The bride of Satan

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Movie
German title The bride of Satan
Original title The Bride of Satan
To the Devil a Daughter
Country of production United Kingdom of
Germany
original language English
Publishing year 1976
length 91 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Peter Sykes
script Christopher Wicking
production Roy Skeggs
music Paul Glass
camera David Watkin
cut John Trumper
occupation

The Bride of Satan is a 1975 British-German horror film from the Hammer Films production with Nastassja Kinski in the title role. Richard Widmark and Christopher Lee play two other leading roles at her side . For Lee this was the last appearance in a great movie for a long time. The film is based on the 1953 novel " To the Devil a Daughter " by Dennis Wheatley .

action

Once upon a time, the always a little fearful British Henry Beddows was forced by an unfortunate pact to entrust his pregnant wife Margaret to Father Michael Rayner, who had been excommunicated from the Catholic Church. After being kicked out in idyllic Bavaria, he built his own sect of Satan called “The Church of the Lord's Children”, which actually pays homage to a being of darkness called Asteroth. Beddows is also under Rayner's spell. The devil father had murdered Margaret right after the birth of a girl, Catherine, and baptized the baby with the mother's blood. Two decades later, Catherine became a young woman wearing the clothes of a monastery nun. The innocent Catherine, who does not see through the sinister machinations of her sectarian, receives permission from him to go on a trip to London to visit her father Henry, as on each of her birthdays. This time it's her 18th, the beginning of becoming a woman.

During a vernissage at which the American writer John Verney, a specialist in occult fabrics, is also present, Henry joins them and asks him to pick up Catherine at the airport instead. Verney then drives to London Airport and takes Catherine to London. Beddows wants Verney, who has some experience with sects indulging in occultism through his writing, to take care of Catherine from now on, as Beddows sees great danger for Catherine, should she continue to be under Father Rayner's care and under the influence of his black magic. Rightly, because the darkling in the confessor's skirt still has “big things” to do with the one entrusted to him: He wants nothing less than that she becomes the bride of Satan, his demon Asteroth, and unites with the devil. On the day of Catherine's legal age, it should be ready, but now Verney holds his protective hand over the young girl, and the supreme devil worshiper traveling back to England uses all his energy to steal his bride of Satan from the American. With telepathic powers he gets closer and closer to Catherine and gradually makes her hallucinate. During a phone call between Rayner and Verney, the devil worshiper threatens the writer if he does not hand over Catherine. Rayner's telepathic powers are soon so strong that the unwilling Catherine stabs Anna, a friend of Verney's, who should take care of the girl in his absence.

Catherine then escapes from Rayney's apartment and finally stumbles into the hands of George De Grass, Rayner's right-hand man. Verney and Anna's friend David Kennedy are now following Catherine's lead. Rayner's strength is already so strong that he lets his colleague David Kennedy go up in flames in a church where he reaches for a chain that embodies the pact made by Beddows with the sect. Verney finally learns of Beddows, who is only ready to unpack after receiving the pact chain, where Rayner is hiding Catherine. Meanwhile, the devil father is preparing the union of Asteroth, a small, blood-smeared gnome who crawls along Catherine's abdomen, with Catherine. Verney shows up at the last moment and is able to prevent the worst by first killing George de Grass with a stone, breaking the spell that Rayner has drawn and throwing Rayner down with the same stone. Verney then lifts Catherine from the altar and with the last of his strength carries her out of the spell. The ritual of Satan has failed.

Production notes

The Bride of Satan premiered on March 4, 1976 in London and opened in Germany on May 20, 1976. On the German side, Terra-Filmkunst (Berlin) was involved.

Nastassja Kinski only played her second film role and her first role in English. Despite her only 14 years of filming, she also appeared naked in front of the camera in one scene.

Supporting actor Michael Goodliffe committed suicide 16 days after the premiere of this film.

The film was unindexed in May 2011. Eight years later, in May 2019, it was re-examined by the FSK, which released the film unabridged from the age of 16.

synchronization

actor role German voice actor
Richard Widmark John Verney Arnold Marquis
Christopher Lee Father Michael Rayner Christian Rode
Denholm Elliott Henry Beddows Edgar Ott
Nastassja Kinski Catherine Ina Patzlaff
Honor Blackman Anna Fountain Dagmar Altrichter
Anthony Valentine David Kennedy Norbert Langer
Michael Goodliffe George de Grass Heinz Petruo
Frances de la Tour major Marianne Lutz
Brian Wilde Librarian in black room Lothar Blumhagen

Reviews

The reviews were devastating; Above all, the confused script and the finale, which got by without a bang or trick, were criticized.

"Primitive horror trash."

- Lexicon of International Films

The Movie & Video Guide said the film was "good, but it lacks clout".

Halliwell's Film Guide judged: "Confused, highly mannered, diabolical thriller".

Screenwriter Chris Wicking himself called the film a "terrible mess."

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.schnittberichte.com/ticker.php?ID=6415
  2. ↑ German synchronous index | Movies | The bride of Satan. Retrieved August 26, 2019 .
  3. ↑ The Bride of Satan in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed September 9, 2018 Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used
  4. ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 1360
  5. ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 1036
  6. ^ Interview with Wicking in Monthly Film Bulletin; No. 55, edition 658 of November 1, 1988, p. 322.

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