Sixteen Continued Screams For Halloween: Day 13 (Night Of The Demon)

 Here we are, gang, with the final week before Halloween! Four of these posts remain, and it's less that they're the movies I put off and more that, well, something had to be the penultimate posts. Of what remains, one is obvious and two are followups to things I've done before. That leaves this, a one-off suggestion in the comments of the blog that I've kind of sort of heard of before. The way I've heard of it is incredibly on-brand: a line read of it is sampled as the opening to the title track of Kate Bush's landmark album Hounds Of Love. I was like, 80% sure that this was the movie they got it from, and totally did a mental Leo point when I finally heard IT'S IN THE TREES, IT'S COMING!. Well, beyond that, there's a whole 96 minutes of movie. The comment specifically requested the 96-minute cut of the film. I don't know why or what was cut out or added in any hypothetical other version of the film, but I watched 96 minutes of movie and now get to talk about it.

It's a nice slow burn of a movie, despite the fact that within the opening minutes a goddamn demon is summoned to kill a guy. It's a little wild to me that you just get to see the demon, full-on, in this inciting incident. All the modern filmmaking sensibilities I have tell me that damn near any other movie would cut around it and leave things as a mystery regarding what killed him, before a glorious money shot at the climax of the film when the baddie gets it good. You still get that glorious money shot, but you still get to see the demon in the opening. I say that few other movies would do this, but neither do I think it's a bad decision. What you're left with is a movie bookended by the demon, and filled in between with slower scenes of people talking and trying to unravel what's going on. What's going on is remarkably simple: a devil worshipper who doesn't want his devil worshipping to get reported on at large is killing people who get too close to the truth by hexing them and marking them for death via demon summoning. The rest of the movie is Dana Andrews trying to figure out what the fuck is going on before his three days are up and the demon kills him. Andrews's character spends the majority of the film as a supernatural skeptic, and it's not really until the final minutes that he seems to buy into what the fuck is happening and do something about it.

On the other hand is the film's villain, Dr. Karswell. Karswell is fascinating in how confident and arrogant he is that his devil worship won't be reported on. He openly cavorts with and calls up his enemies for friendly chats, always appears cordial and helpful, and never tries to obscure much from them. His confidence is due to the nature of the hex: once he transfers a parchment with magic runes on it to you with subterfuge, you're marked and there's nothing you can do to avoid it. The curse can only be passed on, and Karswell is confident that his victim will never discover the rules of his magic. It takes him an entire movie of slow burn, but he does. The climax on the train where Andrews tricks Karswell into taking the parchment back is nothing short of genius, a tense cat and mouse game of bluffs and little psychological tricks. The entire movie drips with that tension, the black and white cinematography giving off immaculate old-school horror vibes. There are even a few jumpscares for good measure, and a wild scene where a cat transforms into a fucking leopard to try and maul Andrews to death. Granted, there are a few poorly aged whiffs of the past being a mistake, but this is still a solid vintage spooky movie for the spooky season.

Now then, on to more modern fare...