Something About The Devil Rides Out

Oriel seraphim and so on....

Halloween comes this weekend and I’m as bad as Rod Childermass when having kiddos knocking on the outer door. I don’t eat candy and have little interest in buying it, especially when I’ve had zero trick-or-treaters over the last eight or so years. (Someone said I should buy it anyway, save it, and give it away at Christmas. No one wants candy corn in December, either.)

Holiday-specific films will soon begin to dot the various movie channels, and I’m certain I will come across one of the best films, The Devil Rides Out (1968). It stars the late and lamented Sir Christopher Lee and Charles Gray in a horror story played straight. There’s no fumbling around here, folks, as Simon Anon’s very life is in peril by those who have given their lives to black magic.

If you’re familiar with the film and want to go the extra mile then track down the book it’s based on, Dennis Wheatley's original 1934 novel of the same name. I finally "set" out to read this a few years ago and was wonderfully surprised at how much different the adaptation was from the source material. Case in point: the main characters chase Mocata across Europe to an abandoned Greek monastery to put an end of his wicked ways. And since I already mentioned mystery series week earlier in the month, I'll add the four main characters in The Devil Rides Out - including the Duke de Richleau - appear in a series of novels by Wheatley.

All said, what are you watching this All Saint's Season?