Curse of the Demon / Night of the Demon
List Price:
Our Price: $8.57
You Save: $6.38 (43%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Athene Seyler, Dana Andrews, Maurice Denham, Niall MacGinnis, Peggy CumminsBrand: ANDREWS,DANA
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Japanese (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.66:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-08-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Curse of the Demon / Night of the Demon
Movie Review: The best film of its type for the period
Summary: 5 Stars
This film was released in 1957 as the B movie of a double feature, the A film being Revenge of Frankenstein. As if to show the relative status of the two films, Frankenstein was in color, whereas Curse of the Demon was in b/w. I went with a friend who found Frankenstein scary and Demon silly. My reaction was exactly the opposite. As we walked home after the movie she teased me about having "the parchment." It sent chills through my body then and it still does today.
Of all the horror movies that were cranked out in the fifties, this one was the very best of the lot. It was the cliche then to not show the monster until almost the end of the picture, but in this case we see the demon up close and personal at the very beginning, when it descends on and mangles the electrocuted corpse of Professor Harrington, who committed suicide by grasping a downed power line rather than be killed by the monster. The film makers have been criticized for reversing the cliche in this case, but the device works. Thrice again we hear the noise that always accompanies the monster's appearance. The next time we see nothing but expect Dana Andrews to be swiftly devoured at any moment. The time after that we see the ball of smoke in which it customarily appears. On the last go round the monster disposes of the sorcerer who called it up, leaving his smoking and mangled corpse beside a railroad track. We assume the sorcerer is now in hell, but as Dana Andrews is made to say at the end of the film, "sometimes if is better not to know." Indeed. He must be a pretty compassionate man, considering that it was the sorcerer's intent for him to be in hell instead. But the significance for us viewers is that the film makers are not going to tell us whether Karswell's soul is the demon's toy or not, even though the seance scene earlier in the movie implies that this would be the case. It is for them to know and for us to figure out.
Pretty compelling stuff. Some subtleties that fifties reviewers either did not notice or could not refer to: Peggy Cummins plays Joanna Harrington, niece of the deceased Professor Harrington, who is determined to get to the bottom of her uncle's death. Dr. Holden (Dana Andrews) wants to go to bed with her, but her interest in him is merely to have an ally in her confrontation with the sorcerer Julian Karswell (Niall McGinnis.) One can certainly understand why she would want one. This makes her, more than Holden, the main character of the drama, although that is not apparent to most viewers. The plot would not move forward without her. More than his scientific cynical interest in proving Karswell a crank, Holden's lust for Joanna is what keeps drawing him to her until through the association he discovers that Karswell is for real and intends to kill him with black magic. Karswell, on the other hand, is clearly a homosexual, a wealthy middle aged man who lives with his mother, nary an available female in sight. What the screen writers were doing with this is not clear, unless it is to make sense of the scene in which Karswell kidnaps Joanna at the end of the film. As a homosexual Karswell neither wishes to make love to Joanna nor even to talk to her. Instead he hypnotizes her so he can endure an intolerably boring train ride in silence. This may have been fifties prudery or the screen writers may have been saying something here. The train ride does set the stage for the final confrontation between Karswell and his intended victim (Holden, played by Andrews), and, in turn, between Karswell and the demon, which must kill one of the two men and clearly does not care which it is. Unlike Harrington before him, Karswell lacks the courage to commit suicide by throwing himself in the path of the train, and is alive and conscious when the demon mangles him.
The usual fifties horror cliches are here. There is a seance scene in which the unfortunate Professor Harrington is called forth from hell to say he is still being menaced by the demon. There is a hypnosis scene in which Hobarth relives his encounter with the demon. But these scenes are so well done and contribute so much to the plot development that we do not recognize them as standard horror movie fare for the period. The film makers have managed to freshen them up so that we shudder and do not groan.
The trailer is not on the DVD, so for the benefit of horror fans, here is a recap by someone who saw it in its first theatrical release. The same voice which introduces the movie says: "Do not laugh at supernatural demons from hell, because THEY DO EXIST!" Then a train roars by and the words "Curse of the demon" appear on the screen. Not the best preview ever done. By telling the audience not to laugh, it got twitters from every direction, and it conveyed nothing of the bone freezing, teeth rattling terror the thing produced in 1957 in kids who knew they would have to walk home in the dark after the show was over.
Watch it. And leave the light on when you go to sleep. You might want to hang a cross over your bed. And by all means sleep tight.
Summary of Curse of the Demon / Night of the Demon
No Description Available.Genre: Horror
Rating: UN
Release Date: 13-AUG-2002
Media Type: DVD
Similar DVD Movies
The Val Lewton Horror Collection (Cat People / The Curse of the Cat People / I Walked with a Zombie / The Body Snatcher / Isle of the Dead / Bedlam / The Leopard Man / The Ghost Ship / The Seventh Victim / Shadows in the Dark / Martin Scorsese Presents Val Lewton Documentary)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2008-01-29; DVD
Best price: $23.50
Price in other shops:
Beyond the Time BarrierRelease date: 2010-07-26; DVD
Best price: $8.99
The Day of the TriffidsMUSIC VIDEO DISTRIBUTORS; Release date: 2005-10-25; DVD
Best price: $5.77
Price in other shops:
Invisible Invaders / Journey to the Seventh PlanetSony; Release date: 2003-04-15; DVD
Best price: $3.45
Price in other shops:
Burn, Witch, Burn! (MGM Limited Edition Collection)Allied Electronics; Release date: 2011-05-16; DVD
Best price: $19.98
The Crawling Eye (Widescreen European Edition)Image Entertainment; Release date: 2001-12-04; DVD
Best price: $2.11
Price in other shops:
City Of The DeadVideo Communications Inc.; Release date: 2001-10-23; DVD
Best price: $4.44
Price in other shops:
Black SundayFox; Release date: 2007-10-23; DVD
Best price: $14.50
Day the World Ended/ She CreatureLIONS GATE HOME ENT.; Release date: 2006-04-18; DVD
Best price: $1.79
Price in other shops:
Roger Corman's Cult Classics Triple Feature (Attack of the Crab Monsters / War of the Satellites / Not of This Earth)VIS; Release date: 2011-01-18; DVD
Best price: $12.98
Price in other shops: