 1932 "The Mummy," who had the supernatural power to project thought over space and time. "To the Devil...a Daughter" is well paced with its race against time.

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8 out of 9 people found the following comment useful :-
"Hammer's final horror film.", 26 November 2004
Author: jamesraeburn2003 from Poole, Dorset

*POSSIBLE SPOILERS*

Father Michael Rayner (CHRISTOPHER LEE) was ex-communicated from the Church of England for attempting to bring a personification of the devil to Earth. Twenty years on and Rayner has settled in Germany with his devil-worshiping followers under the facade of the "Children of the Lord" cult. Rayner sends his godchild Catherine Beddows (NASTASSJA KINSKI) to England to join her father Henry Beddows (DENHOLM ELLIOT) for her 18th-birthday. Rayner intends to fulfil his old ambition and rebaptise Catherine into the service of evil. Henry who was forced into the cult's evil-doings because his wife was a member of the cult attempts to recant and places his daughter in the care of occult novelist Jim Verney (RICHARD WIDMARK) who must confront and destroy Rayner before he succeeds in making the devil walk the Earth in the form of an innocent girl.

TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER was Hammer's final horror film and the company's second attempt to bring one of Dennis Wheatley's occult novels to the screen. Wheatley was overjoyed by the company's filming of his novel THE DEVIL RIDES OUT (1968), but was apparently less pleased with Hammer's version of his popular TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER novel which Hammer had considered adapting for the screen as early as 1963. The film took a very respectable £13, 375 on it's opening week at the Odeon Leicester Square and it reached number three in the London Film Charts. On it's general release the film's takings were estimated at about £200,000.

Yet despite this success, Hammer's plans to film Wheatley's THE SATANIST were sadly scrapped. Thus continued Hammer's trip into oblivion which came to a head with an ill-advised remake of Alfred Hitchcock's THE LADY VANISHES in 1979.

TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER is a most enjoyable film. The script may be a little confused but the gore scenes are suitably erotic (more so than in most other Hammer films) and it benefits from good production values and an exemplary cast. Lee is excellent as the disgraced priest, a complete contrast to his portrayal of the Duc De' Richeleau in THE DEVIL RIDES OUT, while Richard Widmark shines as the hero. His performance is up to the standard of the Hammer heroes portrayed by Peter Cushing and Andre Morell even though his character only conflicts with Lee's once. The direction of Peter Sykes is good even if his other feature film credits like STEPTOE AND SON RIDE AGAIN (1973) may cause some initial doubts. Hammer purists consider this to be the company's worst film. It is more graphic than the earlier Hammer horrors and more or less ignores all the traditions of the company's earlier films, which makes it all the more better.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Hammer Does Pubes, 11 May 2008
Author: tedg (tedg@FilmsFolded.com) from Virginia Beach

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I have just watched "Frankenstein," the first horror movie from the Universal series, so I thought it apt to look at the last one from the Hammer series.

Hammer was already dead when they made this, and it shows in the budget. Oddly, this was successful at the box-office, but not enough to save Hammer.

Its a curious concoction, consisting of three parts, not well mixed and with no part dominating. One part is ordinary Hammer, which means a particular style of cheese. A second part was supposed to be the edgy stuff, the black magic stuff which — supposedly genuine — was to give the sort of fright that competitors like "Exorcist" were delivering.

Thats a real challenge because then (and even now), we don't have much of a successful cinematic vocabulary to draw on for this specific sort of evil. Less seems to be more. But the Hammer tradition calls for "showing," and we end up with forces that contradict themselves.

Those by themselves would be only mildly interesting. But what seems to have happened is that during the shoot, they introduced a third factor: sex. Now, as clumsily as they handled this, it really is quite interesting what's going on. Sex is inherently cinematic. Satanism is inherently driven by sex. But sex as usually found in film — at least simple films like this — is voyeuristic. But it could have worked in a sort of Aleister Crowley way where the rituals and sexual mysteries are conflated.

Here's what they did instead:

We have an innocent beautiful teen girl as a nun. She has been brainwashed and is under a spell, cloistered in a Satantic order in preparation for a combination of rebirth as Satan by copulation with him. During this time, she has simulated sex with a statue of Satan while the head priest impregnates her mother.

The date is approaching. It seems that her mother (it isn't clear) has another child with the same name, who may be some sort of hybrid between devil and human. This "child" claws its way out of the mother while our young nun experiences it as well.

That child is sacrificed for the blood by which our young nun is to be baptized and presumably have sex with the priest, after which she will be Satan on earth... or something like that.

So what Hammer does, is a mix of timidity and outrageous boldness.

There are four scenes in which visual sex is involved. The first is when the priest (Cristopher Lee) has this ritualistic sex with the mother while our nun (played by Nastassja Kinski) is mounted by a Satanic crucifix. This is comic.

Then later, the child is born, the mother's legs bound together so that she has to claw through the body. A full view of the mother's sexual area is shown here. This also could have been powerful with the budget they had but comes off like a high school play with nudity.

Then fast forward to the rushed ending where changes were made after the shoot officially ended. The one change at the very end that gives this some fame is a short shot where the good crusader is tempted by the bad priest with the offer of sex with the briefly nude nun, our Nastassja who appears for a couple seconds fully nude. This also is an opportunity wasted in terms of effect, but has become a famous scene because of her subsequent fame, and the liaison with various filmmakers. Supposedly, the Polanski interest started here.

But before that is the one scene that the film should be famous for. Our girl is on the stone alter, the magical circle surrounds, delineated by an acolyte's blood. The newborn "baby" has been sacrificed and the blood collected, with a couple drops falling on her before the crusader interrupts.

What happens then is disgustingly effective. She is nude on the altar while some small red skinless beast similar to a devilish fetus climbs up and starts to have sex with Nastassja — whose humping pubes we see from her perspective — during which she stuffs the whole animal in, becoming "pregnant." This is revealed to have been a vision or spell. But it was so unsettling an image that it tagged the whole failure before and after this as something intended: that is to say it was itself terribly Satanic.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Much better than its poor reputation would suggest, 9 May 2007

Author: Woodyanders (Woodyanders@aol.com) from The Last New Jersey Drive-In on the Left

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I finally saw this infamous final theatrical fright feature from the legendary Hammer Studios and was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was nowhere near as bad as its many detractors claim. In fact, I thought this movie was quite good. Granted, it's got its flaws (the much-ridiculed silly monster hand puppet and the weak climax are both below par), but overall this picture has a lot of solid stuff in it. For starters, the plot is fresh and compelling: Sinister excommunicated renegade Satanist priest Father Michael Rayner (a wonderfully wicked Christopher Lee) plots to impregnate sweet innocent nun Catharine (a ravishing and beguiling Nastassja Kinski in her first big role) so she will give birth to the spawn of the Devil. It's up to humble, but shrewd and charming best-selling occult novelist John Verney (superbly played by Richard Widmark, who makes for an engagingly unlikely Hammer hero) to stop Father Rayner and his avid followers before it's too late. Moreover, director Peter Sykes maintains a steady pace throughout and effectively creates a chillingly creepy atmosphere. The smart and intricate script by Christopher Wicking and John Peacock offers a gripping story and a strong pair of refreshingly mature adult characters as the two principal adversaries. David Watkin's polished cinematography and Paul Glass' spare, spooky score are on the money fine. Kinski does well as an extremely fair maiden in distress (and performs a truly startling full-frontal nude scene at the movie's conclusion). The stellar supporting cast qualifies as another substantial plus: Denholm Elliott as a wormy, wayward weakling member of the evil cult, Honor Blackman as Verney's spunky agent Anna Fountain, and Anthony Valentine as Anna's suave boyfriend David. Eerie, intelligent and underrated, this undeservedly maligned movie is well worth checking out by general horror film fans and hardcore Hammer aficionados alike.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Underrated, 27 July 1999
Author: William Harrington (bossk@tinyonline.co.uk) from London

Underrated thriller that despite being slow and meandering still manages a few nice shocks and is never less than interesting. This attempted to match The Exorcist for near-the-knuckle images and themes, and although it lacks that film's lasting power to haunt it does have a strong line in perversity that may surprise the most jaded unshockable viewer. Christopher Lee is great as the smiling, gentlemanly paganist - Natassja Kinski looks great and goes through the film like a day-dreaming naive child, which is exactly what she is supposed to be. Admittedly the creature at the end could easily have climbed out of a cornflakes packet as the depths of hell, but it doesn't ruin the film. Channel 4 recently showed a wide-screen version. It was well worth taping.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Hammer dies non-too impressively, 31 August 2007

Author: from Traveller

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This one really could and should have worked. The usual ingenuity was employed to stretch a small budget a long way, lots of British talent was available at micro-cost, a Hollywood A-lister came on board, it was based on probably the best of Dennis Wheatley's black magic novels, and in an age when, thanks to THE EXORCIST, occult movies were in vogue, it might well have regenerated vital interest in the ailing studio.

But it didn't. Hammer folded shortly afterwards, and this movie contributed to that - even though it made a healthy profit. Nowadays it's seen as something of a curiosity: a well-intentioned but belated addition to the Satanic horror cycle, still distinctly Hammer but laced with tasteless moments that don't do anyone involved any credit at all, and at times so clumsily edited that you're never really sure what's going on.

The first problem is the script, which apparently was being constantly rewritten right up until the end of production. As a result, there's no clear narrative line for the audience to follow. What is the purpose of the hideously deformed baby? Is it the Devil incarnate? If so, why does it then get sacrificed? What's Nastassja Kinski's role in all this, apart from to lie alluringly on slabs and indulge in full-frontal nudity? Who are the lead-Satanist's urbane followers? We never really get to know them, or understand what functions they have, and we see no real sign that they're part of a larger cult. Why does one of them then bleed herself to death? Surely it isn't required that every drop be drained from her body just so that a small amount can be trickled around a magic circle? Why, right at the end, are we suddenly introduced to the mysterious properties of flint-stone, and why, when it's got the blood of one of Satan's acolytes on it, will flint automatically protect the hero from demonic attack (if this is a part of arcane lore, how on Earth were we supposed to know – because the impression this movie gives is that we should be blown away by this revelation and say: "Wow, why didn't I see that coming?")?

The most perplexing moment of all however, comes – unforgivably – right at the climax of the movie. Once Christopher Lee has been thwarted, he simply disappears – with no explanation given. Has he escaped? Is he dead? Has the Devil taken him? We simply don't know, we're not told. (In actual fact, the answer is that in the original version, Lee was struck by lightning and died in flames, much the way he did in SCARS OF Dracula, and this similarity worried the producers so much that in the end it was simply cut out and not replaced.

Another problem lies in what, ironically, should have been one of the movie's greatest strengths – Richard Widmark. His presence (which was purely to justify US funding) is initially surprising and intriguing, but he was allegedly very difficult for the crew to work with, and extremely high and mighty while on set. And, despite that, he doesn't give much of a performance. Stone-faced and unemotional throughout, he lacks any kind of charisma and is way too old to be the hero in a movie where 18-year-old Nastassja Kinski is the heroine. Kinski herself doesn't add much, apart from the aforementioned risqué moments, and this is a pity because the rest of the cast do a good job. Christopher Lee is at his most devilish as the excommunicated priest at the heart of the conspiracy, and is ably supported by Honor Blackman, Denholm Elliot and Anthony Valentine as innocents who get caught up in it.

Director Peter Sykes does a reasonable job considering the difficulties he supposedly had, and composes some very nice shots – check out the opening sequence in the church, all played out under beautiful stained-glass reflections – and makes very good use of authentic locations in and around London and Munich. But all this really does is remind you what a good movie this could have been.

New-fangled obscenity didn't help it much either. Throughout the age of permissiveness, Hammer had been pushing the envelope with regard to sex. But it really cuts loose in this one. The Satanic orgies are the most explicit and realistic the studio ever produced, and in addition to these there's a plethora of gratuitous female nudity, and then – yet again – we come to that ghastly, deformed baby. It seems to serve no purpose at all, and yet at one point is thrust up into Nastassja Kinski's womb, and at another has its throat cut on camera while it's still wriggling and crying. Christopher Lee was very unhappy with these scenes, while Dennis Wheatley was revolted and said afterwards that Hammer would never again adapt one of his stories – though neither Wheatley nor Hammer would live to see this defiance tested.

The film is certainly good enough to watch again. The mysterious nature of the rituals involved is quite convincing – the symbols, the ancient books, the dusty vaults – but it's too talkie and seems tediously slow by today's standards and, as I said before, the finale is truly the most disappointing in Hammer history.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
the proper element of 'crack', 6 June 2001

Author: yuukimaiko from Ohio

While agreeing to an extent with other reviewers with regards to the movie's slow pace, I cannot, however, dismiss it entirely. I suppose I must qualify by noting that I'm a fan of the satanic horror genre in general (Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, Mephisto Waltz, etc). With that in mind, I found the ritualistic scenes somewhat refreshing in comparison to other similar films. There was an element of 'crackness' that the others did not have, so to speak, which I found helped draw attention despite the somewhat lethargic plot. Naturally, the nudity and sex was likely written in for the standard trashy money-grubbing reasons, but the direction and use thereof makes it less for the sake of showing "T&A" and more for creating an "unkosher" feel. The ritualistic use and the juxtaposition of sex with religion made for an uneasy or perhaps amusing feel. All in all, while by no means a classic, I think that because of its bizarre slant toward the sexual, To The Devil A Daughter stands unique in its genre.

Additionally, the excommunication(I think) ritual at the beginning can be found sampled in White Zombie's "Super-Charger Heaven." Additionally, Henry is played by Denholm Elliot in a role contrasting with the perhaps lovable Marcus Brody in the Indiana Jones films.

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3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
a slow paced but well acted occult thriller., 25 January 2000

Author: cygnus x-1 from roanoke, va

If you can get pas the very slow pacing, this is quite a satisfying film. it takes it's time getting where it's going to but the acting by the whole cast pushes it along and keeps the viewer's interest. Christopher Lee does his usual great work and Nastassja Kinski brings just the right note of naive innocence to her role (plus you've got to love a movie that has full frontal Kinski nudity!!!!)

Well worth a look, especially for fans of the Hammer type horror films, and despite being real slow at times, is well done.

rating:7

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Poor, 14 July 2008
Author: MichaelElliott1 from Louisville, KY

To the Devil - A Daughter (1976)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Hammer's final horror film is a real botch job as it tries to cash in on the success of films like Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist. A child is born, her mother dies and her father agrees to give the child over to a Satanic leader (Christopher Lee) once she turns eighteen. Eighteen years later the father wants to go back on the deal so he hires an expert (Richard Widmark) to protect his daughter (Nastassja Kinski). I'm not a die-hard fan of Hammer but I do enjoy their great works but this here certainly isn't one of them. I wasn't sure what to expect after hearing rather mixed reviews of it but in the end it turned out that I think this is one of the studios worst. The film looks incredibly good, is well made and features some fine performances but the incredibly bad pacing and lack of energy really kills it. There's no energy or emotion in this film so you have to wonder what Sykes was up to considering he had done a few previous Hammer's that turned out pretty good. The Satan story had been done countless times in this decade and it seemed like a new one was being released each and every week. For the period, this movie comes off very dated and doesn't feature anything too shocking to keep it moving. There are a few infamous scenes including the demon birth scene, which is well filmed and edited. The other notable scene comes at the very end when Kinski, Klaus' daughter, has a completely nude scene. I really enjoyed the performances from Widmark who steals the film and that of Kinski. Lee has a few fun moments but this isn't one of his best movies. There's also a lot of controversy over the ending, which I have to agree with because it is quite stupid.

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To the viewer a bore..., 7 June 2008

Author: pljewkes from Boston, MA

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

There's not a single scary moment in this boring albeit well made Hammer entry. Christopher Lee is an excommunicated priest who somehow manages to promise to give the Devil a daughter. Richard Widmark is the hack horror novelist trying to stop him. The idea of teaming these two famous screen baddies is promising, but they share scant screen time together. A dubbed Nastassja Kinski plays a young nun and Denholm Elliott is her father, who tries to renege on his deal with Lee. It's a lousy movie all around and even manages to wastes Honor Blackman (as Widmark's sharp tongued literary agent). Based on the (presumably better) novel by Dennis Wheatley, this film surely exists solely to cash in on the EXORCIST craze of the early 70s.

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