All children are given over to the parents who will best serve them.
In the final decade of its existence, Hammer Films brought two of Dennis Wheatley's novels of the occult to the screen. The second was, in fact, the last "proper" Hammer film, 1976's To the Devil a Daughter. (There was one more to come -- the 1979 remake of The Lady Vanishes -- but the only thing horrific about that was how much it bombed at the box office.) Directed by Peter Sykes, To the Devil a Daughter stars Richard Widmark as an occult novelist (the author of books with titles like The Devil Walks Among Us) who is recruited to protect a young novice (Nastassja Kinski) from an excommunicated priest (Christopher Lee) who has some fiendish designs on her. The film also features Honor Blackman as one of Lee's devoted acolytes, Denholm Elliott as Kinski's father (who betrays the sect and pays a steep price for it), and Eva Maria Meineke and Michael Goodliffe as Widmark's agent and her husband, who are drawn into the plot before he has any idea what he's up against.
For the last of its Gothic horror films, Hammer really pulled out all the stops, showing much more nudity and gore than it had been able to previously. (There's one scene of a woman giving birth that fills both requirements and is extremely graphic about it.) There are also some moments that, it must be said, are rather laughable. I'm thinking in particular of the scene near the end where Kinski has bloody sex with a demon baby hand puppet. (Yes, you read that right.) And if you ever wanted to see Christopher Lee's bare buttocks, then this is the film for you. (And if you're reading this because you Googled the phrase "Christopher Lee's bare buttocks" and were hoping to see them, I apologize. But at least now you know where to go looking for them.)
Long before he took Satan's part, Christopher Lee was on the side of good in 1968's The Devil Rides Out, which was directed by Terence Fisher and adapted for the screen by Richard Matheson. Lee plays the aristocratic Duc de Richleau, who does battle with Charles Gray as a master of the black arts who has infernal designs on Lee's young friend Patrick Mower. With the help of a skeptical friend (Leon Greene), Lee seeks to break Gray's hold on Mower as well as another young acolyte (Nike Arrighi) that Greene has become smitten with. As in To the Devil a Daughter, their battle also yokes in a couple (Sarah Lawson and Paul Eddington) that doesn't realize what they're in for, but at least this time nobody comes to a bad that doesn't deserve to.
The Devil Rides Out is a terrific film from start to finish, but there are two scenes in particular that are real standouts. The first is a black mass that takes place on the eve of the first day of summer (also known as Walpurgis Night) which is attended by none other than the Man Goat himself. The second is a lengthy sequence where Lee places himself, Mower, Lawson and Eddington inside a chalk circle while Gray throws all manner of supernatural attacks at them. (One of them -- a giant spider -- isn't too impressive because the special effects aren't quite up to snuff, but the Angel of Death is suitably terrifying.) Considering how often he played the heavy for Hammer, Lee must have been especially pleased to be the hero for once.