Review of To the Devil a Daughter (1976) by Jeff N — 25 Jul 2008

Hammer's final horror film owes more to the Exorcist or The Omen than any of their previous output, suggesting an interesting hypothetical direction for the company had the money not dried up. The cast is great, though Widmark was perhaps the wrong choice for the hero.

He looks permanently pissed off, reflecting his general unhappiness with the production. Kinski is a young girl prepared from birth for a satanic ritual overseen by Lee, an excommunicated priest. Her father (Elliot) enlists the help of a writer on the occult (Widmark) to save her from such dastardly doings.

Based upon a Dennis Wheatley novel, To the Devil a Daughter is an effective chiller that, despite its obvious limitations, generally holds its own with its Hollywood counterparts. Unfortunately, the ending lets everything down.

Seemingly made up on the spot, the final confrontation is too short, hastily assembled and anti-climactic. Some of the scenes added after initial filming are fairly tasteless, while the exploitation of a 15-year old Kinski in the finale is shameful.