To the Devil a Daughter
5.8 /10 1 Votes
Duration Language English | 5.8/10 IMDb Genre Horror Country United KingdomWest Germany | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date 4 March 1976 (UK) Cast (John Verney), (Father Michael), (Anna), (Henry Beddows), (George de Grass), (Catherine) Similar movies , The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death , Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones , Silent Hill , Deliver Us from Evil , Dust Devil Tagline ...and suddenly the screams of a baby born in Hell! |
To the devil a daughter original theatrical trailer 1976
To the Devil a Daughter is a 1976 horror film, directed by Peter Sykes and produced by Hammer Film Productions and Terra-Filmkunst. It is based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Wheatley, and stars Richard Widmark, Christopher Lee, Honor Blackman, Nastassja Kinski and Denholm Elliott. It was the final Hammer production to feature Christopher Lee until The Resident in 2011.
Contents
- To the devil a daughter original theatrical trailer 1976
- To the devil a daughter
- Plot
- Cast
- Production
- Critical reception
- References

To the devil a daughter
Plot

American expatriate occult writer John Verney (Widmark) is asked by Henry Beddows (Elliot) to pick up his daughter Catherine (Kinski) from London airport. Catherine is a nun with the Children of the Lord, a mysterious heretical order based in Bavaria and founded by the excommunicated Roman Catholic priest Michael Rayner (Lee), where Beddows is allowed to come to visit Catherine only on her birthdays. But after Catherine arrives, Beddows then insists that she stay with Verney. The order, however, under Father Michael, makes all efforts to get Catherine back and uses black magic to stop Verney as he protects her. Verney learns that the order really harbours a group of practicing Satanists, who have prepared Catherine to become an avatar of Astaroth upon her eighteenth birthday. The priest kills Verney's friends, and tries to get Verney. Verney battles the priest and his henchmen and is able to rescue Catherine.
Cast

Production

The film was adapted by Christopher Wicking and John Peacock from the 1953 novel of the same name by Dennis Wheatley. It was the second of Wheatley's "black magic" novels to be filmed by Hammer, following The Devil Rides Out, released in 1968. Wheatley disliked the film because it did not follow his novel and he found it obscene. He told Hammer that they were not to make another film from his novels ever again.

This was Michael Goodliffe's last film, made shortly before he committed suicide while suffering from depression.
Christopher Lee's line "It is not heresy... and I will not recant!" was sampled by heavy metal band White Zombie for the song "Super-Charger Heaven". The movie's title was also referenced by White Zombie in the song "Black Sunshine" ("To the devil, a daughter comes...")
Kinski was fifteen years old at the time of filming her frontal nude scene.
Critical reception
To the Devil... A Daughter has been negatively received by critics, and currently holds a 38% approval rating on movie review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on eight reviews. Time Out called it "a good deal more interesting than the rest of the possession cycle, but still a disappointment."
References
To the Devil a Daughter WikipediaTo the Devil a Daughter IMDb To the Devil a Daughter themoviedb.org