To The Devil A Daughter (1976)

Hammer returns to the material of Dennis Wheatley, this time with a markedly inferior final result and with a movie that would remain their last horror film until their 21st century resurgence (however long THAT lasts).

Richard Widmark plays occult novelist John Verney, a man placed in a very unusual position when he agrees to take in and take care of Denholm Elliott's daughter, a young nun named Catherine (played by the lovely Nastassja Kinski). What he doesn't know is that Catherine is being pursued by some . . . . . right nasty sorts (led by Christopher Lee as Father Michael Rayner) with a right nasty plan, to put it mildly.

There is nothing here of any real note except, I suppose, how far removed it is from Hammer's usual restraint and class. The script by Christopher Wicking (with help from John Peacock and an uncredited Gerald Vaughan-Hughes) is okay, if a little clumsy in it's exposition of far-out ideas. The direction by Peter Sykes is unremarkable but also inoffensive. The acting is also distinctly okay but unspectacular (featuring, as it does, those already mentioned and also the likes of Honor Blackman, Anthony Valentine and even Frances de la Tour in a small role). And I suppose that some of the black magic rituals shown at least have a ring of authenticity about them, despite the rather lame effects/editing used.

Some of the stuff on show is, for Hammer, rather shocking. Not only do we get some bizarre, gory "muppet" moments but there's also more full-frontal female nudity than I have seen in any other Hammer movie. To be fair, I have not seen every Hammer film, but I have always known them to be, for the most part, more concerned with blood than sex although the latter is often catered for with suggestive scenes/performances and the occasional flashes from buxom beauties.

P.S. On an unrelated, and rather moronic-sounding, note: this movie has the single best bridge scene I have ever seen. I just liked the mechanism on display and had to mention it.

6/10

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Demons Of The Mind (1972)

Robert Hardy plays a smothering father in this bizarre, lesser Hammer film directed, with little enthusiasm or flair, by Peter Sykes. His son and daughter (Shane Briant and Gillian Hills) are kept locked up as much as possible, kept away from each other and kept in a weakened state thanks to some regular bleeding. Hardy is convinced that his children have inherited a family madness and hopes that a visiting psychiatrist (Patrick Magee) can find a cure. Meanwhile, local villagers are getting up in arms as yet another poor woman's body is found in the woods.

With a lame script by Christopher Wicking, horribly ham-fisted approach to the material, a lot of overacting and very little gore, this Hammer horror has very little in it to recommend to fans. It does have a soupçon of nudity for fans of Gillian Hills and Virginia Wetherell, and a few great utterances from the enjoyable Magee, but that's really all there is to it.

Most of the cast are completely wasted, with the notable exceptions of Kenneth J. Warren, who has fun in the role of a manservant often going above and beyond the call of duty, and the eye-rolling Magee. Hardy, Briant, Hills, Wetherell, Paul Jones, Robert Brown and even the great Michael Hordern, are all given pretty short shrift.

The ideas put forward, especially during the finale of the movie, are actually quite interesting and twisted for Hammer, but a good movie does not come from intriguing ideas alone. It may be as handsomely staged as ever, but this is one best avoided by anyone other than completists.

4/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Ultimate-Hammer-Collection-Disc/dp/B000HN31KQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372871091&sr=8-1&keywords=hammer+box+set