Night of the Demon
1957, UK, Directed by Jacques Tourneur
Black & White, Running Time: 96 minutes
Review Source: DVD, R1, Columbia; Video: Anamorphic 1.63:1, Audio: DD Mono
After the death of a scientist who is about to publicly debunk the activities of occultist Dr Karswell (no, not Criswell…), a colleague of the deceased, Dr Holden, travels to London to launch his own investigation. Sceptical of all things paranormal he similarly expects to rationalise Dr Karswell’s practices as a supposed witch and, meeting up with a relative (Joanna) of the deceased in the process, they set about finding out what really happened. But to add complications, Karswell manages to pass on to Holden a piece of paper containing runic symbols, the act of which is supposed to ensure Holden’s death (through invocation of a demon) within three days, the same fate which apparently befell his colleague at the beginning of the story. Holden doesn’t believe that the runes can have anything more than a psychological effect, but Joanna is not so sure.
A classic M.R.James story (Casting The Runes) directed by the same man who had already proven himself in the genre a few years earlier working for Val Lewton on what are undoubtedly among the best chillers of the 40s (Cat People and I Walked With a Zombie), Night of the Demon is a gripping look at the world of witchcraft and demonology. Taking a sceptic as the main character is an obvious but effective plot device, particularly when his assertions are proven wrong and he goes through a significant transformation of beliefs. It was unfortunate that the studio imposed the visible appearance of a demon on Tourneur as the film could have worked better as a more ambiguous psychological chiller without it, but there are some great sequences: Holden’s walk through a spooky forest (recalling Betsy Connell’s similar trek through the jungle in I Walked…) and the scene in the train compartment towards the end where Holden is determined to pass the runes (and therefore, the curse) back to the not so gullible Karswell. An important film in the genre and one of my favourites from the 50s.
Released in the US by Columbia Tristar this disc also contains Curse of the Demon (the original US version, running only 82 minutes!) as well as the full length UK cut. For completist sake it’s nice to have the shorter version but I can’t bring myself to watch it. Image quality is sumptuous and the ratio is pretty much correctly maintained with pillar-boxing. The disc has a couple of unrelated trailers (Fright Night and The Bride), but, extras aside, this is currently the definitive Night of the Demon.
Good review - very enticing - a film I’m going to have to watch.
The screen capture is great - I love the lighting and the ominous corridor that sinks into the darkness. There’s a film-noir feel to the contrasting light which gives it a lovely hard-edged tone. I might have to borrow this one for my next ’shot of the month’!
April 20th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Thanks, Daniel. You’re very correct, it does have the look of a noir in places and the impact of the image throughout is one of the things I really like about this film - the B&W photography really adds to the ambience and Tourneur creates some lovely compositions as you can see.
April 20th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Terrific film. First ‘The Haunting’, now ‘Night of the Demon’. Is it ‘The Innocents’ next, Paul?
0-)
April 21st, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Actually I’ve got The Innocents on disc (Fox R1) so I will certainly do that one at some point soon - I love the film, one of the creepiest I’ve seen even by today’s standards I reckon.
April 22nd, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Good review - one of my favourite films.
Also features an early appearance of Brian Wilde (aka Foggy from Last of the summer wine).
His line of “its in the tress, its coming” finds its way onto Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love although not delivered by him.
April 24th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Thanks. That’s an interesting snippet of information there. Are you Cal’s friend btw? He said he passed on the link to you - he also said you had little taste but enjoying something like Night of the Demon proves him wrong I reckon! (unless you prefer the Haunting remake to the original that is…)
April 24th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Yep, I know Big Ian intimately.
Night of the Demon’s a cracking film. When I watched it, I was sure the line in HoL was taken directly from the film - and a swift and very unthorough Google check shows I wasn’t the only one who thought this. Are you absolutely SURE about that?
And Big Ian DOES have taste - he likes My Name is Earl!
April 24th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Hmmm might have to take back the “its not Brian Wilde” comment on Hounds of Love. Have done extensive research (ok 20 mins !) and found that it probably is him - doesn’t sound right though. Going away to sulk now, so there !!
April 28th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
An excellent black and white film that even today stands out,reminds me of another 50.s black and white film thou with a sci fi theme “The thing from another world”.
These are 2 films one can watch again and again purely for the atmosphere they generate, they do,nt make them like this anymore.
November 7th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
I agree the atmosphere generated here is one of the film’s best selling points. Incidentally, I think Drag Me To Hell (Sam Raimi’s recent film) took a few conceptual points out of Night of the Demon’s book - sort of like NOTD juxtaposed with Evil Dead!
Generally atmospheric films are less common now I agree - I suppose it’s something to do with most contemporary audiences having to be hit with metaphoric sledge hammers for any kind of emotional effect to occur, generally.
November 8th, 2009 at 7:50 pm