Customer Reviews

Devils Of Darkness / Witchcraft

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fans of classic horror movies will be very pleased with this outstanding double feature, part of the new wave of the Midnite Movies series.

DEVILS OF DARKNESS (1965) is an enjoyable British gem from the mid-60's, starring William Sylvester and Carole Gray in leading roles. Paul Baxter (William Sylvester), a vacationing American tourist stumbles across a small village where devil worshippers congregate on a regular basis. After his girlfriend is abducted, he steals the powerful talisman belonging to Count Sinistre (Hubert Noel) and his "chosen bride" Tania (Carole Gray). Sinistre will stop at nothing to re-claim the talisman, even luring Baxter with swinging red-headed model Karen (Tracy Reed).

Beautifully shot on EastmanColor filmstock, DEVILS OF DARKNESS looks really spiffy on DVD. Fans of Carole Gray will be especially interested in this title. Best-remembered for playing Cliff Richard's spunky girlfriend in "The Young Ones"; Gray has a very substantial role in DEVILS OF DARKNESS, playing the ill-fated gypsy maiden who becomes Sinistre's immortal bride. It was originally released as a double bill with Fox's "The Curse of the Fly", which also co-starred Carole Gray and can be found in the superb Fly Collection box set.

WITCHCRAFT, filmed the previous year, makes for a perfect companion piece. Horror movie legend Lon Chaney Jr. stars as Morgan Whitlock, at the center of an age-old feud between two dynasties. When the graveyard of the Whitlock clan is disturbed during an excavation, witch-matriarch Vanessa Whitlock (played by Yvette Rees in a truly-unsettling performance) returns from the dead to seek her revenge on the Lanier family. The cast also features Diane Clare and Jack Hedley.

Starkly-filmed in black and white, WITCHCRAFT makes for an ideal companion movie for DEVILS OF DARKNESS. Each movie has it's own disc, with bonus animated picture gallery (DEVILS OF DARKNESS also has a brief trailer in b&w).

This double feature offers two rarely seen mid-sixties British horror films. "Witchcraft" has Lon Chaney Jr. as a warlock seeking revenge on a rival family for desecrating his family's ancient cemetary. A centuries old witch arises from her tomb to carry out the murderous task. Good acting, atmosphere and a sublime sense of dread permeate the b&w film. And the witch, Vanessa (Yvette Rees) is truly creepy. Fine print of a good supernatural chiller. The 2nd disc is "Devils of Darkness", another rarely seen mid-60's color film about a centuries old satan-worshipping vampire (Hubert Noel) seeking a missing talisman and a new bride in modern day Chelsea among some bizarre, ultra-hip party people. Turns out he has a slavish following and his "old" bride (Carole Gray) is getting really jealous over his new find, a jaded model with very heavy eye make-up. This is a low budget, very strange film. An excellent print enhances what seems to be a dream-like quality that some may write off to low production values. It's virtually blood-less but has an odd style that makes it watchable. A good deal on both films and definitely worth a look, especially "Witchcraft". Enjoy.

This is one of my favorite Midnite Movie double features so far! DEVILS OF DARKNESS has Hubert Noel as the evil, undead Sinistré; the leader of a satanic cult of ne'er-do-wells. Sinistré has returned from his long dirt-nap in order to take a bride from among the living. DOD is packed full of interesting / strange characters and plenty of fun hocus pocus. WITCHCRAFT has Lon Chaney jr. as Morgan Whitlock, head of a family w/ long ties to witchcraft and devil-worship. He's upset that the Lanier family, the descendents of the very people who (centuries earlier) killed many Whitlocks as witches, is now destroying their ancestral graveyard! This one really gets going when Vanessa Whitlock (Yvette Rees) rises from her cold earth in order to exact vengeance. She is the perfect ghoul (in a Barbara Steele/Vampira way). Both of these movies are re-watchable and make for a great Saturday afternoon creepfest...

I adore these multi-discs.It's a grand opportunity to catch up on old 'friends' without breaking the bank.Witchcraft is a particular favourite of ours - nicely constructed and with a suitably fiery ending.
Chaney Jnr was wonderful and the ensemble did him proud.
Devils of darkness was a Sunday-for-one-day-only at the movies, with an occasional airing on TV.Nice to own it now - and what a beautiful print.

Much better than often reported, this beautifully photographed British horror is a well upholstered turn down the familiar vampire path, enlivened by some delicious tongue in cheek. Directed by cult director Lance Comfort, (see Brian MacFarlane's monograph on his career) the film opens with a dazzling dance sequence set amidst a mid forest gypsy encampment, interrupted by the first burst of horror--accompanied by a swooping bat and a gust of wind.

These forest sequences are visually arresting, and include an eerie torch light parade photographed in reflection from a lake's surface.

As for the story, it concerns a modern day male vampire, (equipped with Louis Jourdan accent and beautifully cut suits) who turns out to be reincarnated from the ancient past.

Despite some dull detective sequences, (of the type that slow down Bava's "Blood and Black Lace") the picture manages an effective array of diverse settings including forest sequences, a country manor house, a catacomb lair, a jammed to the rafters antique shoppe, an artists' atelier, the reading room of the British Museum and a groovy bachelorette pad that is host to one of the screen's all time campiest cocktail parties.

Indeed, this sequence, replete with the Watusi, and Frug, and featuring an array of cigarette puffing (with holders!) extras that seem to have been recruited between takes from the sets of "Darling" and "A Taste of Honey", (one keeps looking for Julie Christie to appear) is guaranteed to elicit howls. And if that doesn't catch you, please note that Diana Decker's wardrobe had the female audience cooing at a recent screening.

Moreover, the climax, featuring a cave in which destroys the vampire clan, is well staged and shot.

Picture seems influenced by Don Sharp's superb "Kiss of the Vampire," and while it doesn't hold a candle to that stellar feather in Hammer's cap, it does emerge as an interesting and zesty contemporary take on the same theme.

For those who enjoy British and Italian b&w horror films from the 60's like City of the Dead/Horror Hotel, The Mask of Satan/Black Sunday, Night of the Eagle/Burn Witch Burn, Danse Macabre/Castle of Blood, etc, you just might like Witchcraft as well. And especially if you like creepy, haunting witches, like Elizabeth Selwyn in Horror Hotel and Asa the vampire witch in Black Sundy, I think you will find Vanessa Whitlock, the resurrected witch in Witchcraft, to be in some ways the most chilling of all. Yvette Rees plays Vanessa, and she plays the character as much less animated than Elizabeth or Asa. In fact, she doesn't say a word in the whole film, but Rees' understated performance works, conveying a cold, icy feeling. I agree with other reviewers that the cinematography is good, with well lit scenes; the script and acting for the most part are good; and there are nice, eerie touches, like when Vanessa Whitlock breathes onto the voodoo doll of her next victim. Are there flaws in the film? Yes, as in other b-movies of this era, but I agree with Phil Hardy in the Encyclopedia of Horror when he describes Witchcraft as "quietly effective" and "better than average."

Witchcraft (1964) This is a pretty good little scareflick from Great Britain which gave Lon Chaney Jr. his last quality horror hurrah before he slid into junk like Dr. Terror's Gallery of Horrors. Lon plays Morgan Whitlock, the elder paterfamilias of a family descended from a witch named Vanessa. When a construction project buys out the land Chaney's family has been buried in for centuries, Lon gets plenty upset and refuses to have the remains moved. The more unscrupulous business partner desecrates the graves, and wouldn't you just know it? A mysterious woman suddenly pops up at the Whitlock house, and shortly after people start dying in bizarre accidents. This is old school horror, with no gore, but some good chills. Lon is in fine form, though he attempts no British accent and so stands out a bit among the British cast, all of whom are solid if not familiar (the male lead (Jack Hedley) was in For Your Eyes Only 17 years later). Still in all, it's good to see one of the old horror greats in something with some production value, and it's too bad Lon couldn't have gone out on a note like this 9 years later instead of Dracula vs Frankenstein. Check this one out!

This edition of Midnight Movies offers two non-Hammer British horror films from the early-1960s. Both are competently made. "Witchcraft" is probably the better of the two. Directed by Don Sharp after his Hammer outing "Kiss of the Vampire," it's in atmospheric black-and-white and offers Lon Chaney, Jr. as a warlock. Chaney looks tired and blusters a lot as a somewhat improbable British squire, but he is sincere enough in his approach to the role. He can't be faulted for not being Christopher Lee or Vincent Price.
"Devils of Darkness" is in color and tries merging vampirism and Satanism, much less successfully than in the aforementioned "Kiss of the Vampire." It's one of those "guilty pleasure" films. This one especially shows quite clearly why Hammer Films were the gold standard for British horrors at the time.

A couple of OK British occult thrillers here. DEVILS pits American tourist William Sylvester against the ancient French satanist "Count Sinestre" (Hubert Noel) in for possession of the latter's magical talisman, which has fallen into Sylvester's hands. Despite the dark trappings, the whole affair has the Eastmancolor punch of one of the better AIP Beach Party Movies. Reds aren't just red, baby, they're RED! This finds a superior companion in WITCHCRAFT, an atmospheric black & white shocker about an centuries-old rivalry between two British families renewed when one family plans a major redevelopment of the village and razes the other family's ancient graveyard as one of their first priorities, causing its long-dead matriarch (an impressive Yvette Rees) to rise from her grave for payback alongside her devil-worshipping descendants, led by Lon Chaney Jr. Great stuff.

OK, let's be honest. You don't expect low-budget horror movies to be all that good, and they're not. We've all seen the Hammer studios films from the 50's and 60's. No surprises here. Still, there are times when it's fun to just curl up in front of the television with some microwave popcorn and enjoy a late night horror show. These are fairly good examples of the genre. Want a really scary movie? Watch "The Changeling" with George C. Scott. I felt I got my money's worth on these though.