To the Devil a Daughter is the last of the Hammer Horror films, and one of the least typical. As I learned on the DVD documentary, the studio was in its death throws at the time of its making and was forced to co-produce the film with a German studios at the time of its making. Unlike other Hammer films, this is a certifiable A production-with stars, a less exploitive storyline and more cereral feel.
The film was influenced not only by the sucess of Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist but Hammer's own The Devil Rides Out one of there most critically acclaimed if not commerical succesful production. Both The Devil Ride Out and To the Devil a Daughter are based on novels by Dennis Wheatley and feature Christopher Lee. In this film, Lee plays Father Michael, a priest who has acted as godfather for a young nun, Catherine (Natassja Kinski). When Catherine is sent to visit her father Henry (Denholm Elloit), he mysterously refueses to take her and convinces American mystery novelist John Vernay (Richard Widmark) to look after her, claiming that she is somehow related to Satanists. Although Vernay beleives that Henry is nuts, he agrees because he feels that it might make good material for a new book on Satanism. And that's when weird things begin to happen.
For its first hour, the film is genuinley errie and mysterious. The real reasons behind what is happening develop so slowly and beliavbly that we get caught up and the movie exudes an unsettling atmosphere. The acting is all spot on, with Widmark and Kinski as standouts.
Where the movie goes wrong in the last act, however, becoming confusing. The ending is even worse, with an anti-climax that is breathtaking in its banality. I am not alone in these feelings- the DVD revealed that script was incomplete and the ending rushed resulting in an exploitive sequence inserted for shock value. Christopher Lee calls the end "disgusting" and states that he was very dissapointed with the final film, although, like me, he approved of the beginning. This is doubly dissapointing because the movie could have been a genuine horror classic if they had only found an acceptable ending. Still, the movie is very worthwhile, a fitting way for the studio to go out.
To the Devil, a Daughter (1976)