Night of the Demon (1957)
Genre: Horror
Duration: 95 minuten
Alternative titles: Curse of the Demon / Haunted
Country:
United Kingdom
Directed by: Jacques Tourneur
Stars: Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins and Niall MacGinnis
IMDb score:
7,4 (16.345)
Releasedate: 9 November 1957
Night of the Demon plot
"Who will be the next in line to defy the curse?"
An American professor investigates a mysterious, devil-worshipping cult in England. They appear to be responsible for some of the murders that have taken place in recent months. When the professor finds out about the cult leader, he hides a number of ominous documents among the professor's papers.
Actors and actresses
Dr. John Holden
Joanna Harrington
Dr. Julian Karswell
Mrs. Karswell
Professor Mark O'Brien
Professor K.T. Kumar
Lloyd Williamson
Mr. Meek
Mrs. Meek
Rand Hobart
Reviews & comments
Collins
-
- 6797 messages
- 4052 votes
Despite the objections of director Tourneur, writer Charles Bennett and star Dana Andrews, producer Chester added a literal monster to the film. After seeing the movie, I think a suggestive monster would have been a better choice. The choice for sensation does not take up much space and time, but it does appear at crucial moments and therefore that choice has an absolute consequence for the atmosphere in the film, which without that spectacular SFX would probably have made a more continuously dark impression. The literal monster is just a bit distracting.
Nevertheless, the film (apart from the SFX) fortunately has a lot of ominous atmosphere. Much of this is created thanks to beautiful shots and scenes that make good use of the black and white aspect. A chase in a forest, a house burglary and a séance stand out and breathe a delightfully sinister atmosphere thanks to the play with shadow and light. They are beautiful scenes. Wonderfully suggestive. And then it turns out once again that flashy SFX are sometimes unnecessary and provide the wrong distraction.
Due to the limited use of SFX, the story, dialogue and acting skills must be up to scratch. As far as I'm concerned, they were. There is, however, a small point of irritation regarding the actors. They exaggerate their gestures quite a bit. Perhaps the reason that actors had to make theatrical gestures in those years is because otherwise the audience would miss certain details. It is striking.
The story is exciting. A mystery surrounding a crazy cult leader is told in a compelling way. A little illogical here and there, but always at a reasonable pace. I especially liked the speed at which the story moved along. Even the many dialogues didn't feel boring or slowing down.
Great score too. Wonderfully bombastic starts to the exciting scenes and exciting endings.
Nice movie. Tastes like more from this period.
Translated from Dutch · View original
wendyvortex
-
- 5110 messages
- 7196 votes
It's in the trees! It's coming!
In any case, revisit one more classic masterpiece in October. Overall fantastic with cynical Dana Andrews, who goes to the UK to prove that all this supernatural stuff is all nonsense and therefore gets into trouble with Dr. Karswell who predicts that Andrews will die in three days at 10:00 PM sharp. Climax catapults the film to masterpiece status.
Dana Andrews said Prunes gave him the runes
And passing them used lots of skills
Translated from Dutch · View original
Noodless
-
- 9562 messages
- 5988 votes
A well-constructed horror story that relies more on a dark, threatening atmosphere. It's not really exciting and it's not scary at all. But that must have been the case at the time. The demon is not really an obstacle and can be placed somewhere given the year of the film. Dana Andrews plays a cool role who, as a scientist, does not go along with the nonsense of occult practices or demons at all. His counterpart Niall MacGinnis plays his role quite convincingly. Decent, but no more than that. 6/10
Translated from Dutch · View original
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