Disciple of Death [1972]

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1972
Running Times: 84 mins
Length: 7562 ft
Format: colour
Ratio:
Sound:

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Chromage
Producers: Tom Parkinson, Churton Fairman

SCRIPT
Script: Tom Parkinson, Churton Fairman

DIRECTION
Director: Tom Parkinson, Mike Raven [uncredited]
3rd Assistant Director: Peter Stretch

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: William Brayne

EDITING AND POST PRODUCTION
Editor: Richard Key

MUSIC
Music: Johann Sebastian Bach
Arranger: Robert Cornford

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Frank Turner

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Dennis Pavitt

LOCATIONS
Locations: Boscastle, Cornwall, England, UK

CAST
Mike Raven [the stranger]
Stephen Bradley [Ralph]
Marguerite Hardiman [Julia]
Virginia Wetherell [Ruth]
George Belbin [Squire]
Betty Alberge [Dorothy]
Nick Amer [Melchisidech]
Rusty Goffe [dwarf]
Louise Jameson [Betty]
Joe Dunlop [Mathew]
Daisika [gypsy]

A squire's daughter, Julia, and her lover pledge their love with a blood mixing ceremony that accidentally revives "the stranger", a suicide who is brought back from Hell to find virgin sacrifices for Satan himself. If he can find one willing victim, he will be released from an eternity of damnation.

Why are beauftiful young girls dying in olde England? Why is the mysterious stranger painted white living in a cave? Who has summoned the murderous dwarf? How can mysterious night creatures amble about in the daylight? Where does the killer lightning come from and what exactly happens in the end? Don't ask me, I've only seen the film. One of the true wondrous rarities of British horror cinema it seems churlish to sneer at the labour of love of someone so dedicated to a genre he was unable to master. Where Crucible of Terror [1971] was a dullish variant on House of Wax [1953] enlivened mainly by Raven's seriously-intended–but-he–cant-help-it-being-camp central performance ["Millie… Millie… I wont be turned off and on like a lightbulb" he whines at the heroine] Disciple of Death has Raven at its core but all manner of cheap weirdness floating around it. If you ever get the chance to see it sit back and enjoy but don't even try to understand.
DAVID HANKS

UK
Theatrical Distributor: Target International Films Ltd

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Avco Embassy
Video Distributor: Unicorn Video

CENSORSHIP HISTORY

UK
Rating: X

1972
September
6: UK - rated X by the BBFC [with cuts]

October
14: UK - theatrical release [at the New Victoria cinema, London]

Who has unleashed the evil among us?

BOOKS

Ten Years of Terror edited by Harvey Fenton and David Flint pp.141-142 [Guildford: FAB Press (2001) ISBN: 0-9529260-8-3]
illustrated credits, synopsis, review [by Kim Newman]

KEYWORDS

black magic, hearts, magic, mirrors

Last Updated: 6 March, 2007