Night of the Demon

source: Curse of the Demon

Previous posters have rightly commented that this is a fine, A-level thriller on a B-level budget with generally good acting, tight direction, great cinematography, and a good script taken from a good story. Just a few comments about the two versions of this movie. "Night of the Demon" is the original version released in U.K. and is 135 minutes long. Re-edited and retitled for the American market as "Curse of the Demon," this version is about 14 minutes shorter. A number of scenes were cut from the original but as far as I can tell, no other scenes were added or changed. Luckily for me, the DVD had both versions. Thinking that "Curse" was the original and "Night" was a sequel, I watched Curse and found it greatly entertaining but a bit disconnected and confusing at points. Reading Maltin's review later, I learned that I had one movie in two different edits. WATCH THE LONG VERSION IF YOU CAN! The missing scenes go a long way in explaining Karswell's motivation (it's not just that he's opened Pandora's box and can't close it -- he's motivated as well by the money he makes as a cult leader), as well as the peculiar actions of Karswell's mother which don't make much sense without the missing two scenes that explain her motives. Also, the missing scenes make Karswell slightly less appealing than in the edited version. All in all, a really good movie. P.S. I think the monster was OK.

GOOD - Excellent film-noir-like photography with a lot of night scenes and great shadows and light, scenes on city streets, rural areas, forests and a couple of spooky houses. This is no surprise since the director was Jacques Tourneur, who worked many years with Val Lewton in the 1940s, producing many stylish horror films. To me, Tourney's direction and Ted Scaife's photography are the best things about this film. It was interesting to see Peggy Cummins, whom I had only "known" through the 1949 classic "Gun Crazy" (a.k.a. "Deadly Is The Female). Of course, a decade and different hair and dress styles didn't make her "hot"anymore but she still had a beautiful face. Female viewers might have had the same reaction to Dana Andrews, who was far past his "Laura" days, looks-wise. Still, both can act and did fine in the lead roles. BAD - Wow, was this pro-witchcraft message heavy-handed, the writers slapping you in the head numerous times to convince us that all that occult nonsense is 100 percent legit. They went overboard in their preaching and some of the dialog is just laughable. GOOD & BAD TOGETHER - The story starts off pretty cool, then lags terribly until the second half when time starts running out for "Dr. John Holden" and he has some suspenseful scenes inside a house (with a cat!), outside of it (with the demon) and then in a railroad car. Most of the film, however, is a bit tedious, to be honest. The special-effects are hokey in some parts, especially at the end with a paper-mache monster that looks like a fifth-grader put it together, but overall, for a film almost 50 years old, the FX aren't bad. Although some of the characters are stereotypical, all the actors do a good job. To me, because of the photography and general downer-of-a-story, this had much more appeal as a film noir than a horror film.

Rarely has the UK produced a film of such enduring quality as Night of the Demon - Its a post war classic. People have often tried to connect the character of Julian Karswell (Niall MacGinnis), with English Occultist Aleister Crowley, the self proclaimed 'Great Beast'(1875-1947). Crowley was around at the same time as M R James' (1862-1936) who wrote the short story 'Casting the Runes' - upon which the film is based - so there's a chance that there may have been a link. However the character of Karswell in the movie is far less of an arrogant glamour seeker than was Crowley. All Karswell wanted was for he and his followers to be left in peace. Dana Andrews was a good choice to play the character of John Holden - a sceptical American scientist who personified what some would consider to be 'the new establishment' (as it was in 1957). Confident, unbending and opinionated. Typical of a generation that had just gone through huge advances in science and technology during WW2. Jacques Tourneur directed this film on a shoestring, yet he created an uneasy atmosphere of disjointed anxiety throughout. The lighting, the music, the photography and dialogue all add up to a piece of cinematic grace and mastery. Allow yourself to be completely absorbed in the plot and at the end you'll realise that you're exhausted, and your heart is pounding like a steam hammer. I guess this is the bit that might be construed as a spoiler, but when you look at the characters objectively, you'll perhaps come to realise that Karswell wasn't a deranged madman after all. In fact he was a very likable man - reasonable from start to finish. He tried to talk rationally with both Harrington and Holden, but neither man was prepared to listen to his point of view. In the British Library, he tried to appeal to Holden's objective scientific mind by inviting him to Lufford Hall to look at a very rare manuscript, in an attempt to convince him not to go ahead with his expose of Karswell's group. It was only when Holden showed no sign of movement that the runic parchment was passed, thus unleashing the demon. Perhaps Holden deserved it......? The closing sequence of the film sees Karswell being dismembered by a truly traditional demon (check out the earliest medieval woodcuts of demons if you disagree). A little unfortunate for those of us that had grown fond of Karswell's character (a bit like one grows fond of the character of Hannibal Lecter in 'Silence of the Lambs' or Colonel Kurtz in 'Apocolypse Now'. For some this is quite a disturbing film - perhaps not in the way my 16 year old son would see it, but on a psychological plane. Although it reaches a definite conclusion, the story isn't over, nor could it ever be. Karswell died, but the demon from hell could still be called forth by anyone with the wherewithal to do it.

Several books claim that the footage of the demon was inserted into "Night of the Demon" at the producer's insistence. Whether true or not, it's a good thing--because the demon is one of the most visually terrifying creatures in the history of cinema. And except for an awkward shot at the film's conclusion, the demon looks quite convincing. Still, he gets second billing to Niall MacGinnis' great performance as Karswell. My favorite scene: When Karswell explains to two non-believers the difference between white and black magic at a Halloween party he's thrown for the local kids. To make a point, he conjures up a stylish wind storm--which crashes the party and still fails to convince his intended audience. (Be sure to note the similarity between the kids' party here and the one in "The Birds"). All in all, "Night of the Demon" is a great chiller, marred only by Dana Andrews' routine turn as a skeptic who would put Dana Scully to shame.

"Night of the Demon" is, hands down, one of the most superb horror/occult thriller films ever made, and that's particularly remarkable because the original concept got pampered with a lot of additional ideas and effects the director didn't agree on. Jacques Tourneur ("Cat People", "the Leopard Man") initially wanted to put the emphasis purely on the psychological aspects, but the money-suppliers didn't like this and insisted on bringing an actual demonic monster into the movie. It would be enormously interesting to see the non-existing version like Tourneur imagined it, as then you'd constantly be wondering whether the occurring events are real…or all just going on inside the characters' heads. This creative and innovating (for 1957, at least) impact is naturally ruined by explicitly showing the hideous demon early in the film, so it's extra praiseworthy that the whole finished product is still extremely suspenseful. The plot revolves on a headstrong and overly rational scientist who travels from the States to England, exclusively to prove that the supposed blackly magical powers of a certain Dr. Julian Karswell are all just a swindle. Even the mysterious circumstances surrounding his overseas partner's death as well as multiple warnings from close friends and colleagues can't convince Dr. John Holden to abort his mission to expose Karswell as a fraud. The latter eagerly accepts this challenge and places a curse on Dr. Holden that gradually becomes eerier and pretty much inescapable… the curse of the demon! This is a marvelously atmospheric and genuinely unsettling horror masterpiece! The dialogues and acting performances of the entire cast are downright impeccable and the script (adapted from a story by M.R. James) is so intense & persuasive that you almost begin to believe in the supernatural yourself! Ever encountered a film that has such an impact on you? "Night of the Demon" is very likely to become the first. Several sequences showing our good Dr. Holden pursued by evil forces are truly haunting, while the stylish black & white photography and the beautiful set pieces only increase this effect. You can honestly trust the high IMDb-rating and the praising reviews on this one; "Night of the Demon" is one of those rare films that every self-respecting horror fan simply HAS TO see for him/herself.

While this film is not great like the Universal horror films of the 30s and 40s, it is far better than the average film from the genre in the 1950s. Considering the title and cheesiness of most horror films of the time, I really expected the film to be bad--real, real bad! It's about a Satanic cult in Britain and its leader who uses incantations and potions to summon killer demons! But, surprisingly, it was excellent. Much of this was due to the always excellent acting of Dana Andrews. While just a bit later in his career he was down and out and starring in DREADFUL horror films like THE FROZEN DEAD, this film was made when he still had an excellent reputation and was at the top of his game. In addition to his acting, the special effects were very good--with a demon that really looked good for the period. And, finally, good writing and direction are present and make the film worth seeing--particular if you are a horror fan.

Filmed in England, this 1958 film was originally released with a running time of 95 minutes under the title NIGHT OF THE DEMON; when it reached the United States it had a running time of 83 minutes and the title CURSE OF THE DEMON. Both versions are contained on this DVD, with the English version the better for those twelve minutes, but in truth there is little significant difference between the two, and if you are a connoisseur of 1950s horror films you will find both equally fascinating. Based on the short story "Casting the Runes" by M.R. James, DEMON offers the tale of American psychologist John Holden (Dana Andrews) who travels to a conference in England, planning to debunk a devil worshiping cult led by Karswell (Niall MacGinnis.) Unfortunately for the professionally skeptical Holden, Karswell's powers are genuine: he has successfully translated an ancient text and, through runes written on parchment, casts a curse first against Holden's colleague and then against Holden himself. DEMON was directed by Jacques Tourneur, who worked with producer Val Lewton to create a series of memorable and distinctly noir-ish horror films at RKO in the 1940s: CAT PEOPLE, I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, and THE LEOPARD MAN. All three films created a sense of unease and scream-aloud fear by implication and suggestion, and although DEMON is much more explicit in its effects, Tourneur brings the same sensibility to bear on DEMON, endowing it with remarkable authority and power in spite of several distinct flaws. Chief among these flaws is the script, which can best be described as somewhat abrupt in terms of dialog, and leading man Dana Andrews, whose performance is remarkably unsubtle even in a decade noted for a lack of cinematic restraint. Film lore also has it that Tourneur lobbied against showing the demon on screen, and given the fact that the visual is hardly inspired this clearly would have been the better choice. None the less, DEMON has jolts and jars aplenty, not the least of which is Karswell: Niall MacGinnis' performance, with its mixture of the commonplace and the flatly evil, is remarkably fine. The film also sports a host of memorable set pieces: the storm, the flying parchment, Dr. Holden's exploration of Karswell's mansion, Dr. Holden's run through the night forest, and the final train sequence, to name but a few. Although it is not well known today, like Tourneur's films with Lewton, DEMON has cast a very long shadow in terms of influence, and it is very difficult to imagine such films as ROSEMARY'S BABY and THE CHANGELING without both this film and those that proceeded it. Recommended. GFT, Amazon Reviewer

What will most likely catch people's attention about Jacques Tourneur's "Night of the Demon" is that "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" contains a reference to it. Mostly it's nothing special. I vaguely remember seeing a clip from it in a documentary about horror movies that appeared on TV when I was seven or eight (naturally I didn't catch the title as the demon was the only thing that stuck in my mind). It was only later on that I saw the whole movie. Even now I'll say that the demon itself IS the most impressive character in the movie (is there any monster movie remembered more for the humans than for the monster?). These old British horror flicks had the same flair that their Hollywood counterparts did. Pretty fun. As for extra trivia, screenwriter Charles Bennett frequently worked with Alfred Hitchcock. Good times.

I thought I had heard awhile back that Jacques Tourneur didn't want to show the demon. Does anybody know if this is so? Having worked with Val Lewton, this would seem possible. If so, it's a shame Tourneur isn't around to put a director's cut on the DVD instead of Curse Of The Demon which is a little redundant being on the same DVD as Night Of The Demon. I found the demon scary when I was 12 years old and would not have enjoyed the film as much without it. Now, of course, the film would seem better without it. The atmosphere of Tourneur's work that I've seen; this,I Walked With A Zombie, Out Of The Past, and that Twighlight Zone episode (one of the best) of the elderly lady getting calls from her deceased husband consistently has that great nocturnal, shadowy and mysterious quality to it. This body of work alone is enough to make him one of my favorite directors. Even if this isn't one of Dana Andrews best performances, his stubborn skepticism is convincing enough to contrast nicely with Carswell's over politeness. As old horror movies go; this ranks up there with The (original) Haunting, Eyes Without A Face, Black Sunday and early Universals as the best among the old black and whites for me. Strangely enough, I happened to have watched it earlier this (yesterday now) evening October 28th which IS the night of the demon. Coincidence? **** out of *****