Disciple of Death

Disciple of Death is a 1972 British low-budget horror film co-scripted and directed by Tom Parkinson (producer of Attack of the Sabretooth) in Cornwall. The film was part-financed and stars Mike Raven, an ex-DJ with ambitions to become a horror star. Raven had already appeared in Hammer Films’ Lust for a Vampire and also starred in another vanity project Crucible of Terror. The remainder of the leads are Ronald Lacey (Raiders of the Lost Ark), Stephen Bradley, Marguerite Hardiman, horror film regular Virginia Wetherell, George Belbin, Betty Alberge and Nicolas Amer.

Hammer Films had been approached by Parkinson and Raven a year earlier and although there was discussion of Disciple of Death being filmed, with Jimmy Sangster directing, the project was shelved. The enterprising duo decided to go ahead and film it themselves but in 16mm.

A henchman of Satan (Raven) is unleashed when the blood of a virgin accidentally drips onto the grave of a suicide victim. Aided by a dwarf, he kidnaps and murders young women until the local parson (Lacey) enlists the aid of a Cabalist to resist his evil ambitions

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“Disciple Of Death is the worst film I have ever seen. It is quite simply a stinker of remarkable ineptitude – featuring the worst performance by a leading man in the history of celluloid, some truly pitiful special effects, a story which beggars belief and camerawork and direction which… well, I despair.” Chris Wood, British Horror Films

” … if you are a fan of those supreme individualists that exploitation cinema occasionally throw up; amazing, creative, sincere madmen like Ed Wood or Ray Dennis Steckler, then there is plenty here to reward your attention. It’s a film you have to get into a particular mindset to fully appreciate, and – crucially – it is not a Hammer/Amicus/Tigon mindset. This is a film for people who enjoy seeing an individual vision transplanted to the screen with as little filtering through consensus, committee and studio sensibilities as possible. A low budget can only enhance such qualities: it prohibits short-cutting and reliance on cliché; it forces unusual solutions to logistic and creative problems. It’s the kind of environment in which one-of-a-kind imaginations like Raven’s can thrive.” Matthew Coniam, Hammer and Beyond