Devils of Darkness (1965)

Directed by Lance Comfort [Other horror films: Daughter of Darkness (1948)]

I went into this one pretty blind, not overly sure what to expect. Unfortunately, though this British vampire movie possesses some charm, overall, I struggle to believe that Devils of Darkness will end up being that memorable.

As such, the plot itself is somewhat decent and moderately intriguing, dealing with members of a vampire-led cult attempting to retrieve something of their masters’ from an unsuspecting man, and the mysterious deaths around the man are somewhat interesting. When Scotland Yard gets involved, things become even more interesting. But despite all of this, I don’t think the movie ends up being great.

There’s no doubt some cool things here, such as a somewhat suspenseful reflection-off-water scene near the beginning (and speaking of the beginning, I did appreciate how we got eight minutes of opening before the title and credits came up), along with blood coming from a portrait. A few red herrings around Tracy Reed’s character, too, come into play. But there wasn’t anywhere near enough to keep things moving along at a brisk enough pace.

As a leading character, William Sylvester does pretty good, and I sort of liked Hubert Noel’s vampire character. But other than Tracy Reed, who wasn’t necessarily great, most of the cast is pretty forgettable, which certainly doesn’t help matters any.

Ultimately, Devils of Darkness has the occasional atmosphere that you might be looking for from a 60’s vampire film, but it’s not done nearly as well as Hammer was able to, so why go for a cheap knock-off if you can pick up the real thing? Might be worth checking out a single time, but I wouldn’t really expect to fall in love with this one. At least the color looks moderately nice.

5.5/10