Last night, my friends (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
greenygal, A Person to be Psuedonymed Later, and the Vegan Knitter) went to see The Devil Rides Out as part of the Christopher Lee centennial film series.
It was a lot of fun, being a Hammer film made in 1968 and set in 1929. It took a while for me to realize it was set in the 1920s, because the men's suits were that distinctively of the time, and the Duc (Christopher Lee's character, playing a hero for once) seems the sort of guy who have a collection of fancy antique cars.
But when he mentioned that he and his friend Rex were in the Lafayette Escadrille with Simon's father (Simon being their young friend who has gotten entangled with Satanists!), I went ?!
It's actually quite a fun movie, though every time Christopher Lee's character has to leave his companions alone to go do something, they make the dumbest choices -- partly because if he was there, he wouldn't let the other characters pick up the idiot ball.
The villian Mocata -- who because I'm familiar with British accents drops I had assumed was named McCarthy until the end credits -- was a charismatic cult leader and black magician. You can really see where the story was cribbing from early 20th century esotericism and where it was just making stuff up; Christopher Lee got to have fun as an occult expert and white magician who was going to get every one safe through this even if he had to thump them all into line himself.
The practical effects were good for the time, but look a bit amateurish now. However, the scene where the Angel of Death comes for our heroes actually had a horse ridden into the building and was actually quite spectacular.
There was also a very unconvincing romance, but that happened a lot in movies of the era.
I did wonder how the villain thought he was going to *control* the Angel of Death, considering that angels are an enter order of magnitude different from people, but I guess when you're a black magician leading your own cult and capable of summoning Baphomet, you think you can handle an angel. You can't, by the way. The ending is really clear about that.
Anyway, if have an opportunity to see it, take it. It's fun!
I might even request if for Yuletide.
greenygal, A Person to be Psuedonymed Later, and the Vegan Knitter) went to see The Devil Rides Out as part of the Christopher Lee centennial film series. It was a lot of fun, being a Hammer film made in 1968 and set in 1929. It took a while for me to realize it was set in the 1920s, because the men's suits were that distinctively of the time, and the Duc (Christopher Lee's character, playing a hero for once) seems the sort of guy who have a collection of fancy antique cars.
But when he mentioned that he and his friend Rex were in the Lafayette Escadrille with Simon's father (Simon being their young friend who has gotten entangled with Satanists!), I went ?!
It's actually quite a fun movie, though every time Christopher Lee's character has to leave his companions alone to go do something, they make the dumbest choices -- partly because if he was there, he wouldn't let the other characters pick up the idiot ball.
The villian Mocata -- who because I'm familiar with British accents drops I had assumed was named McCarthy until the end credits -- was a charismatic cult leader and black magician. You can really see where the story was cribbing from early 20th century esotericism and where it was just making stuff up; Christopher Lee got to have fun as an occult expert and white magician who was going to get every one safe through this even if he had to thump them all into line himself.
The practical effects were good for the time, but look a bit amateurish now. However, the scene where the Angel of Death comes for our heroes actually had a horse ridden into the building and was actually quite spectacular.
There was also a very unconvincing romance, but that happened a lot in movies of the era.
I did wonder how the villain thought he was going to *control* the Angel of Death, considering that angels are an enter order of magnitude different from people, but I guess when you're a black magician leading your own cult and capable of summoning Baphomet, you think you can handle an angel. You can't, by the way. The ending is really clear about that.
Anyway, if have an opportunity to see it, take it. It's fun!
I might even request if for Yuletide.
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