FilmPsychological Demonic & Possession Gothic

The Devil1972

Name: The Devil
Genre: Psychological, Demonic & Possession, Gothic
Released: 1972-01-01
Rating: 6.9

“Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.”

Directed by Andrzej Żuławski

6.9

Crypt Score

Blended from 2 sources

IMDb 7.0TMDB 7.3

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Year

1972

Runtime

125 min

Box Office

🏆 1 win & 1 nomination

The premise

Young Polish nobleman Jakub is saved from imprisonment by a stranger. In return, the stranger wants to obtain a list of Jakub’s fellow conspirators. As he follows his mysterious savior across the country, Jakub is affected by the overall chaos and moral corruption; he goes insane and becomes a mass murderer.

Horror Vault's take

Set against a backdrop of war-torn, politically fractured Poland, this 1972 art-horror film follows a young nobleman whose mysterious rescue from captivity sets him on a harrowing journey through a crumbling society. His shadowy benefactor extracts a terrible price, and as Jakub traverses a landscape of violence and moral rot, the boundary between his humanity and something far darker begins to dissolve. Directed by Andrzej Żuławski, the film is a fever-dream collision of history and horror that asks whether evil is inflicted upon us — or summoned from within. Visceral and uncompromising, it remains one of Polish cinema's most disturbing and visionary works.

Content: Graphic Violence, Mass Murder Depicted On Screen, Disturbing Psychological Content, Sexual Content