This film is about a Satanic cult helmed by fallen priest, Christopher Lee. The film begins with him being defrocked and soon picks up 20 years later--after he's created an order of nuns who look just like Catholic ones. The difference is that they've devoted their lives to Beelzebub.
A young nun (Nastassja Kinski) is being sent from their headquarters in Bavaria to London. However, her father (Denholm Elliott) seeks out the help of Richard Widmark, a noted author on the occult, to rescue Nastassja and prevent her from going through with a pact with Satan. Why exactly he picked Widmark is uncertain but the American spends much of the film trying to stop the Satanists from kidnapping the girl. The trouble is, it turns out she's rather willing to join them--which leads to a bizarre and confusing finale.
After watching this film I watched one of the DVD extras ("To the Devil... The Death of Hammer") and those connected with the film (such as Christopher Lee and the film makers) were very disappointed in the film as well--particularly the sloppy ending that just didn't work at all. Thank goodness for some outside validation for my relatively low score!
TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER started off well enough and set a great chilling mood. However, as the movie neared the climax, it just seemed that the film got lost and was frantically looking for its way. Well, the documentary confirms this in several ways. First, in a very foolish move (caused by the pending closure of the studio), the film began without a finished script! Re-writes were done up until the last minute and as a result the film seemed rather incoherent at times. Second, the ending which would have been a lot better (having Lee getting impaled) was removed because they realized it was pretty much identical with one of the Dracula films that Lee had already made for Hammer Studios. Instead, the improvised ending was both confusing and limp. Apparently, the message the ending tells us is to toss a big rock at evil and it will easily be defeated!! Additionally, someone decided to stick in a rather gross scene involving a stupid demon having sex with Nastassja Kinski. Lee described this scene as "pornographic" in the documentary. I just thought it was icky and stupid--after all, the demon was an obvious puppet--and a bad one at that.
Overall, fans of Hammer films will probably be very disappointed--except for the card carrying cult members who ALWAYS see every Hammer film as a cinematic masterpiece. Others will no doubt find the film confusing and less and less enjoyable as the film progresses.
A final note--There is a lot of nudity and blood in this film. Full-frontal nudity and several terrifically violent and bloody scenes make this a very BAD choice for the kids!!
A young nun (Nastassja Kinski) is being sent from their headquarters in Bavaria to London. However, her father (Denholm Elliott) seeks out the help of Richard Widmark, a noted author on the occult, to rescue Nastassja and prevent her from going through with a pact with Satan. Why exactly he picked Widmark is uncertain but the American spends much of the film trying to stop the Satanists from kidnapping the girl. The trouble is, it turns out she's rather willing to join them--which leads to a bizarre and confusing finale.
After watching this film I watched one of the DVD extras ("To the Devil... The Death of Hammer") and those connected with the film (such as Christopher Lee and the film makers) were very disappointed in the film as well--particularly the sloppy ending that just didn't work at all. Thank goodness for some outside validation for my relatively low score!
TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER started off well enough and set a great chilling mood. However, as the movie neared the climax, it just seemed that the film got lost and was frantically looking for its way. Well, the documentary confirms this in several ways. First, in a very foolish move (caused by the pending closure of the studio), the film began without a finished script! Re-writes were done up until the last minute and as a result the film seemed rather incoherent at times. Second, the ending which would have been a lot better (having Lee getting impaled) was removed because they realized it was pretty much identical with one of the Dracula films that Lee had already made for Hammer Studios. Instead, the improvised ending was both confusing and limp. Apparently, the message the ending tells us is to toss a big rock at evil and it will easily be defeated!! Additionally, someone decided to stick in a rather gross scene involving a stupid demon having sex with Nastassja Kinski. Lee described this scene as "pornographic" in the documentary. I just thought it was icky and stupid--after all, the demon was an obvious puppet--and a bad one at that.
Overall, fans of Hammer films will probably be very disappointed--except for the card carrying cult members who ALWAYS see every Hammer film as a cinematic masterpiece. Others will no doubt find the film confusing and less and less enjoyable as the film progresses.
A final note--There is a lot of nudity and blood in this film. Full-frontal nudity and several terrifically violent and bloody scenes make this a very BAD choice for the kids!!