Review: To the Devil...A Daughter

Richard Widmark stars as a writer on the occult asked by a panicked-looking Denholm Elliott to pick up his daughter (Nastassja Kinski) at the airport. Kinski is a teenage nun in a Bavarian Catholic sect. Staying with Widmark, they are pursued by the sect’s leader, a defrocked priest played by Christopher Lee (and whom the wimpy Elliott once sold his soul to for protection, but now Elliott regrets it). They are apparently a Satanic cult, and have very specific, sinister plans for Kinski as she comes close to her 18^th birthday. Honor Blackman and Anthony Valentine play a couple of Widmark’s colleagues who get mixed up in helping him and Kinski.

 

A Hammer co-production during the famed British horror studio’s final years in its initial form, this 1976 Peter Sykes (“Demons of the Mind”, also for Hammer) film appears to be an attempt at a more serious horror outing, something along the lines of “The Exorcist”. Based on a Dennis Wheatley (“The Devil Rides Out”) novel adapted by John Peacock and Chris Wicking (“Blood From the Mummy’s Tomb”, “Demons of the Mind”), the film has its moments of enjoyable schlock, but could’ve done with a stronger dose. Having Richard Widmark drink tea and in one scene read an ancient text are just two examples of how the creepy and somewhat kinky material have been made somewhat stuffy and uneventful (although it’s still kinkier than most non-Sapphic films from the Hammer stable). Some really weird, semi-sexual shit later on involving Kinski and a tiny red demon give some insight into what the film could have been, but the good stuff just isn’t plentiful enough.

 

The shockingly gloomy, ugly cinematography by Richard Lester regular David Watkin (“Help!”, “The Three Musketeers”, “Robin and Marian”, “Out of Africa”) doesn’t help, though print damage might have something to do with that. It was interesting to see some handheld in a Hammer film, not usually their kind of thing, though this was hardly a Victorian era horror film.

 

The cast is mostly good, and it’s not a bad film, but pacing issues plague it, as does the fact that lead villain Christopher Lee is left to the sidelines for the first three quarters of the film. Although it has elements of “Rosemary’s Baby” (and “End of Days” obviously took some inspiration from this), it most reminds me of a reworking of “The Wicker Man”, where here someone is being led away from evildoers, and the evildoers are chasing after them. Unfortunately, this film doesn’t fare well in comparison (And what the hell are those ghostly apparitions chasing after Elliott? That never made sense to me nor did they add anything), and it comes to no surprise that there was not a finished script during filming. It has that misshapen, and ultimately underdone feel to it, as the delayed and clunky integration of the Lee character attests to.

 

Richard Widmark is a somewhat unusual casting choice (and apparently he was hell to work with), but he gives one of his better latter-day turns. Even better are Christopher Lee and a perfectly cast Denholm Elliott (in a worried, neurotic part), but neither are in the film enough. Lee is really good as the charming Satanist, making the most out of whatever material he’s handed, as always. Not as good are the typically awful Honor ‘Pussy’ Blackman (in an entirely superfluous, distracting role), and in particular Nastassja Kinski. I’ve never been a fan of Kinski, but her mumbly, hushed performance is awful, and I have absolutely no idea how the obviously accented Kinski could possibly pass for Denholm Elliott’s daughter (A role that Olivia Newton-John was apparently in line for too, which is even stranger).

 

It’s a very watchable film, but ultimately a disappointingly uneven one. It fails to embrace its schlocky premise and go all-out with it, instead resting uncomfortably in between Hammer Horror and more serious-minded “Exorcist”-wannabe, never quite satisfying anyone. The ending is a real letdown, too, and was apparently not the ending in the original script.

 

Rating: C+