Eye of the Devil, also known by its working title 13[2] or Thirteen,[3] is a 1966 British mystery horror film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Donald Pleasence and Sharon Tate.

[4][failed verification] The film's plot concerns a family inheritance of an estate shrouded by a mysterious and highly ritualistic veil of secrets, and the investigation that follows in trying to uncover the meaning of these ominous peculiarities.

Late at night, Catherine discovers Odile and Christian ceremoniously carrying the impaled dove into a candlelit room where robed figures sit.

Meanwhile, Philippe visits the blighted vineyards and returns to learn that Catherine has ridden out to the tomb of Edouard de Montfaucon.

Emerging from and fleeing through a series of nightmares, Catherine finds herself locked inside the bedroom chamber; she is eventually able to break open the window shutter and signal to Estel, who sends her maid.

In her room, for Jacques's sake, Estelle reveals to Catherine that her brother Alain, Philippe's father, did not die, but ran away, to escape.

He explains: les treize jours/jouyeurs, the thirteen days/dancers, are the twelve apostles dancing around Christ, or in the case of the heretical town of Bellenac, a living god suitable for blood sacrifice.

In the final shot, the car is shown driving away from the chateau before the camera pans to Odile sitting outside in a windstorm, smiling enigmatically and knowingly.

In his New York Times column Criminals at Large, Anthony Boucher praised the 1964 novel Day of the Arrow, written by Robin Estridge under the pen name Philip Loraine.

Boucher compared the book to the works of Daphne du Maurier, Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, Norah Lofts and Evelyn Berckman, writing that it "tells very much the same kind of brooding, atmospheric story, in very much the same kind of setting (an ancestral castle in the Auvergne), but from a male viewpoint and with a mind working in a completely masculine manner. ...

This is a setting for [a] highly civilized and aristocratic nightmare, as a young Scottish painter[a] tries to identify the sinister forces that are taking control of his friend the Marquis.

The book is as full of tantalizing and terror‐hinting symbols as a pack of tarot cards, and as oddly vivid in its invented folklore as Ngaio Marsh's Death of a Fool.

"[7] Martin Ransohoff of Filmways, who had a multi-picture deal with MGM, bought the film rights to Day of the Arrow.

Tate, who had a recurring role on The Beverly Hillbillies, was under a seven-year contract to Ransohoff and made her feature film debut in Eye of the Devil.

[15] Sidney J. Furie, who had signed a three-picture deal with Ransohoff, was originally slated to direct Eye of the Devil.

[citation needed] Shooting locations included the Château de Hautefort and the surrounding area, and MGM British Studios in Borehamwood, England.

[citation needed] In November, two weeks before filming was scheduled to conclude, Novak was thrown from a horse while performing in a key scene, and injured her back.

When the production was told that she would need another eight weeks to recover before returning to work, it was decided to replace her with Kerr, even though this meant reshooting a significant amount of footage, since Novak appeared in nearly three-quarters of what already had been filmed.

In the years since its release, it has garnered praise for its atmospheric cinemtaography, offbeat tone and the performances of Kerr and Tate.

[28] Writers outside of North America were more favorable, with retrospectives noting how she "makes a significant visual impression" but "her immaculate British accent was dubbed"[29] and that "she certainly displays a screen presence [...] and a glittering future ahead of her".