The Devil Rides Out/Rasputin the Mad Monk

Customer Reviews:

Christopher Lee double bill.......2006-09-21

The Devil Rides Out is probably the best known book that Dennis Wheatley ever wrote. The Hammer film adaptation is pretty faithful to the book. The film version sees Christopher Lee (cast against type) as the heroic Duc de Richelieu fighting a coven of Satanists, led by Charles Gray's evil and sinister Mocata. The film is both eerie and frightening (the encounter with the Ab Human entity in the darkened house being a very good example) as the powers of Light and Darkness lock horns via their respective proxys...
Christopher Lee turns in a superlative performance as De Richelieu and Charles Gray is equally good as his Satanic nemesis - Mocata.
They receive sterling support from the rest of the cast who include Patrick Mower and Barbara Shelley.
Among occult movies, The Devil Rides Out stands out as one of the very best. It remains one of my all time faves and is highly recommended to anyone who has not seen it yet.

Rasputin The Mad Monk sees Christopher Lee back in more familiar territory ie. playing a villainous role. historically not very accurate this is nonetheless a film of colour and panache. Lee is superb in the title role as the greedy, psychotic, yet powerful Rasputin who is unashamedly ruthless and ambitious. Before long he has an unhealthy influence over the Tsarina and the Russian Royal Court because he appears to be able to ease the suffering of the haemophiliac boy prince - Nicky.
Visually stunning and with a great score to boot, Rasputin The Mad Monk makes a very good companion to the Devil Rides Out, on this Hammer double bill.

2 Excellant Hammer Films .......2006-01-11

You know Anchor Bay Has Been Delighted to present us with a collection of Hammer Films on DVD and then when the movies go oop they put them in a Double Bill DVD Set for instance like Dracula Prince of Darkness that was one of the early releases by anchor bay so it became a Double Bill DVD with The Satanic Rites of Dracula But Now that you think about it Thats oop Also anyway to this Here we have The Devil Rides Out Possibly one of the finest hammer movies ever made, for once Christopher Lee plays a good guy i mean you know we have usually seen Christopher Lee for Hammer As Count Dracula,Frankenstein's Monster,The Mummy anyways here is a rare viewing Christopher Lee a Good Guy Highly reccomended onto Rasputin The Mad Monk which by the way was filmed back to back with Dracula Prince of Darkness using the same cast and sets here Christopher Lee is Evil but in one of his rare roles for hammer Great Double Feature

Damaged?.......2005-10-26

All three reviews by the individual below--from Italy--complain about "damaged" DVDs, way too dang many of them. I encourage customers to ignore these writings as it seems she may be ordering DVDs for the wrong DVD region; in one case she writes that it plays "black" and that sure as heck sounds like the problem. Of course she might be putting these in her CD player too. I've ordered plenty of stuff from Amazon and if anything they arrive almost too well packed and totally undamaged. Sorry, I've been encountering customer service complaints, often really stupid ones, turning up in the review section a bit too much lately and it's really starting to annoy me.

Great CDs, a great combo, and lots of fun. The Devil Rides Out is a classic adaptation of a novel by a fellow named Wheatley or something--wrote a lot of stories in the 30s about Satan worshippers. The Rasputin film is just a hoot, as one might well imagine from Hammer. I miss this company and I wish they could reform to do campy stuff (their movies weren't campy when new) nowadays. There's plenty of hard-gore and shock out there now, I'd like to see something stylish and fun.

Very Good .......2005-10-12

This movie above came in good condition, fortunately, however, several itens that I have ordered before this one came damaged, I have had many problems with Amazon com lately, unfortunately. I really would like to know why this is taking place, really. The collection called "Hammer Horror Collection" that has 6 movies came completely damaged, 100% damaged twice to me and when I ordered three of the movies separately (suggested by the represantive) "taste the blood of Dracula", "Dracula has risen from the grave" and "The Horror of Dracula", the three of them, even though they were sold separately, they came to me DAMAGED, I returned them and Amazon com decided to send me something for free here in Italy after all I went through, but, even the free purchases, one of movies, came DAMAGED, the movie that came damaged is called "The Hound of Baskerville" with Peter Cushing, it came damaged twice actually, now, I do not know what to substitue that one for, and besides I am in a different hotel now. I do not know WHY you are selling so many movies that are DAMAGED, NOT WORKING, with BLACK SCREEN, specially the one called "hammer horror collection" PLease analise and study this. THank you.
JAcqueline Grecco

Two Hammer classics.......2005-02-25

Rasputin, the Mad Monk is easily the lesser of the two films, but is still a minor classic by Hammer standards. Historical accuracy is secondary to suspense and thrills, as you would expect. Christopher Lee turns in one of his best performances in the title role.

The Devil Rides Out is one of Terence Fisher's finest films. It's an intense occult thriller, genuinely terrifying at times, and featuring another excellent performance from Lee, in an untypical role.

Average customer rating:

Hammer Great
Christopher Lee cast against type
One of the best that Hammer Horror has to offer...
candidate for digital
Hammer horror's finest hour?

The Devil Rides Out
Starring: Christopher Lee , Charles Gray , Nike Arrighi , Leon Greene , and Patrick Mower
Director: Terence Fisher
Manufacturer: Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

Hammer Productions | Horror | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Genres | DVD | Video

( D ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: 6305808163
Release Date: 2000-07-25

Amazon.com

Christopher Lee, long Hammer Studios' house villain, takes a rare heroic turn as scholar and occultist Duc de Richleau, the kind of role that Peter Cushing had made his métier. Lee plays Richleau with a dark elegance and intensity--he's a commanding figure with a trim goatee who discovers that the son of a war buddy has joined a satanic cult lorded over by the quietly malevolent Mocata (Charles Gray, best known as the narrator in The Rocky Horror Picture Show). Director Terence Fisher, working from a literate script by genre scribe Richard Matheson, creates a strikingly handsome period piece (set in 1920s rural England) dripping in dread as Richleau and Mocata battle for the souls of two young lovers on both physical and spiritual planes. The action scenes are well handled and the towering Lee cuts quite a figure leaping through hoards of robed devil worshippers to save a sacrificial victim, but the film peaks in an eerie supernatural battle in which Richleau and his skeptical party confronts Mocata's demons while protected in a giant pentagram. The effects are coarse and dated by today's standards, but the gorgeous period detail, vivid color, and unsettling imagery create a sinister ambiance, and Fisher's mix of psychodrama and swashbuckling action makes for an engrossing thriller, a life-and-death struggle between two masters of the forces of light and darkness. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Hammer Great.......2007-09-01

This marvellous film is one of Hammers best ever. Really only Dracula and The Hound of the Baskervilles are in the same league.

Christopher Lee plays the Duc De Richeau with the same passion he plays normally plays bad guys. Charles Gray is excellent as Mocata, the leader of the devil worshipers. Other noteable British actors that you will know are Patrick Mower and Paul Eddington.

The director is Terence Fisher who consistently proved himself to be the best Hammer director. The film is gripping and if the special effects look very primitive now you should not let it detract from what is otherwise a great film.

This edition has a commentary by Christopher Lee and others which is quite fascinating and well worth getting. Even without the commentary this is still an essential purchase for Hammer and/or horror fans.

Christopher Lee cast against type.......2006-10-06

One of the best that Hammer Horror has to offer..........2005-10-12

One of the best in the Hammer Horror series. I put this one alongside "To the Devil...A Daughter" and "Satanic Rites of Dracula" as one of my favorites. It's well-written, well-acted, well-staged, and very creepy. An underrated, though no less true, success in the genre.

candidate for digital.......2005-06-04

What a marvelous film--and what a shame that an otherwise superb production in terms of casting, pace, storyline and atmosphere is cursed with second-rate effects that have dated so badly. Christopher Lee once said in an interview that he felt he was probably a little young for the excellent role of the Duc. You certainly won't get that impression though watching his authoritative performance.

Perhaps Steven Spielberg or George Lucas could be persuaded to buy the rights to the movie and remaster the film in digital with an entirely new sequence of special effects that would be worthy of the cast and the production design....

Hammer horror's finest hour?.......2004-12-04

Were I to identify Hammer's finest film, it would almost certainly be a close call between the 1958 Horror of Dracula and this impressive occult thriller from 1968.

In The Devil Rides Out, adapted by Richard Matheson from the book by Dennis Wheatley, the Duc de Richleau (Christopher Lee in perhaps one of his two or three greatest roles) finds himself in a battle with the forces of evil in the guise of satanic ringleader Mocata (a sinister Charles Gray). Terence Fisher directs a riveting and intense "fairy tale for adults" in which darkness and light collide, and God triumphs over the Devil. The suspense and fear are effectively conveyed through Fisher's sharp direction, James Bernard's macabre and sometimes frenetic musical score, and Arthur Grant's brilliant lighting and photography, which comes into its own in the justly famous library scenes in which our protagonist and his allies must defend themselves against a nightlong satanic assault.

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