A professor investigating cultist Julian Karswell (Niall MacGinnis), dies when his car hits an electrical pole after he sees a demon. Skeptical psychologist, John Holden (Dana Andrews), takes over the investigation, and finds that he too has been cursed by Karswell. Harrington’s superstitious niece, Joanna Harrington (Peggy Cummins), tries to persuade Holden that he’s in danger from a demon while there is still time to do something about it.
Another stylishly directed genre film from director Jacques Tourneur (Cat People, I Walked With a Zombie), The Night of the Demon shares the less-is-more viewpoint with those films. I missed it when it first hit the big screen, not being born yet, but I have always been curious about the film that was sampled for Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love (“It’s in the trees! It’s coming!”) as well as being immortalized in the opening song of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (“Dana Andrews said prunes, gave him the runes, but passing them used lots of skill”). While it flopped initially, it has developed a cult following over the years, and now is put on many genre critics “Top 10” lists.
There’s a lot to like in The Night of the Demon. While the day shots are often washed out, the night scenes are beautiful and vivid, with deep shadows and high contrast. The story works as a Hitchcockian thriller, with plenty of suspense and the occasional surprise. It also has one of the most memorable villains you’re likely to find, if he is a villain. Karswell is willing to coldly kill, but he also puts on Halloween parties for the local kids. He is arrogant, but elegant, domineering, but frightened, and enjoyable company as long as you are not trying to expose him. He’s much more likeable than either the obnoxious Holden or the pushy Joanna Harrington. Niall MacGinnis plays this complex personality perfectly.
Unfortunately, the film is marred by the filmmakers knowing little of science or philosophy. Throughout the movie, the “scientists” blurt out silly statements that are supposed to be scientific or at least thoughtful, but are neither. The stupidity starts early, with Professor O’Brien claiming that an uneducated man drawing a picture of a demon that vaguely resembles ancient woodcuttings proves that he’s seen a demon. With all the monsters I drew as a kid, by this reasoning, I must have been visited nightly by the hordes of hell. Almost every conversation that involves any of the “scientists” has something equally ridiculous. The “scientific” knowledge and procedures of Holden and the others is no better. In a conversation with Joanna, he says that runic symbols are a form of ancient writing generally thought to be magical. Well, runes were generally thought to be magical in bad B-movies, though not by educated people in this world. Any film can handle a few such mistakes, but The Night of the Demon is loaded with them.
In a scene that starts interestingly, and then falls apart, the scientists use incredibly easy and effective hypnoses to get information from a comatose mental patient man. However, they in no way restrain him. When it is demonstrated to them that this guy really needs to be tied down (by him jumping up and running violently through the crowds before being recaptured), they still don’t bother trussing him up. Gee, do you think this could end up causing a problem? This is sloppy writing.
Characters seldom act like real people (except for Karswell and his mother). The king of ludicrous behaviors comes when Holden goes to Scotland Yard. Granted, he acknowledges that move as stupid afterwards, but even with his brain addled by fear, what could he possibly expect the police to do? He reports that he saw evil smoke in the woods and felt like he was followed, and thinks the police will…arrest the demon? Then there is the forced romance. Holden is lecherous and slimy and obviously doesn’t respect Joanna’s views. She is strident, easily offended, and rather dim, and respects his views even less. But it’s a movie so they have to fall for each other.
Much is made of the two short appearances of the demon (and if the studio insisted on more screen time for the monster, and if that harmed Tourneur’s “vision”). It doesn’t matter why the shots are the way they are, but it does matter that they are too long. The film would be anticlimactic without some appearance by the demon, but as he looks, first like a marionette, and then like a Halloween dog mask, less would have helped the film.
Added all those problems is the question of why the events in the story are taking place at all. That is, why did Karswell curse these two scientists? He indicated he is afraid of the powers he has tapped into, and that summoning a demon is very dangerous, so I was expecting some big secret to explain it. But nothing comes. Holden is no threat to Karswell. Why would he care if Holden declares he’s a fraud? It isn’t going to lose him any followers. It will effect nothing (I wouldn’t even think anyone would notice, but this is a world where an unknown psychologist going to a conference gets a headline in the paper), but in summoning a demon, he risks everything.
There’s a lot of talent involved in The Night of the Demon, but not enough intelligence. Perhaps the script just needed another rewrite or two. It had the potential to be a great film.
Curse of the Demon was the name given to a recut version that played in American theaters (though in recent years, the Curse name has been put on the full British cut). It slices twelve minutes. Some edits help, such as the truncation of an overlong and unbelievable meeting scene with Holden and Joanna on a plane. Others harm the film, like the removable of Holden’s uneasy confrontation with a family of Karswell’s followers. Overall, the effect of the cuts is to make the film too abrupt without sufficient character development.