Night of the Demon (1957)

“A magician doesn’t like to expose his magic, black or white.” – Dr. Julian Karswell

Number of Times Seen – 1 (9 Sep 2020)

Brief Synopsis – An American psychologist traveling in England tries to find out what caused the death of a British Professor who was on the verge of exposing a Satanic Cult to the world.

My Take on it – This is a film that I heard about and was quite intrigued to watch despite the fact that I’m not a fan of horror films per se.

The film does have some horror elements to it, but I would classify it more as a psychological thriller based on how things play out.

The movie does a great job keeping things feeling realistic as they are able to deal with some very groundbreaking ideas when trying to differentiate between reality and mysticism.

The film uses pretty primitive special effects that actually ruin things a bit.

There are other scenes which only hint at supernatural elements and those are more effective because they use smoke in order to make us perceive things in a more ambiguous way.

The dialogue between the characters is written really well and it allows us to view their debates in an effective manner especially when trying to understand if things are naturally happening or unnaturally.

Dana Andrews does a wonderful job in the lead role and helps the pacing stay on a constant rise as things escalate.

This is a movie with some very intriguing twists and turns that makes things even more enjoyable to watch as they progress.

The supporting cast is also quite good and help keep the story and plot stay very mysterious and intriguing as it moves along.

Bottom Line – Really interesting psychological horror that does a great job of keeping things feeling very realistic. The special effects are quite primitive and they should have kept more to the imagination as they do in certain scenes where we just see smoke. The dialogue is great and the debates between the characters are quite effective in showing how much of a fine line there is between reality and mysticism. Andrews is great in the lead and helps keep things moving along as the pace of things rapidly rises. The film has some great twists and turns that helps enhance things so much. The supporting cast helps keep things intriguing to watch unfold. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – In the movie “The ‘Burbs (1989)”, Tom Hanks’ character (Ray) is in his basement with the paranoid neighbor (Art) who is trying to convince him that the Klopeks next door are actually Satanists. When he shows Ray an old book to make his point, take a look at the title and especially the author. “The Theory and Practice of Demonolgy” is supposedly written by none other than Julian Karswell. Someone….perhaps a writer, the director or the props manager was apparently out to pay homage to this film. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy (8/10)