Rayner intends to fulfil his old ambition and rebaptise Catherine into the service of evil. Rayner sends his godchild Catherine Beddows (NASTASSJA KINSKI) to England to join her father Henry Beddows (DENHOLM ELLIOT) for her 18th-birthday. Twenty years on and Rayner has settled in Germany with his devil-worshiping followers under the facade of the 'Children of the Lord' cult. Kinski was fifteen years old at the time of filming her frontal nude scene.*POSSIBLE SPOILERS* Father Michael Rayner (CHRISTOPHER LEE) was ex-communicated from the Church of England for attempting to bring a personification of the devil to Earth. The movie's title was also referenced by White Zombie in the song ' Black Sunshine' ('To the devil, a daughter comes.') and I will not recant!' was sampled by heavy metal band White Zombie for the song ' Super-Charger Heaven'.

This was Michael Goodliffe's last film, made shortly before he committed suicide while suffering from depression.Ĭhristopher Lee's line 'It is not heresy.

He told Hammer that they were not to make another film from his novels ever again. Wheatley disliked the film because it did not follow his novel and he found it obscene. It was the second of Wheatley's 'black magic' novels to be filmed by Hammer, following The Devil Rides Out, released in 1968. The film was adapted by Christopher Wicking and John Peacock from the 1953 novel of the same name by Dennis Wheatley.

Frances de la Tour as Salvation Army Major.

Christopher Lee as Father Michael Rayner.

Verney battles the priest and his henchmen and is able to rescue Catherine. The priest kills Verney's friends, and tries to get Verney. Verney learns that the order really harbours a group of practicing Satanists, who have prepared Catherine to become an avatar of Astaroth upon her eighteenth birthday. The order, however, under Father Michael, makes all efforts to get Catherine back and uses black magic to stop Verney as he protects her. But after Catherine arrives, Beddows then insists that she stay with Verney. Catherine is a nun with the Children of the Lord, a mysterious heretical order based in Bavaria and founded by the excommunicated Roman Catholic priest Michael Rayner (Lee), where Beddows is allowed to come to visit Catherine only on her birthdays. American expatriate occult writer John Verney (Widmark) is asked by Henry Beddows (Elliot) to pick up his daughter Catherine (Kinski) from London airport.

Dennis wheatley to the devil a daughter