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Night of the Demon is a 1957 British horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur, starring Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins and Niall MacGinnis. An adaptation of M. R. James' Casting the Runes (1911), the plot revolves around American Professor John Holden going to England and investigating a Satanic cult suspected of being responsible for more than one death in recent months.
The film's production was turbulent due to clashing ideas between producer Hal E. Chester against Jacques Tourneur and writer Charles Bennett. Against Bennett and Tourneur's wishes of leaving the supernatural demon's existence up to the audience, Chester demanded to make the demon have a highly visible presence on-camera. The film was also edited further in America in its 1958 debut under the title of The Curse of the Demon, as the second half of a double feature to accompany the film The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958).
Plot
In England, Professor Harrington approaches Dr. Julian Karswell, the leader of a satanic cult, promising to call off an investigation of the cult if Karswell would call off "what he has started". Karswell agrees. After learning that a parchment given to Harrington has disintegrated, he ushers Harrington outside. As Harrington drives home, a demon materializes in front of him. Fleeing in his car, Harrington crashes into a telegraph pole which causes falling power lines to electrocute him.
Dr. John Holden arrives in England to attend a convention where Harrington had intended to expose Karswell's cult. Holden is informed of Harrington's death and that the only link to it and Karswell's cult is an accused murderer Rand Hobart, who fell into a catatonic stupor. While Harrington's collaborators consider the possibility of supernatural forces, Holden rejects them as superstition.
Following Harrington's notes, Holden visits The British Museum's library to research books on witchcraft. Harrington finds[clarification needed] a book missing from the library's collection and is approached by Karswell,[clarification needed] who offers Holden to see his own copy his mansion[clarification needed] as well as to drop his case[clarification needed] against him. Holden repudiates Karswell's earlier attempts[clarification needed] to dissuade him from the investigation. Attending Harrington's funeral, Holden meets Harrington's niece Joanna, who provides him with Harrington's diary revealing his increasing fear of Karswell's power. Holden remains skeptical, but goes with Joanna to Karswell's mansion the next day.
Holden meets Karswell at his Mansion, on discussing the book, they engage in verbal sparring, mocking one another's respective beliefs. A very strong windstorm abruptly starts which Karswell claims to be a result of a spell of his. Holden continues to mock Karswell, who grows angry and predicts that Holden will die in three days.
At his hotel, Holden and his colleagues discuss Karswell and make plans to further examine Rand Hobart. Holden finds that several pages - those concerning the days after his predicted death - have been torn out of his calendar, paralleling Harrington's diary which also has pages missing. Harrington's diary also mentions the parchment passed to him by Karswell. Holden finds a parchment with runic inscriptions, that Karswell secretly passed to him at the library. The parchment flies from his fingers and nearly burns in the fireplace before Holden pockets it.
Holden begins to feel more uneasy. After a visit to Hobart's family, who disowned Hobart as "not a true believer". As he leaves, the parchment flies from his hand again, to which Hobart's family appear afraid declaring Holden to be "chosen". Holden compares the parchment's runes to ones inscribed on the nearby stone circle at Stonehenge.
Holden meets Joanna again, who takes him to meet with Karswell's mother who has arranged a seance. The medium begins to channel Harrington, who tells them that Karswell has the key to the problem from his book. Holden leaves, dismissive towards both the medium and Mrs. Karswell. That night, Holden breaks into Karswell's mansion to examine the book. He is caught by Karswell, but is permitted to leave. Holden leaves through the woods and finds himself being chased by a living ball of smoke which also creates smoking footprints. On escaping the forest, Holden finds it vanished. He reports the event to the police but feels embarrassed, believing that he is falling for only mindgames by Karswell.
While Holden prepares an experiment to break Hobart's stupor, Joanna is kidnapped from her car. Under hypnosis, Hobart explains that he was "chosen" to die by having a parchment with a curse passed to him, but avoided death by passing it back to another person, making them the target for death. As Holden shows Hobart the parchment he received from Karswell, Hobart goes beserk and leaps from a window to his death.
Informed that Karswell is leaving London by train, Holden races to catch the train and finds Karswell with Joanna. Karswell avoids any contact with Holden, fearing that the parchment will be passed back to him, and grows increasingly fearful. When the train stops at the next station, Karswell tries to leave but Holden manages to sneak the parchment into Karswell's coat. As Karswell realizes this, the parchment flies from his hands. He chases it down to the tracks, where the parchment burns to ashes. As an oncoming train approaches, a demon appears above it, which grabs Karswell and slashes his body as the train passes by. The station crew find Karswell's mangled body, believing that he was struck by the train. Holden and Joanna walk away from the station, agreeing it's better not to know.
Production
Screenwriter Charles Bennett owned the rights to the original story The Casting of the Runes and wrote a script based around it under the title The Haunted. Barnett sold the script to independent producer and former child actor Hal E. Chester shortly before going to America. Bennett regretted selling the script because on arrival in America, he was approached by RKO who wanted to purchase his script and allow Barnett to direct the film. Actors Robert Taylor and Dick Powell were in line for the leading roles if this production had taken place.[1][2][3]
Director Jacques Tourneur was brought in to direct under recommendation to Chester from the producer Ted Richmond; the producer of Tourneur's previous film Nightfall (1957).[clarification needed][2]. Arguments occurred during filming between Chester and Tourneur.[clarification needed] One event[clarification needed] was during the filming of the wind scene, Tourneur tried to convince[who?] that he needed to upgrade his two electric fans to two airplane engines.[clarification needed] When Chester hesitated, Tourneur's friend and leading actor Dana Andrews threatened to leave the picture if Chester wouldn't let "the director direct the picture."[2]
After completion of the principal shooting, Chester changed two factors of the film. The greatest change was to show the titular demon at the beginning and end of the film. Tourneur was against the addition of showing the demon, stating "The scenes where you see the demon were shot without me...the audience should never have been completely certain of having seen the demon." Author Tony Earnshaw's book Beating the Devil-the Making of Night of the Demon argues that showing the demon was planned early on in the production (despite Tourneur's protests to the contrary), in order to heighten the tension in the film by letting the audience know the demonic powers were real. Barnett, also angry at the script changes said, "If [Chester] walked up my driveway right now, I'd shoot him dead."[3] Secondly, Chester cut thirteen minutes of the film for the American film release under the title of Curse of the Demon, but these scenes have been restored to all home video versions of the film.[2] Cut scenes included a visit to the Hobart family farm, a visit to Stonehenge, and snippets of the seance scenes and conversations between Karswell and his mother.[4]
Cast
Release
Night of the Demon was released in the United Kingdom for a theatrical run in December 1957.[5] In England, it was released as a double bill with the American film 20 Million Miles to Earth as a double feature.[5] In the United States, the film was re-released as Curse of the Demon. According to Charles Bennett, the title was changed as the studio didn't want it confused with the similarly titled story of The Night of the Iguana.[5] Curse of the Demon toured drive-ins and theaters variously with The True Story of Lynn Stuart and The Revenge of Frankenstein.[5]
Director Martin Scorsese placed Night of the Demon on his list of the 11 scariest horror films of all time.[6]
Home video
In the United States, Curse of the Demon was originally released on VHS in 1986 by Columbia TriStar Home Video with a run time of 81 minutes.[7] A second VHS release was released in 1988 by Goodtimes Home Video Corp in 1988 with a 96 minute running time.[7] In 1988, a Laserdisc of the film was released by Image Entertainment/Columbia Pictures with an 81 minute running time.[8] A double-bill version with both the United Kingdom version of Night of the Demon and the edited US version as Curse of the Demon was released on DVD in August 2002.[7] In the United Kingdom, Night of the Demon was released on VHS in 1995 by Encore Entertainment/Columbia TriStar Home Video.[7] The film has not been released on DVD in the United Kingdom.
Notes
- ^ Perry, 1984
- ^ a b c d Fujiwara 1998, p. 242-246
- ^ a b Jeff Stafford. "Curse of the Demon (1958) Articles" tcm.com. Retrieved: May 7, 2008.
- ^ Bansak 1995, p. 434-440
- ^ a b c d Earnshaw 2004, p. 65
- ^ Scorsese, Martin (October 28, 2009). "11 Scariest Horror Movies of All Time". The Daily Beast. http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-10-28/martin-scorseses-top-11-horror-films-of-all-time/3/. Retrieved November 15, 2009.
- ^ a b c d Earnshaw 2004, p. 118
- ^ Earnshaw 2004, p. 119
Bibliography
- Bansak, Edward G. Fearing the Dark: The Val Lewton Career. McFarland, 1995. ISBN 0786417099.
- Earnshaw, Tony. Beating the Devil: The Making of Night of the Demon. Tomahawk Press, 2004. ISBN 095319261x
- Fujiwara, Chris. Jacques Tourneur: The Cinema of Nightfall. McFarland, 1998. ISBN 0786404914.
- Perry, Danny. Cult Movies. Dell, 1984. ISBN 0440516315.
External links
