The Devil Rides Out (1968 Movie)

BLOT: (11 Feb 2015 - 08:46:07 AM)

The Devil Rides Out (1968 Movie)

Christopher Lee, as the Duke de Richleau, is meeting with his old friend, Rex Van Ryn (played by Leon Greene) when the question of Simon Arin (played by Patrick Mower) comes up. Turns out Simon has been ignoring the Duke and friends, so they stop by...and find an international "astronomical society", lead by Mocata (Charles Gray), having an important meeting. After some chickens are found near a telescope, the Duke realizes that a black mass is afoot, and so kidnaps Simon to save his soul, a kidnapping that fails when Simon is mentally controlled to rejoin the group. The next day, a second kidnapping occurs, this one of a young lady that was part of the group (Nike Arrighi's Tanith), and it likewise fails. Cut to an orgiastic mass in the woods, and an inevitable magic battle, and you have a movie that is essentially urban-fantasy-meets-estate-adventure with a Christian mysticism flair.

I grew up in a part of the world—Lower Alabama—where there is a belief in actual demons coming out at night, in cults meeting in the woods and sacrificing animals to Satan (debatable whether or not these cults are more than just bored teenagers¹), in the idea that Satan can trick you out of your soul, and that damnation can occur almost incidentally. Even they, these folk I grew up with, might have trouble with 1968's The Devil Rides Out with its hypnotically-eyed Satanic cult leader and his cadre of international devil worshippers tricking impressionable young folk into giving up their soul at white-robed blood orgies that feature Satan-himself. I mean, it's all good fun in the modern-fantasy sort of way, right down to a pair of damsels-in-distress and a young squire being saved by noble knights with a protracted magical battle, but it feels as though it crosses the double-line of being questionable by both believers and non-believers alike. Essential to its enjoyment is the ability to take a mystical Judeo-Christian paradigm and to accept quasi-corporeal entities that can be summoned to attack and control others, to then not take it too seriously, to accept that kidnapping and breaking-and-entering are alright for the right cause, and to not to get too mad when Chief Badguy-Grey-Eyes quips that he is not evil but simply a scientist who is beyond good-and-evil².

It is entertaining, and I don't mean in a camp or a "so-bad-it's-good" way. I had a great time watching it. Christopher Lee and Charles Gray are great adversaries. The simpering romance plot is endearing despite itself. You find yourself almost caring what happens to the young friend, Simon. There are a small handful of scenes where the epicness is dialed up as the music blares, appropriately contrasted to scenes of an idyllic country-side with old houses and barns and trees. And if the notion of a white-magic spell that can bend time and space but can only be used when your very soul is at peril is a bit over-the-top, well, by the time it is mentioned it is the perfect literal deus-ex-machina. Recommended, but perhaps with a little bit of salt to throw over your shoulder and smite the Devil in the eye.

1: Jocular tone aside, one such pair of bored teenagers did brutally murder an old woman near where I grew up, back in the 90s, and tried to imply Satan was involved, though that's a different story.

2: I gave an entire talk—From Lovecraft to the Thing from Outer Space—about how scientists often show up in speculative fiction as moral-warnings against the rest of us. Had I watched this before said talk, I would have included the clip.

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