Eye of the Devil
Directed by J. Lee Thompson
Written by Robin Estridge and Dennis Murphy from Estridge’s novel
1966/UK
Filmways Pictures
First viewing/Amazon Instant
[box] People tend to fear the ghosts in their own family. You feel these family curses and think, ‘If it happened to my father, it could happen to me.’ Christian Louboutin [/box]
I came for the awesome cast. All I can say is the material let the actors down.
Marquis Philippe de Monfaucon (David Niven), his wife Catherine (Deborah Kerr), and two children live the good life. Then Philippe is suddenly called away to the family vineyards, which are suffering the effects of a drought. He bans Catherine and the kids from traveling with him. She soon disobeys and joins him there. We are introduced to two creepy siblings (David Hemmings and Sharon Tate) who appear to have supernatural powers. Finally, we learn that the vineyard workers believe only a sacrifice of the Marquis will save their crops More stuff happens. With Donald Pleasance, Emlyn Williams, and Flora Robson.
A cardinal rule of the horror genre is that a long build-up must result in a big pay-off. Dull movie ends with a wimper instead of a bang.
