It's interesting that this film was originally cast with Kim Novak as the female lead, in the part that would ultimatley be played by (the perhaps slightly too old for the part) Deborah Kerr. Novak fell off a horse during a filming & after attempting to return to continue production pulled out as she found it too exhausting. David Hemmings, who plays one of a distinctly odd pair of male/female siblings, reported however that Novak was heard to have argued with one of the producers Martin Ransohoff and that her departure was not voluntary.
I mention the above because, having just watched Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Leo DiCaprio's character, actor Rick Dalton, gives the reason he is so reliant upon his stuntman (Brad Pitt) as relating to the fact you never now when you might fall off your horse & injure yourself.
Now Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is all about Sharon Tate, and this film too is in a small way too. Tate plays a relatively small part in the Eye of the Devil (that of Hemming's witchy sister) and while her glacial presence doesnt' appear to have gained rave reviews but it's hard to deny that her limpid beauty dominates the film whenever she's in it. It's hard not to imagine that Tarantino studied this film in preparing for his own, and would have made himself aware of the backstory.
Deborah Kerr was beautiful in her day, but approaching fifty at the time she simply does not visually captivate in the same way as Tate & it's tantalising (although I admit hardly warranted) to wonder if it's possible she may have been chosen for that reason. Ransohoff is reported to have 'hailed (Tate) as his great discovery', so could it have been that he helped determine an outcome where Tate would shine undisputed? Pure speculation, but unfortunately perhaps, the circumstances of the production are almost more interesting than the film itself, which though fascinating at times, is mostly gothic melodrama, that overall fails to deliver the kind of tingling of the spine it's presentation seems to promise. This despite attempts to raise the occult stakes by consulting with Alex Sanders, King of the Witches, in pursuit of occult authenticity
The production problems, namely Novak's fall from her horse, her firing & the need to recast the leading lady, together with a rather wooden, overblown script & the final change of the title from 'Thirteen', seems ultimately to have doomed the film at the box office.
Obviously Tate too would be doomed too, as the most famous victim of the 1969 massacre on Cielo drive. Alex Sanders wife, Maxine, would later claim in her book Fire Child that Tate was initiated into Wicca by her husband & that she kept it up. Obviously none of this can't be corroborated, nor would it necessarily relate to what happened. Maxine Sanders was perhaps keen to suggest a link between the Cielo drive murders & the occult connection, apparently claiming that she had leant out a book on blood sacrifice to some acquaintences only to have the tome returned to her with a passage highlighted comprising the words 'kill the pig', something eerily similar to the graffiti scrawled at the murder scene.
The occult theme flowing from this film continues with Tate's subsequent marriage to Roman Polanski (courtesy of an introduction by Ransohoff) who a year later would make Rosemary's baby, just a little before Tate herself would become pregnant with the baby who would die with her on the night of her murder.
The great irony here, in the context of this film, is that the murders of that night would be vastly more gruesome & terrifying that what is portrayed in this film, despite the fact that the entire film revolves around the concept of an occult blood sacrifice. Indeed that is what makes the film so curious. In terms of it's making it appears to set off a catalyst of disasters, almost as though a movie were being directed beyond the parameters of the film itself. Yet the film itself is ultimately not that scary. There is certainly reason to watch the film. It's intriguing, has some good scenes & great atmosphere but ultimately it's real interest is as part of a particular dark sequence within film history
I mention the above because, having just watched Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Leo DiCaprio's character, actor Rick Dalton, gives the reason he is so reliant upon his stuntman (Brad Pitt) as relating to the fact you never now when you might fall off your horse & injure yourself.
Now Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is all about Sharon Tate, and this film too is in a small way too. Tate plays a relatively small part in the Eye of the Devil (that of Hemming's witchy sister) and while her glacial presence doesnt' appear to have gained rave reviews but it's hard to deny that her limpid beauty dominates the film whenever she's in it. It's hard not to imagine that Tarantino studied this film in preparing for his own, and would have made himself aware of the backstory.
Deborah Kerr was beautiful in her day, but approaching fifty at the time she simply does not visually captivate in the same way as Tate & it's tantalising (although I admit hardly warranted) to wonder if it's possible she may have been chosen for that reason. Ransohoff is reported to have 'hailed (Tate) as his great discovery', so could it have been that he helped determine an outcome where Tate would shine undisputed? Pure speculation, but unfortunately perhaps, the circumstances of the production are almost more interesting than the film itself, which though fascinating at times, is mostly gothic melodrama, that overall fails to deliver the kind of tingling of the spine it's presentation seems to promise. This despite attempts to raise the occult stakes by consulting with Alex Sanders, King of the Witches, in pursuit of occult authenticity
The production problems, namely Novak's fall from her horse, her firing & the need to recast the leading lady, together with a rather wooden, overblown script & the final change of the title from 'Thirteen', seems ultimately to have doomed the film at the box office.
Obviously Tate too would be doomed too, as the most famous victim of the 1969 massacre on Cielo drive. Alex Sanders wife, Maxine, would later claim in her book Fire Child that Tate was initiated into Wicca by her husband & that she kept it up. Obviously none of this can't be corroborated, nor would it necessarily relate to what happened. Maxine Sanders was perhaps keen to suggest a link between the Cielo drive murders & the occult connection, apparently claiming that she had leant out a book on blood sacrifice to some acquaintences only to have the tome returned to her with a passage highlighted comprising the words 'kill the pig', something eerily similar to the graffiti scrawled at the murder scene.
The occult theme flowing from this film continues with Tate's subsequent marriage to Roman Polanski (courtesy of an introduction by Ransohoff) who a year later would make Rosemary's baby, just a little before Tate herself would become pregnant with the baby who would die with her on the night of her murder.
The great irony here, in the context of this film, is that the murders of that night would be vastly more gruesome & terrifying that what is portrayed in this film, despite the fact that the entire film revolves around the concept of an occult blood sacrifice. Indeed that is what makes the film so curious. In terms of it's making it appears to set off a catalyst of disasters, almost as though a movie were being directed beyond the parameters of the film itself. Yet the film itself is ultimately not that scary. There is certainly reason to watch the film. It's intriguing, has some good scenes & great atmosphere but ultimately it's real interest is as part of a particular dark sequence within film history