The appearance of the Goat of Mendes at the sabbat, the already-mentioned pentacle scene and the climactic ritual of the child sacrifice on the altar can all justifiably be called iconic. As noted in my previous Wheatley blog, a 2019 Daily Mail story about devil worshippers in the English countryside used a ‘Goat of Mendes’ still as a photo to accompany the text. For Simon is the key to an evil ritual, and Mocata will never let him go. And the duke must convince his friends that magic is real.

Hinds next contracted Richard Matheson, whom he had met when he bought the rights to his novel, I am Legendin 1957. A respected science fiction and horror writer, Matheson had just completed the script for Hammer’s Fanatic(Silvio Narizzano, 1965). He already had a body of film work behind him having adapted his own novel, The Shrinking Man (1956), written scripts for The Twilight Zone (1959-2020) and Star Trek(1966-) and completed several Poe adaptations for American International Pictures. People of my generation and older were taught to be polite to everyone. It’s a definite handicap when encountering the bad guys, and examples of when being rude is the better choice should be taught. That’s not to say that being rude is the best choice, but that there are times when it is merited…phone solicitors, for example.

Tanith was a pain. She comes across as an intelligent woman, but her reasoning for following the Left Hand Path is so immature. She’s a nasty-minded person with her desire to have power over people. Doesn’t she realize that this is an evil desire? What’s wrong with helping people? I do wish Wheatley hadn’t been so cryptic about the Malagasy and the Goat. Did the Malagasy give himself over to the demon, was he the demon, or what? The book details how de Richleau seals the windows with asafretida grass and blue wax and makes the sign of the Cross in holy water over every entrance and doorway. He sets five white tapering candles at each apex of the five-pointed star along with five horseshoes with their horns pointing outward and five dried mandrakes, four females and one male, in a vase of holy water. He binds Simon’s wrists and ankles with asafcetida grass and strings garlic for everyone. Birkenhead, 1973. The eighteen-year-old Paul O'Grady gets ready for a big Saturday night out on the town. New white T-shirt, freshly ironed jeans, looking good. As he bids farewell to his mum, who's on the phone to his auntie, and wanders off down the street in a cloud of aftershave, he hears her familiar cry: 'Oh, the devil rides out tonight, Annie. The Devil rides out!'

Ah, the Sussamma Ritual, to utter which is to do a thing which shall never be done except in the direst emergency when the very soul is in peril of destruction [italics added by Wheatley, presumably in case we didn’t grasp how dire things need to get before it can be called upon]. Its words are right up there with ‘Klaatu barada nikto’ from The Day the Earth Stood Still as truly iconic gibberish:

Select a format:

Why, exactly? Well, instead of the aforementioned house, the temple where Mocata plans to sacrifice Fleur to Satan is an abandoned monastery on Mount Peristeri (hence the horses). The movie’s deus ex machina reveal that the Satanist’s temple is a former Catholic church seems a little forced, but in the source material it makes more sense. The ritual must take place at the monastery, because this is where the Talisman of Set is buried. What is the Talisman of Set? The second half of the film is where the female characters come to the fore. Tanith is a more complex character than Hammer’s usual fair and we are never sure which side she is on until the end. She is foreign, like many of the other Satanists, and more easily tempted by the sins of the flesh – unlike our thoroughly decent Brits! Tanith sensually writhes around in the hay, fighting Mocata as he strives to control her. She evidently isn’t innocent enough to win and perishes in the struggle. Rex and Tanith in the hay

The Great Sabbat itself is a good example of where book can outdo film. Wheatley imagines it well over several chapters. The satanists’ meeting place is a grand house in the village of Chilbury, the sabbat itself somewhere on the plains of Wiltshire in a “saucer-shaped depression”. The duke and Rex follow the satanists in their car; Tanith, meanwhile, is lured there by malign forces. In the (very) low-budget film, on the other hand, the grand house appears to be handily placed just round the corner from where Mocata’s evil powers have caused Rex’s car to crash and Tanith to effect her escape from him. Fifty-two of Wheatley's novels were published posthumously in a set by Heron Books UK. More recently, in April 2008 Dennis Wheatley's literary estate was acquired by media company Chorion. Dennis Wheatley did not invent his own mythology, as H.P. Lovecraft did. He wrote as an informed insider, who knew Satanists in real life. He was personally acquainted with Aleister Crowley and also the most renowned occult expert at the time, the Reverend Montague Summers, who translated the “Malleus Maleficarum”: a witchhunter’s ”bible”, used by both Catholics and Protestants. First published in 1486, it includes everything known at the time about cults, illicit sex, dealings with the devil, and so on.

What I enjoyed most about this book is that it hasn’t fallen into the trap that most lazy celebrity autobiographies do; it is not ghost-written. You can hear Paul O’Grady saying every single word you’re reading; not only has he got a very distinctive speaking voice and turn of phrase, but also a totally distinguishable writing style. This book isn’t about settling old scores (a certain Mrs Osbourne springs to mind here) or boring us to death with mind-numbing details. Paul writes about this period of his life as he sees it; sometimes it’s funny, sometimes moving, always honest. Wheatley’s Sabbat of saturnalian depravity appears onscreen as little more than a rave, its participants remaining clothed at all times and doing little more than eating and drinking. (Although, admittedly, some of them are drinking the blood of a sacrificial goat – and animal which, funnily enough, does not appear in the novel.) This was the first time I came across a book by Dennis Wheatley & I am glad to say i was not disappointed.