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Night of the Demon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Night of the Demon | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Jacques Tourneur |
| Produced by | Hal E. Chester |
| Written by | M.R. James (story) Charles Bennett Hal E. Chester |
| Starring | Dana Andrews Peggy Cummins Niall MacGinnis Athene Seyler |
| Music by | Clifton Parker |
| Distributed by | Columbia |
| Release date(s) | 1957 |
| Running time | 95 m |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Night of the Demon is a black-and-white horror film from 1957, based on the story "Casting the Runes" by M. R. James. The film was produced in Britain by American actor-producer Hal E. Chester. The screenplay was by Charles Bennett, and the film was directed by Jacques Tourneur.
The film was cut slightly for its U.S. release under the title Curse of the Demon, with a shorter 83-minute running time, and was distributed as the lower half of a double-bill with Hammer's The Revenge of Frankenstein. Ironically, Night of the Demon now enjoys the greater reputation of the two.
It was eventually released on TV and video in the U.S. in the 1980s in its British form, but still under the Curse of the Demon title.
A "making of" book titled Beating the Devil: The Making of Night of the Demon, written by Tony Earnshaw, was published in 2005.
Contents |
Sceptical American scientist John Holden arrives in England to take part in a conference on the supernatural and to investigate the activities of devil-cult leader Julian Karswell. He is contacted by the niece of Professor Harrington—instigator of the investigation, who died just prior to Holden's arrival, apparently killed by an unknown animal—and by Karswell himself, who warns him off. Holden dismisses Karswell as a crank, but gradually comes to realise that Karswell may have more than natural powers and a sinister disposition. In fact, Karswell has placed a curse on him using runic inscriptions on a piece of parchment, just as he did to Harrington, who in fact was killed by a demon. Holden finally realizes that he too will be killed by a demon unless he can first turn the curse back on the one who gave him the parchment—Karswell.
- Dana Andrews .... Dr. John Holden
- Peggy Cummins .... Joanna Harrington
- Niall MacGinnis .... Dr. Julian Karswell
- Athene Seyler .... Mother Karswell
- Liam Redmond .... Professor Mark O'Brien
- Ewan Roberts .... Lloyd Williamson
- Peter Elliott .... Professor K.T. Kumar
- Reginald Beckwith .... Mr. Meek
- Rosamund Greenwood .... Mrs. Meek
- Maurice Denham .... Professor Henry Harrington
- Brian Wilde .... Rand Hobart
- For reasons unexplained, nearly all of the dialogue by American actor Dana Andrews was later overdubbed by him. The overdubbing did not take room acoustics into consideration, and is noticeable during exchanges with his on-screen counterparts.
The film has been referenced in at least two songs:
- Kate Bush's "The Hounds of Love" sampled the line "It's in the trees! It's coming!" from the film.
- It was also mentioned in the opening song from The Rocky Horror Picture Show in the line "Dana Andrews said prunes gave him the runes, but passing them used lots of skill".