Written By Derek Gann
Heavy metal and horror movies were always destined to share the same coffin. From the very first tolling of Sabbath’s ominous debut album, the genre has been inseparable from images of witches, demons, and unholy rites. What’s often forgotten, though, is that much of that imagery came directly from the wave of late ’60s and 1970s occult horror
70’s Occult Horror Heavy Metal
These weren’t just scary movies, they were black-mass sermons captured on celluloid, seeping into the subconscious of the bands who would go on to define heavy music.
As Halloween approaches, it’s the perfect season to revisit these strange, sinister films: a cocktail of witch hunts, devil worship, possession, and rural pagan dread. They starred legends like Christopher Lee and Vincent Price, were often made by Hammer Films or their rivals, and carried a seriousness that made their occult themes feel almost too real. For metalheads, they’re more than movies, they’re part of the DNA of the genre itself.
The Birth of Cinematic Satanism
The late ’60s were a turning point for horror. Hammer Studios, which had dominated the earlier part of the decade with Gothic Dracula and Frankenstein retellings, began shifting focus as the counterculture embraced mysticism, witchcraft, and even Satanism. Books by occult writers like Dennis Wheatley were selling fast, Anton LaVey had founded the Church of Satan in California, and society was buzzing with “Satanic panic” long before the term became mainstream in the ’80s.
Horror followed suit. Instead of castles and capes, these films plunged into black magic, folk rituals, and possession, creating the atmosphere that doom, black, and death metal would later feast on. If Black Sabbath gave the occult a sound, these movies gave it a visual language.
The Essentials: Gateway Films For The Uninitiated
The Devil Rides Out (1968, Hammer Films)
Christopher Lee, usually the villain, plays the hero here: a nobleman fighting a Satanic cult intent on summoning the Devil himself. The film is packed with ritual scenes, pentagrams, goat-headed demons, and midnight sacrifices that feel like the storyboards for an Electric Wizard album cover. It’s Hammer at its most serious and occult-obsessed, a film that makes you believe the Devil could be lurking just off-screen.
Metal connection: Lee later recorded symphonic metal albums, Charlemagne: By the Sword and the Cross which is a symphonic metal concept album by the actor. He even collaborated with Rhapsody of Fire, (formerly Rhapsody) on their 2004 album Symphony of Enchanted Lands II – The Dark Secret, and the subsequent 2011 album From Chaos to Eternity, providing narration for the albums. His heroic stance here echoes the eternal battle between light and darkness that power metal loves to mythologize.
Witchfinder General (1968)
Forget vampires and ghouls, Vincent Price’s Matthew Hopkins is more terrifying than any monster. Set during the English Civil War, he tortures and burns accused witches in the name of God. There’s nothing supernatural here, just the real horror of fanaticism and cruelty.
Metal connection: This film’s brutal portrayal of religious violence resonates deeply with extreme metal. Bands like Electric Wizard and Witchfinder General (who named themselves after it) owe it a direct debt, while doom acts featured in Seven Deadly Songs continue to channel the same grim intensity that made this film legendary in metal’s dark canon.
Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971)
A cornerstone of British folk horror, this movie traps you in a rural village where unearthed remains unleash demonic possession among the youth. Wild-eyed teenagers carve symbols into their flesh, commit ritualistic murders, and gather in the woods for dark ceremonies.
Metal connection: The atmosphere is pure doom. The way the landscape becomes infected with evil inspired the “rural dread” that bands like Primordial, Winterfylleth, and Blood Ceremony channel. This is the blueprint for the pastoral-meets-pagan aesthetic in folk and black metal.
The Wicker Man (1973)
Not strictly a witchcraft movie, but the pagan cult imagery is so powerful it might as well be. Christopher Lee’s Lord Summerisle presides over May Day rituals, fertility dances, and ultimately, human sacrifice. The sunny setting makes the ending even more devastating.
Metal connection: This one is legendary in metal culture. Iron Maiden’s The Wicker Man single is a direct nod, and countless black/folk metal bands have drawn on its pagan themes. It’s the Paranoid of folk horror: a must-hear, must-see classic.
Underrated Deep Cuts For The True Cultist
If you love tracing metal’s cinematic roots, check out our Deep Cuts Metals Hidden Gems feature.
Once you’ve burned through the essentials, dig deeper into these lesser-known occult treasures that feel tailor-made for metalheads:
Cry of the Banshee (1970) – Vincent Price hunts witches, only to unleash supernatural vengeance. Gritty and Gothic, with artwork that looks like it belongs on a Pentagram T-shirt.
City of the Dead 1960, aka Horror Hotel Christopher Lee presides over a fog-choked village where witches gather. Its atmosphere of perpetual night is pure doom metal.
To the Devil… a Daughter (1976) – One of Hammer’s last horror films, featuring Lee as a Satanist grooming Nastassja Kinski as a vessel for evil. Sleazier, nastier, and closer to Venom’s blasphemous aesthetic than Hammer’s earlier Gothic elegance.
Psychomania (1973) – A Satanic biker gang makes a deal to rise from the dead. Imagine a mash-up of Easy Rider and Motörhead’s backpatch collection. It’s absurd, but gloriously so.
Incense for the Damned (1971) – A surreal, little-seen tale of British students dabbling in occult sex rites in Greece. Messy but drenched in the kind of imagery that screams NWOBHM demo tape.
From Screen To Stage: Horror’s Metal Legacy
Why do these films matter for metal fans? Because they laid down the iconography that the genre thrives on:
Goat demons, pentagrams, and ritual circles have a direct line to bands like Venom, Mercyful Fate, and Behemoth.
Witch trials and persecution all echoed in doom/stoner metal acts like Witchfinder General, Cathedral, and Electric Wizard.
Pagan folk rituals and rural terror, the lifeblood of folk metal and pagan black metal, from Ulver to Agalloch.
Even beyond imagery, the tone of these films – serious, oppressive and drenched in atmosphere, matches the sound of doom and black metal. They weren’t campy “boo!” flicks; they were solemn warnings that the Devil might actually be real.
Vincent Price and Christopher Lee became icons for their gravitas. Price later narrated for Alice Cooper, while Lee became a literal heavy metal recording artist in his 80s. These weren’t just actors—they were dark lords whose presence continues to echo through the metal world.
Halloween Ritual Playlist
Want the full effect? Pair these films with the right soundtrack this October:
Watch Blood on Satan’s Claw while spinning Electric Wizard – Come My Fanatics…
Follow Witchfinder General with Cathedral – The Eternal Mirror
Put on The Wicker Man and blast Iron Maiden – Brave New World
Cap the night with The Devil Rides Out alongside King Diamond – Abigail
Final Invocation
As Halloween creeps closer, forget the candy-coated slashers and revisit the roots of occult horror. These British cult films didn’t just scare audiences in their day, they shaped the visual and thematic DNA of heavy metal. From doom-laden riffs to black metal’s Satanic imagery, the shadows of Christopher Lee’s cloak and Vincent Price’s sneer are still with us.
So this October, light the candles, pour the ale, and let your living room become a black mass of cinema and sound. In the words of Lee himself: “The Devil’s greatest trick is convincing the world he doesn’t exist.” Heavy metal knows better and these films prove it.
