To this day, there are scenes that send giddy chills hurtling up and down my spine every time I think about them.

The music is shrill, the screams of the leading ladies shriller still, and the dialogue is satisfyingly hokey (”Don’t look at the eyes, Rex!”).

Fisher's direction makes one of the Satanic orgies a production highspot, aided by some frenzied choreography by David Toguri and apt mood music.

In a refreshing change from using monsters of lore and literature as instruments of terror, this Hammer classic harnesses unearthly forces and hellish entities like the Goat of Mendes and the Angel of Death to chill the blood. The result is riveting.