To The Devil A Daughter (1976)

18 years after making a pact with a satanic cult and giving them his baby daughter, a man (Denholm Elliott) reneges and asks an expert (Richard Widmark) on the occult to hide his daughter (Nastassja Kinski). The dubious expert agrees but he doesn't know what he's letting himself in for. The cult's leader (Christopher Lee) will stop at nothing to get the girl back. Based on the novel by Dennis Wheatley and directed by Peter Sykes. This entry in the devil cinema canon is no ROSEMARY'S BABY or THE OMEN. Surprisingly, the film is almost devoid of any genuine sense of horror. The "devil baby" when revealed isn't shocking at all since it looks like a red rubber doll with some kind of skin disease. A more atmospheric underscore might have helped as Paul Glass's atonal score provides no sense of terror. As expected, horror icon Christopher Lee provides a nice sense of menace but the other actors have all been better elsewhere. Wheatley himself was unhappy with the film. It's not bad, just blah! With Honor Blackman, Anthony Valentine, Frances De La Tour and Michael Goodliffe (hist last film before his suicide).