The Thing That Couldn't Die takes place on the California coast several centuries apart. The film concerns Satan worship and what Sir Francis Drake did about it on his round the world voyage which some have said made him the first European to see the coast of California.
Where today Andra Martin resides on Aunt Peggy Converse's ranch with plans to marry boyfriend William Reynolds. She's a girl with psychic gifts and feels something evil on the ranch.
The evil is a head and body buried in separate places some 300 years earlier by Sir Francis Drake who discovered one of his crew Robin Hughes in league with the Devil and worshiping him on the ship. Besides being a daring sailor and privateer without peer, Sir Francis Drake was a thoroughgoing Protestant and champion of the Reformation. He has Hughes executed by decapitation and as they do in these movies say if head and body are joined Hughes will rise again and lead the forces of darkness.
Well the skull is found and the head of Hughes is intact and forcing several people on the ranch to his will once they see him. Two deaths occur before Good does triumph over Evil.
This is a decent horror film although the Seventies spawned a slew devil worship films and compared to those bloody things this one is mild. But the atmosphere created is good and murky. I only wish Robin Hughes had a bit more to do. His character was a rich one and I'll bet that since this film only runs 69 minutes a lot of him was left on the cutting room floor.
Fans of the spooky horror genre will like The Thing That Couldn't Die.