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9*
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6 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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Guest
Review by Rod
Barnett |
The
film opens in the English countryside with Professor
Harrington making a frenzied late night appeal
to Julian Karswell (Niall MacGinnis) for help.
The professor promises to retract his public attacks
on Karswell and his black magic cult if he will
only stop what has been started. Karswell says
he'll do what he can and a relieved Harrington
heads home. But just as he arrives a huge and
horrible creature, wreathed in flame, appears
from the woods and kills him. A few days later,
renowned American psychologist Dr. John Holden
(Dana Andrews - Hot
Rods To Hell, The
Frozen Dead) travels to England to attend
a psychiatric convention. When he learns of his
colleague Harrington's death (explained away as
an accident), he takes up the investigation of
Karswell's devil worshipping cult. Karswell contrives
to meet Holden and, upon determining he won't
drop the inquiry, slyly passes Holden a piece
of parchment inscribed with runes. Joined by Harrington's
suspicious niece Joanna (Peggy Cummins), Holden
visits Karswell's palatial home twice — once in
the daytime and once at night. During the daytime
visit the cult leader tells Holden that he will
die in three days' time. On both visits Karswell
demonstrates mystic abilities that the professor
dismisses as tricks. But when he discovers the
runic parchment in his papers, our detective begins
to wonder about the prediction of his untimely
death. After questioning a member of the cult
who has been driven mad by fear of the demonic
beast, Holden learns the only way to survive the
curse — if he only has enough time.
Curse
of
the Demon
is one of the best horror films of the 1950s and
one of the greatest horror films ever made. Directed
by the brilliant Jacques Tourneur from a sharp,
literate script, it manages to be a fantastic
piece of cinema without sacrificing any of the
power of its original source material. Shot in
crisp black and white in the same year that Hammer
was filming The
Curse of Frankenstein in bloody color, this
film is an odd melding of two very dissimilar
types of horror film. Tourneur was best known
for directing three of producer Val Lewton's subtle
and atmospheric horror films of the '40s: Cat
People, I Walked
with a Zombie and The
Leopard Man. These movies were models of
restraint and mood with strong characters and
a reliance on the idea of the unseen being scarier
than any monster. In the Val Lewton films, every
person could be a monster and there are no outwardly
visible signs to point to the dangers. I think
the idea here was to couple this approach with
the more garish aspects of the classic Universal
monster movies to lend credibility to the supernatural
elements of the story. With our main character
as a disbelieving cynic, the idea of summoning
demons to kill off enemies becomes a silly story
for children... except for one thing. We have
seen the demon! There can be no doubt in our minds
that the demon appeared, plucked Mr. Harrington
from the ground and killed him. As much as we
might scoff at the idea, in this story we know
the truth that Holden is refuting and we know
he is doomed if he doesn't accept that truth.
Brilliantly, this puts the audience in the position
of both knowing it can't be true (in the real
world) and knowing that it IS true (in this enthralling
story). We can be both observer and participant
as we watch Holden work very hard to disprove
the possibilities we know he will inevitably be
forced to accept. I think this is how I can enjoy
watching Curse of
the Demon
over and over again — I am compelled to follow
Holden down this gently curving path until he
has finally turned 180 degrees, realizing he is
staring a supernatural death in the face. It's
a wonderfully constructed story that the filmmakers
do a great job of drawing us into. Of course much
of the credit for the plot must go to the fantastic
source story by Montague R. James, Casting
the Runes. The film is very faithful to the
original tale; I recommend reading it for an appreciation
of James' work.
One of the biggest controversies
about this film has been the argument between
various members of the cast and crew about the
close-up shots of the demon's face. Director Tourneur
and others felt that the long shots of the beast
were sufficient to get the idea across, but producer
Hal E. Chester insisted on adding these shots
and got his way. I can understand both arguments
but I really can't see how the removal of those
pretty darned effective close-ups would lessen
the terror generated by the demon. But I do feel
that the long shots of the creature advancing
toward its victims are the truly scary moments
that stick with me for days after each viewing.
It's easy to imagine the film without the close-ups,
but ultimately, I wouldn't change a thing.
The other controversy about
the film is very well illustrated by this DVD
release. It includes both the original British
version called Night of
the Demon
which clocks in at 96 minutes and the American
version, entitled Curse
of
the Demon,
lasting 82 minutes. As any film fanatic will tell
you, it's almost always better to view the longer
cut, as it's usually the best version of a particular
movie. But here we have the opportunity to see
both for no extra cost. Sounds like a good idea,
right? Well, yes and no. The scenes snipped from
the longer version for the U.S. release are not
absolutely necessary to tell the story, but watching
both edits back to back illustrates why cutting
story elements can hurt the power of a movie.
Each of the deleted scenes adds depth and character
to all the scenes surrounding them. In most cases
their removal destroys the rhythm of the story,
undercutting the atmosphere of impending doom.
(In one instance, the cut creates a small plot
lapse.) I hate to sound like a cliché,
but the longer British version is definitely the
way to go. The shorter Curse
is an interesting oddity — and it does move faster
— but I can't imagine anyone who falls under this
film's spell ever revisiting it when the superior
Night is but a click
away.
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*
The longer British cut of the film ("Night
of the Demon") is the basis of this review's
film rating.
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Columbia's
DVD release is wonderful, the answer to one of my
personal prayers to the DVD gods. I could complain
that beyond including two versions of the movie
there are no extras, but I won't do that.
The film
looks and sounds very good with only minimal print
wear visible. The audio is so clear on this disc
that I noticed for the first time that the whole
film appears to have been post-synched. The dubbing
has been done very well, but I now wonder if a member
of the cast had to be re-voiced, causing the entire
movie to be dubbed. The image is presented in 1.85:1
anamorphic widescreen and comes with removable subtitles
in English, French and Japanese. I can't imagine
that we'll see a better presentation of this classic
film for some time to come. Of course, I still hold
out hope for a special edition some day with commentaries,
interviews, essays, a reproduction of the press
kit, etc. —
but for now, I'm just glad we have this one on DVD.
Underrated and often overlooked, Curse
of the Demon
is an unforgettable example of how to do supernatural
horror right.
12/03/02 |
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