The film starts off with Nicholas (Christopher Lee) welcoming home his old friend Rex (Leon Greene). Rex has flown over to meet Nicholas and Simon (Patrick mower). Simon is the son of their old friend who had previously passed away, and as friends they swore that they would look after Simon. Unfortunately when Rex returned Nicholas informed him that he hadn't seen Simon in about 3 months. So unexpectedly they turn up at his house, only to find him having a small party with 12 guests. Something isn't right and when Simon asks them to leave. Nicholas, who is proficient in black magic, becomes aware that the guests Simon has in his house are member of a satanic cult and Simon and his friend Tanith will be baptized to serve the devil.
As they are asked to leave, in a desperate double check to make sure he isn't going mad, Nicholas runs upstairs to Simon's telescope room, followed by Rex and Simon himself. Simon seems nervous and aggravated. they are dazzled by diagrams on the floor and wall, and not to his surprise he discovers chickens in a basket. "Diagrams on the wall, chickens in a basket, what's going on?!".
Nicholas and Rex beg Simon to go home with them and to escape the trap, but he refuses, which leads them to no other choice, but to knock him out. Once he is finally back safe at Nicholas's home, they hypnotize him, and gave him to sleep with a cross around his neck. However when all is calm and quiet, Mocata the evil leader enters Simon's body and gets him to strangle himself with the necklace cross around his neck. The butler of nicholas takes off the cross so he doesn't kill himself, but this then frees Simon and he escapes and his elsewhere is unknown.
In an attempt to get Simon back and stop him sacrificing himself to the devil Rex and Nicholas return to Simons home to find that he isn't there. however in the room where the black magic happens, they are stunned as the devil appears the mist and smoke and trys his best to reel them into his trap. Nicholas is strong and doesn't look into his eyes, but Rex is weak and becomes under the devils spell. Nicholas throws a cross at the devil and he banishes into the night and rex becomes conscious again. They decide they need a new plan so ex decides to take Tanith (the other member who is about to be sacrificed along side of Simon) for dinner, however the evil leader Mocoata regains control of her body and when her and Rex reach their destination, she steals his car and races off. In an attempt to get her back Rex chases her in his brothers car but crashes, so he has to run on foot. finally he finds her again and follows her and simon and the rest of the evil black magic party to a secret destination. In realization Rex rings Nicholas to warn him of what he's found. Once both Nicholas and Rex are at the scene, it comes to their attention that Simon and Tanith are about to be sacrificed and they need to stop it and fast. As a goats throat is cut and blood is spilt, the two men turn on car lights and dazzle the re-returned devil with the headlights and throw another cross at him. They kidnap Simon and Tanith and take them to a safe place where no harm can come of them.
When they both rest and sleep, Mocata enters the home where they are at and manages to hypnotize the lady of the house, luckily just before she does what he says her daughter walks in the room and wakes her from it. meanwhile as she was hypnotized Mocata had woken up Tanith and Simon and proceeded to to make them kill whoever was in the room with them. but oncer the daughter peggy had woken up the mother Tanith and Simon snapped out of Mocata's spell and realized what they was doing. In absolute fear Tanith asks Rex to leave with her, so he does so. he ties her up in a barn, so she can do nothing, and when Mocata try's to take over her body she cannot do a thing. Meanwhile Simon, Nicholas and the Rex's brother and sister in law all stand in a circle to keep away the evil. If the circle is broken evil shall arrive. Unexpectedly 'The Angel of Death' arrives and while lots of commotion is going on, the daughter of the house is then kidnapped and taken to an unknown whereabouts. They notice Simon is still alive, but find it strange as the Angel of Death never leaves empty handed without a life. When Rex returns with Tanith she is dead. More desperate than ever, Nicholas wants to sort this out once and for all. Using the mothers body they hypnotize her and try and contact Taniths soul, they are successful with this and manage to find the whereabouts of where Peggy is.
Simon goes alone to the house where the party is and where Peggy is to discover that she is about to be sacrificed the same way the goat was. Once again Mocata regains control over Simon and has him back in the black magic trick. Nicholas, Rex and the couple turn up at the house to try and stop what goes on, Mocata manages to trance over everyone and carries on with the ceremony of sacrifice. Out of no where Tanith regains control over the mothers body and walks to the front of the ceremony, wakes peggy up and asks her to leave, she then throws a cross at Mocata and the whole room blows in to shreds.
The next shot is back at the house, and the four characters are stood in the circle, they realize they went back in time after nicholas chanting some religious quote to the angel of death. Same as before, Rex returns with Tanith but this time she is alive, and Nicholas states that the Angel of Death never leaves empty handed, and this time, he's taken the evil leader Mocata, and everything was finally back to normal.
Being a religious film meaning a huge candidate for why the film is so successful. Images such as camera shots and angles are huge in the way the audience see whats going on. Throughout the film its rare that you see any general camera movement, all that are there is transitions between each shot to neaten up the editing a bit better. One transition that was brilliantly used and only used for one of the first times around this era is the 'fade-in' and 'fade-out' transition. This could be because the government had given a bit of funding towards the cinema area and this helped them produce better editing techniques.
Throughout the whole of the film the music is dark and tense. This is a great way on casting a dark shadow over the film and giving it a deep religious feeling. James Benard did the original music and managed to create the spine chilling effect he wanted. When there were moments of happiness the music created was great at conveying feelings and emotion. Mise on scene is one of the main aspects that created such tense vibes throughout the film. Costume and make up played a huge role at doing so. Characters were made to wear everyday clothes which fitted that period of time, which helps the audience feel in touch with the characters as its the norm. But when the ceremony of sacrifice took place, characters wore long white robs, which were seen rather spooky with a creepy edge to them. And the main man who they all looked up to, wore the same robe but in deep purple. These outfits are completely different to what we would wear
everyday and gave a quirkiness to the film when watched.
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