Of course, Mocata will have none of that and uses his diabolical powers to lure Simon and his friend Tanith (Niké Arrighi) to his forest bacchanal and back into the Goat of Mendes fan club. The Duc and Rex spirit Simon away from the evil Mocata (Charles Gray) anyway and together they try to deprogram him. Simon assures them this is not a cult or anything and that live chicken in the closet is just a friend. Anyway, you can’t have a good, um, networking event unless there are exactly thirteen people – and a goat. Simon (Patrick Mower) wants them to leave since they already have the perfect number for the orgy, I mean astronomical society meeting.

Despite the comparative safety of these comfortable settings, sinister forces seep in, threatening the lives of unsuspecting citizens.Īs The Devil Rides Out begins, Duc de Richleau (Christopher Lee) and Rex van Ryn (Leon Greene) crash a party at their friend Simon’s house in the British countryside. That find leads MacLachlan to a kidnapping, police corruption, and a twisted criminal with a weakness for Pabst Blue Ribbon. Later, in Blue Velvet (1986), Kyle MacLachlan discovers a human ear amid the white picket fences of suburbia. Desperate to protect her unborn child from a coven of witches, Rosemary tries to convince people that the sweet senior citizens in the next apartment are plotting to steal her baby. Mia Farrow fights a different battle in Rosemary’s Baby. In The Devil Rides Out, while his friends polish their boots for the next fox hunt, Christopher Lee makes plans to ward off Mephistopheles. It’s terrifying to think that the tacky busybody next door is a witch plotting to set you up on a blind date with Beelzebub or that your neighbor might be summoning the Goat of Mendes.įilms like these are fascinating because they show the dark underside that lurks beneath the peaceful façade of everyday life. Both films brought the devil out of Gothic castles and into modern apartments and smart country homes, portraying the sects as more realistic and, therefore, more threatening. A month later, in the UK, Hammer Film Productions pitted Christopher Lee against the fiendish Charles Gray in The Devil Rides Out. In June, William Castle produced Rosemary’s Baby and put a hex on New York City real estate forever. 1968 was a great year for demonic possession.

The devil rides out novel