Night of the Demon

Classic horror film, sometimes called "Curse of the Demon," directed by Jacques Tourneur and released in 1957. The screenplay was written by Charles Bennett and Hal E. Chester, based on the short story "Casting the Runes" by M. R. James. The film was produced by Hal E. Chester and photographed by Edward Scaife. The stars included Dana Andrews as skeptical professor John Holden, Peggy Cummins as the less-skeptical Joanna Harrington, and Niall MacGinnis as the evil cultist Julian Karswell.

The plot involves Holden's attempts to put down a devil-worshipping cult led by Karswell, who is able to use Celtic runes to cause a demon to attack his enemies. Of course, Karswell is able to slip some runes on Holden, who must try to avoid death at the demon's scaly hands.

At first glance, you'll think this is another cheesy horror flick -- particularly, the demon pictured in close-up on the video box looks silly, not scary, and the film's low budget is sometimes painfully apparent. Luckily, the movie is able to transcend its B-movie origins to deliver some really wonderful moments. The script is more intelligent than you'd expect from a B-movie shocker, effectively delivering low-key chills and a mounting level of suspense. Other than the close-ups of the demon, the special effects, though not extremely fancy, help build the sense of fear. The effects are, for the most part, used sparsely, making them far more effective.

Dana Andrews does an excellent job as the heroic skeptic, always finding a more logical explanation for everything until the proof becomes too strong to explain away. But best of all is Niall McGinnis, who portrays Karswell not as a cartoonish monster, but as an intelligent, charming, and very complicated man who just happens to be an extremely evil Satanist. He hosts free Halloween parties for children, he loves his mother, and if he lived next door to you, you'd invite him over every weekend for cookouts in your back yard... but he worships the devil, he puts death curses on casual acquaintances, and he wields tremendous and terrifying supernatural power. He's one of cinema's most charismatic villains, and he's worth the price of admission all by himself.

Why this film still haunts me

I was about twelve, living with my aunt and uncle. Somehow, and I don't recall how, I managed to see this film, the first horror film I remember seeing, and one that had a lasting impact on me. it must have been at a friend's house because my uncle had very strict views about what we kids were allowed to watch. The details of the plot itself eludes me, but the tension buildup and vision of the demon appearing is burned into my memory, so much so that when (years later) I first heard Kate Bush's Hounds of Love in which a line from the film is sampled ("It's coming, it's in the trees!") i got the heeby-jeebies.

Spoilers! In the film, a note on parchment is passed to the victim written in a Runic script. it might read thus: ᛗᛁ ᚾᚨᛗᛖ ᛁᛊ ᛁᚾᛁᚷᛟ ᛗᛟᚾᛏᛟᛁᚨ, ᛁᛟᚢ ᚲᛁᛚᛚᛖᛞ ᛗᛁ ᚠᚨᚦᛖᚱ. ᛈᚱᛖᛈᚨᚱᛖ ᛏᛟ ᛞᛁᛖ. If the victim still has it in their possession at a certain time, they will be visited (and not in a good way) by a summoned demon which will rip them to shreds. If the victim can pass the note on, the curse is passed along with it, a trope that is quite well exploited in the plot. Of course, for added trope points, the note itself burns moments before the last possible minute and the victim's fate is sealed.

As a kid, I didn't really have any analysis of the film, all I knew was it scared me. Looking back I see the terrible special effects, though they were probably okay for the time. But the jaws-and-claws of the summoned beast ready to tear a victim apart were horrific enough at twelve to really give me the willies. the thought that someone might pass me a note that could result in my death traumatised me for weeks afterward, and even now I feel a compunction to pass on any scrap of paper given me, to someone else and I'm still genuinely uncomfortable around railway lines after dark. Clearly other people have the same view; it has a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and according to a Time Out magazine poll, a group of authors, directors, actors, and critics within the horror genre placed Night of the Demon at number 52 on their top 100 horror films list. Director Martin Scorsese placed Night of the Demon on his list of the 11 scariest horror films of all time.¹

The effects are very 1950s-level and I do agree with Jet-Poop's view that the demon is more silly than scary to me now. Speaking of effects, originally the demon was not going to be shown on screen. Ray Harryhausen was busy with another film² and couldn't do it, hence the silliness. Harryhausen would have done better. that said, at a very innocent twelve it was still pants-wettingly terrifying and I didn't sleep well for days afterward. In later years, I had a run-in with sleep paralysis and would see monstrous heads coming out of the wall above my bed, and of course, they were the snarling faces of the demon, and still once in a while the beast haunts my nightmares, leaving my body raked open by cheesy 1950s monster claws. If you've not seen it yet, do so as it is a classic. Last I looked it was available on YouTube.

¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Demon#Critical_reception
² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Demon#Production - thanks to JD for reminding me of this.

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