Night of the Demon

Great, fast-moving entertainment. The film society has been trying to get hold of Jacques Tourneur's 1957 classic horror Night of the Demon for several years. We always get our agent to look for it, and she always tells us that it's unavailable. This year however the committee were overjoyed to discover that a print had surfaced. Why the excitement ? Night of the Demon is the Casablanca of horror movies. Much greater than the sum of its pads, it leaves a lasting impression on anyone who sees it. I know many people who love this film.

Without any time being wasted we are plunged into a high-speed occult detective story. Dana Andrews, an American scientist visiting England for a conference on the paranormal, is investigating his own predicted death. At first he is sceptical, but all the signs indicate that he will be torn apart by a huge fire-breathing demon on Tuesday at 10pm. Will he be able to persuade his friends and himself that all this demon worshipping business is just British silliness?

Dana Andrews and Peggy Cummins are both very capable, but Niall MacGinnis and Athene Seyler are the real stars as the satanic Carswell and his mum. Also, watch out for Brian Wilde (Foggy from TV's Last of the Summer Wine) giving one of the best demonstrations of absolute terror in any film I've seen.

It is worth mentioning the demon itself. Originally, Toumeur didn't show the demon in the film, but the studio got him to add some scary monster shots at the appropriate moments. Normally this would be something for any self-respecting film buff to get angry about but the demon is actually pretty good. Although it is quite obviously a puppet it is eerily effective, and it certainly had me diving behind the sofa when I saw it on TV as a kid.

Review by Danny Carr
Taken from EUFS Programme 1994-95