A new 2k scan looks great, with plenty of detail and clarity.

(A version directed by Joe Dante with Lee reprising his role as the Duc de Richleau was bandied about in the early 00’s, but went nowhere.)įor my money, it’s one of the best Hammer films ever made, even if it’s missing some of the excesses of blood and bodices that made its contemporaries so popular.Īs a result of the How Many Christopher Lee Movies Have You Seen list challenge a couple of weeks ago, I ran out and purchased the 2019 Shout Factory Blu-ray release of The Devil Rides Out. It was one of Lee’s personal favorite films he’d ever appeared in and, if the film commentary is anything to go by, he remained hopeful of a remake until his death. The censors concern with the material was great enough that Lee had to personally lobby for the films production for several years before Hammer finally acquiesced. Wheatley leavened his work liberally with details gained from personal research into Satanism and the ‘dark arts’ and included many dire warnings for his readers of the dangers involved. I’ve never read the original source material, but it was very popular at the time of its release (1934 for the first novel). The film disappeared in the flood of Dracula and Frankenstein films, and it was only years later that it experienced a re-evaluation. Unfortunately, the film did not do well at the box office, despite being directed by Terence Fisher and starring Christopher Lee. Wheatley wrote a series of novels featuring some of the same characters that appear in the film, and you can’t help but wonder if the studio hoped for a series. The Devil Rides Out is based on a book by Dennis Wheatley of the same name. Which is all to say that I was in a mood, and The Devil Rides Out got me out of it. I enjoyed it immensely and it had an energizing effect on me – what other awesome classics of the horror film hadn’t I seen? What new films would become classics? The moment passed and I was once again happy to have horror films to watch. I’d heard of it, but as I’m generally not a fan of Satanic cult films I’d avoided it. (Something like stopping breathing for me.)Īnd then I stumbled across The Devil Rides Out. In the past when I’ve gotten into this frame of mind I’ve quit watching horror movies for months. It wasn’t rational – there’s no way I’ve seen even a tenth of all the horror movies ever made – but the feeling was there, and it weighed on me. I’d been watching a lot of bad films, and I started to feel – not just jaded, but melancholy, like all the good stuff had already been watched and whatever was left was just the dreck.

I happened to watch The Devil Rides Out for the first time during a low point in my horror viewing.

Book the devil rides out