Painful
This movie is a disappointing contribution to the horror genre. There are a lot of sylistic parallels to the exorcist but without the punch. It tries to move in the same quiet pace and with the same tension, but does not pull it off. There is a lot of filler and not enough plot devices to keep it moving. The acting is wooden given the realism this movie was aiming for. Hammer movies are much better off as pure vampire movies. Christopher Lee is not very convincing as a heretic priest.

A Classic Film Adaptation of Wheatley's Occult Novel of Satanism.
_To the Devil a Daughter_ (1976), made by Hammer Film Productions, is an adaptation of the 1953 novel of the same name by Dennis Wheatley, which features a classic confrontation between the forces of darkness and those of light. The film takes some liberties with the novel by combining several of the main characters and making the main character (called Christina in the novel) into a nun, rather than a young virgin girl. The film stars Christopher Lee as a heretic priest Father Michael Rayner who plots to use a teenage nun played by Nastassja Kinski (called Catherine Beddows in the film) in a diabolical and satanic rite. The rest of the cast includes Richard Widmark as the occult writer and main hero of the film John Verney (which is a combination of two of the heroes of the original novel and perhaps of Wheatley himself as well), Honor Blackman as Anna Fountain, Denholm Elliott as Henry Beddows the father of Catherine, Michael Goodliffe as George De Grasse, Anthony Valentine as David (a character that does not appear in the novel but who has some role in the film), and Derek Francis as the bishop (who appears in the film as a source of information for John Verney regarding the occult doings of the excommunicated priest). The film begins with the bishop and his fellow priests performing a ritual of excommunication on Father Michael Rayner who refuses to recant his heresy. The film then focuses on Catherine Beddows who lives as a nun in a Bavarian Catholic order known as the Children of the Lord. She is sent to visit her father for her upcoming birthday in London. John Verney who is a well known occult writer is asked by Henry Beddows the father of Catherine to pick her up at the airport and take care of her for some time while he allegedly is away on business, but John suspects that Henry has encountered some problems with some business associates and fears for Catherine. In the meantime, the renegade priest is plotting his diabolical actions against Catherine and making use of satanic rituals with newborn babies. John quickly discovers that Catherine is possessed and must try to figure out what is going on concerning the priest and Beddows before it is too late. He enlists Anna Fountain and David to help him with Catherine. He also visits the bishop where he reads the Grimoire of Astaroth (a principle demon) after seeing a strange symbol of this demon given to Catherine for her birthday. Further, John must confront a severely addled Henry Beddows who protecting himself with a magic circle lives in perpetual terror of the satanists. It turns out that Henry has made a pact with them after witnessing their original plans for his daughter and John must recover this pact. Eventually John must face off against the heretic priest who plans on making Catherine into an avatar of Astaroth upon reaching her eighteenth birthday. As a warning it should be pointed out that this film is disturbing on several levels and includes full frontal nudity.

This film is a pretty good adaptation of the novel by Dennis Wheatley. Wheatley is perhaps best known for his occult thriller novels and this film effectively shows the dangers of tampering in black magic. As such this film is recommended to those who enjoyed the novel.

Don't Break The Oath...
Horror-god Christopher Lee stars as a twisted priest, out to supply Asteroth (satan) w/ a daughter in the form of a young girl (played by the ever-amazingly beautiful Nastassja Kinski). Everything goes fine until the girl's dad (Denholm Elliot from The House That Dripped Blood) decides he can't allow it. Dad enlists the aid of an american occult writer (Richard Widmark from The Swarm) to snag satan's future offspring, and hide her out. Shockingly, the cult of Asteroth doesn't understand! The rest of the story involves Widmark's character, assisted by his doomed friends, trying to keep the girl away from the clutches of Mr. Lee and his minions. Now, I've heard this movie compared to THE EXORCIST, THE OMEN, and ROSEMARY'S BABY. Ummm, nope. Those movies are utter classics, while TO THE DEVIL... A DAUGHTER is a hammer exploitation film. As such, it's really quite enjoyable, but it's NOT scary or disturbing! As for Ms. Kinski's nekkidness, yes, she does lose her entire wardrobe at one point, for about 2½ seconds! I did find the finalé to be somewhat rushed and unsatisfying, but the rest of the movie was well done. Enjoy...

Very Good, Almost Great
When a celebrated occult novelist is approached by a distressed man seeking his help, he soon finds himself keeping watch over a beautiful teenage nun on the lam from a group of Satanists who want to make her Astaroth's vessel. Keeping her under wraps for two days would seem simple enough, except the leader of the cult, an excommunicated priest named Rayner, has an arsenal of supernatural tricks up his sleeve to find the girl and destroy anyone who stands in his way. Her own confusion about good and evil doesn't help matters much either.

The last horror film from legendary British studio Hammer, "To the Devil a Daughter" is quite an entertaining and intriguing picture up until its weak ending. Toted as the next big shocker in the vein of Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist, it really doesn't prove to be quite as intense as those films, and it seems no one on the production was very happy with the resolution of the plot either (the author of the original novel, Dennis Wheatley, hated the film). The performances (by a very notable cast, including Hammer icon Christopher Lee as Rayner, screen legend Richard Widmark as hero/novelist John Verney, and a young Nastassja Kinski in the pivotal role of teen-nun Catherine) are excellent, and there are some great, ghastly scenes, like the usual satanic ritual orgy, but a few elements of the plot can get a bit confusing and overly complicate things, contrasted by that overly simple ending. Nevertheless, it's a great ride for the most part and was a big commercial success, but not quite enough to save Hammer Studios. This is gone into detail in the bonus documentary, "To the Devil...The Death of Hammer", which is a great viewing, though also sad for us major fans of the studio's style/body of work. Other extras include a theatrical trailer, good text bios of Christopher Lee and Richard Widmark, and a poster/still gallery. Another excellent release by Hammer presented uncut in a restored and enhanced widescreen. And, yes, the film features Nastassja Kinski doing full-frontal nudity, and she's really quite lovely throughout the film for the most part (a tad European for my tastes, but not bad at all), but by today's standards it seems more like she's wearing a pair of wooly knickers rather than doing full-frontal, ha. Still good though, still good.

The end of Hammer
Having just seen this for the first time I was surprised at just how good it was. Whether those involved realised that it would be the last ever Hammer film I don't know, but it seemed as though a bit more effort was made with this.

Firstly this has an excellent cast and unlike the later Dracula films Christopher Lee has a proper role which makes good use of his screen presence and unique voice. Denholm Elliot is also very good and the rest of the cast do a fine job. In many ways TTDAD resembles 'The Devil Rides Out' because it is also based on a Dennis Wheatley story, but I think the overriding influence was probably Hammers attempt to cash in on the success of the Exorcist and The Omen.

Apart from one scene, which is very unpleasant (although you actually see nothing) this is a restrained and subtle film compared with the extreme violence in some modern horror films. So overall an enjoyable film which was a fine swan song for Hammer.