Shooting Down Pictures #918 (59): Night of the Demon

[planetrockford]

Too intellectual for me but interesting regardless.

[derek1969able]

some things are more easily started than stopped.....

[MrBazzabee]

Just gotta love Peggy Cummins's performance and looks ...BOY ! would I have married her !!!

[videolung]

Chris Fujiwara in an extremely perceptive writer. I highly reciommend his book on Otto Preminger, THE WORLD AND IT'S DOUBLE

[tazzarman]

This film is the most scarey ever,i watched it when i was 8 and i,m still scared to walk in the park at night when its windy,i,m going to have nightmares tonight after watching this clip.

[karlydoc]

@tazzarman no you won't, don't be a cissy.

[mebiggles1]

@karlydoc Yes he will. He only watched it last week. I'm scared and I'm a navy seal.

[copewood333]

You didn't shoot it down - you pulled the chocks away! Classic Brit horror.

[163richardb]

A great performance from Brian Wilde as Rand Hobart - you'll never watch old re-runs of Last Of The Summer Wine in quite the same light again !

[PhflyDan1]

@163richardb You KNOW this!!! LOL

[ysbaddaden2003]

Is it true this movie is being remade by the guy who made Thumb Wars, and DarkThumb?

[LonerKid6981]

"Thats not mysterious. Runic symbols are the oldest forms alphabets. Theyre found carved on ancient stones... like Hieroglyphics."

That's one of the coolest acting voices I ever heard. RIP Dana Andrews

[163richardb]

" They're supposed to have magic powers - they don't ! " OOPS !!

[weishauptogram]

Hey, I thought that was a pretty good rubber monster for 1957.

[PhflyDan1]

@weishauptogram Kooked like King Kong dressed in DRAG mate!!! Beyond that, an EXCELLENT film

[ScReAmDeMoN58]

i have this on vhs tape,its a classic

[elgringoviejo]

The full movie was on Youtube in the past. Now I cannot seem to find it. Does anyone have the link?

[StopptGats]

"They" stole it; it was announced as "not available any more" and now even this disappeared. Some kind of filmstealing!

[hanzobarren]

so this is what gave Sam Raimi the idea of Drag me To Hell

[sonofcy]

Yes I think Sam took a number of things:

Both ended at a railway station.

Both had to pass something without the other knowing.

Both made extensive use of shadows.

[AJNorth1]

Yes, I quite agree with comments below. Fujiwara's essay seems to skirt the edges, rather than plumb the depths.

Tourneur had honed his skills at RKO under legendary producer Val Lewton and his 'less-is-more' school of horror (which genesis, though budgetary rather than artistic, created a new paradigm); Lewton died in 1951 (age 46). (Their collaboration was given a cinematic nod the following year in Vincente Minnelli's "The Bad and the Beautiful".)

[AJNorth1]

Though the Bennett & Chester adaptation of the James short story was reasonably faithful, Chester went for the cheap thrill by explicitly showing the demon, rather than the more cerebral approach of Lewton & Tourneur - that the mind can create far more horrific images, with only a little coaxing. Just imagine the feeling from watching a churning growing cloud of smoke-with-stars engulfing a screaming, terror-stricken Karswell (with that marvelous sound effect) - then the speeding train.

[capmconnundrum]

The thesis of the commentary is rather weak. Considering Fujiwara fixes on writing as a major theme, it seems a fatal failing to mention the writing from which it came, M.R. James' "The Casting of the Runes" The idea of writing as a living thing comes from that story, not from Tournier. Tournier, however works deftly with the source material, and despite suffering from a rubber monster and Dana Andrews, the move has more depth and nuance than the source material.

[sonofcy]

"Despite suffering from a rubber monster and Dana Andrews"

Which one was the rubber monster?

[capmconnundrum]

The monster is made of rubber, Andrews is made of wood ;^)

[sonofcy]

At that time a well soaked wood too!

[JubalCalif]

The remark you made about the montster & Dana Anderews made my laugh out loud! One of the funniest comments I've seen here at youtube in ages. Strictly from yuksville, daddy-0! Happy New Year to you & Yours! :)

[gtrfinger]

One of the most atmospheric films ever. A cracking yarn too. Music, cast, all spot on.

[OzuKardozi]

I love this film,Tourneurs use of poetic horrors is lost nowadays to a new generation of viewers whom think that horror is only a physical pain.

[flanneryged]

Very Informative and good script.I also like the way "without" any high tech Sci/Fi effects.Just like the "Village of the Damned"

the Film makers manage to extract a brilliant

story and scary Film without having to resort

to meaningless superstitions of crappy Voodoo

like nonsense.A truly great Film and also very very underated,I remember this Flick from

when I was a Kid half scared out of his wits by the appearence of the Demon.Thank you for

taking the time and trouble to comment.

[23BOT]

totally agree - such a shame this type of film is lost to the absolute idiots  churning out CGI rubbish nowadays but we are after all living in tragically dumbed downed times

[thehappysock]

trust me, if a movie was made today with these speicial effects it would be just plain bad. it was good back then because that was what the effects were back then.

there is nothing wrong with CGI as long as its not over used

[Jcolinsol]

@23BOT

I see what you are saying, but I have disagreements.

There are a lot of extremely skilled and talented artists out there doing artwork for films, and yes cg art. Not just talented but even important, take Bay Raitt for instance.

I don't think that films are being dumbed down at all, on the contrary, I think that media is getting miles smarter than it was in the past. We may have fewer gems like curse of the demon, maybe, but over all the intelligence of media in general is rising.

[mebiggles1]

@Jcolinsol I'm old enough to say there were many films back then that were bad in effects AND storyline (albeit many good actors who did their best with the material on hand.) At least, with CGI one out of two is only half bad. CGI on NOTD would have been the icing on an excellent cake. Some films are dumbing down but the ones that aren't are mind-blowing nowadays. Another film that needed CGI was Trollenberg Terror (Crawling Eye) - big eyed octopus? -pleeez !

[mebiggles1]

@Jcolinsol You need look no further than The Thing. The original was ground-breaking but James Arness was an anti climax. Carpenter's film was a tour-de-force. Why make a prequel? The Exorcist's prequel sank without trace.