To the Devil a Daughter

1976 film

Ken Russell and Nicolas Roeg were considered to direct the project, but Australian director Peter Sykes was ultimately hired. The screenplay notably deviated from the source novel,

Wicking called the film "an awful mess. There was no real focus to it." He wanted to incorporate DNA as part of the storyline but said the film's British distributor EMI refused because they felt this would make the film too much like a science fiction movie rather than a horror movie. The film was originally scheduled to begin production in June 1974, but the cameras didn't roll until September 1975, after a German company stepped in to co finance and demanded that a German performer be cast in a leading role. This opened the door for 14 year old Nastassja Kinski.

In March 1975, it was announced that Christopher Lee had been cast in the film. Sykes cast fourteen year old Nastassja Kinski as Catherine after seeing her performance in Wim Wenders's The Wrong Move (1975), while American Richard Widmark was cast as the lead occult writer who attempts to save Kinski's character. and in several other English cities on 29 February 1976, including Nottingham and Bristol. During its opening week at the Odeon Leicester Square, the film earned £13,375. and Rochester, New York beginning on 3 September 1976. It had its premiere in Los Angeles on 1 October 1976. The film was overall a financial success, and one of Hammer Studios' most profitable releases of the 1970s.

Variety called the film a "lacklustre occult melodrama" that "seems padded and tentative, and though horrific in spots the actual shock value is remarkably subdued." Linda Gross of the Los Angeles Times found the story "a confusing vacillation between special effects, hallucinations, psychic trances and ongoing narration," but thought the film was "distinguished by engrossing performances," "superior photography" and "eerie music." Critic Roger Ebert echoed a similar sentiment, writing that, "The screenplay has so many characters, and they're in so many different places, that the only way to keep them halfway straight is for them to be calling each other all the time. There are even several scenes in which the phone rings and no one's at home. No one of this Earth, anyway." Tony Rayns of The Monthly Film Bulletin praised the "expert special effects" and "no nonsense script," and commented that Christopher Lee played his role "with a gusto absent from his performances for many years." Leonard Maltin's home video guide gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4, saying it was "well made but lacks punch." Time Out called it "a good deal more interesting than the rest of the possession cycle, but still a disappointment."

In a 2020 review, Paul Farrell of Bloody Disgusting noted that, though its screenplay is convoluted, the film "works as a potent dive into the occult. It feels as dangerous as it should, built on performances that resonate and visuals that stick in the mind's eye long after the credits complete their elegy."

Anchor Bay Entertainment released the film on DVD in North America on 8 October 2002. Scream Factory released a Blu ray edition on 17 December 2019. as of 2023, the Blu ray sales had totaled US$144,151.

Lee's line "It is not heresy and I will not recant!" was sampled by heavy metal band White Zombie for the song "Super Charger Heaven". The film's title was also referenced by White Zombie in the song "Black Sunshine" ("To the devil, a daughter comes ")