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Released by: Anolis Entertainment
Released on: February 26th, 2016.
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Cast: Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall McGinnis, Maurice Denham
Year: 1957
The Movie:
Jacques Tourneur's classic Night Of The Demon adapts M. R. James' story Casting The Runes and adds to it enough additional content to make it work perfectly as a feature film (credit is due to Charles Bennett's work on the screenplay).
The story revolves around Doctor John Holden (Dana Andrews), a man of science and not really someone so enamored with the supernatural. An American, Holden arrives in London, England to attend a conference with his peers wherein the main subject is to be the correlation between psychology and the paranormal. At the conference, John meets the lovely Joanna Harrington (Peggy Cummins), the beautiful niece of a professor (Maurice Denham) also attending the conference. As John gets to know Peggy he learns that she's still grieving over the recent loss of her uncle, a man who was killed under some strange circumstances, circumstances that Peggy believes may relate to things not of this world.
John takes an interest not just in Peggy but also in the death of her uncle and the more he learns about it, the more he wonders if it doesn't have something to do with an occultist named Julian Karswell (Niall MacGinnis). Julian lives in a remote mansion with his eccentric mother (Athene Seyler) and after Holden talks to the man, even if he doesn't believe in what Karswell believes, he does become suspect. There's more to Karswell than meets the eye, however. This man, capable of entertaining children at a party, is also capable of much more - his expertise in the ways of the black arts and his knowledge of runes and ancient texts are far more serious than Holden could have ever believed. And when Karswell tells Holden that the runes tell him he's only got three days to live, it's up to the good Doctor to figure out just what Karswell really knows and what he's really all about.
With this picture Tourneur blends the smarts of Bennett's screenplay (and by default James' text) with the absolutely perfect visuals of Edward Scaife's cinematography under his own watchful eye to create a film that is almost untouchable in the annals of fifties horror. Not only is this strong stuff by the standards of the age (few fifties horror pictures dabble as blatantly in the occult as this one) but it remains a tense and riveting watch. The effects work shows its age - the titular creature, in close up shots at least, looks a little rubbery and a little Muppety - but we can easily look past that and appreciate the dark, unsettling atmosphere and completely sinister vibe that the film manages to conjure up. Really, for a film as strong in every way that you'd want it to be as this picture is, it's a testament to just how damn good the cinematography is that it stands out as much as it does.
The performances are also very good here. Peggy Cummins, probably best known for her star making turn in Gun Crazy, is both beautiful and believable as the woman who just so happens to catch our dashing American hero's attention. She is, in a sense, the catalyst of the film - it's Holden's interest in her that leads him to meet Karswell that in turn leads to the prediction of his demise, but you can't help but feel for her character. Andrews, as Holden, is perfectly stoic. He plays the part perfectly, never relenting as the 'doubting Thomas' of the film until forced to see things differently through his own personal experiences. He shares a great scene with MacGinnis out in a field away from a child's party they've attended. Here they talk about their differing believes and as they do the wind starts to pick up, slowly at first but eventually with a good bit of strength. Here Karswell stays calm, because he understands what it is that is happening here, while Holden shows considerably more visible signs of concern. Watching the two actors go about this scene really sums up the theme of the film in an interesting way as we witness science go head to head against the ways of old with interesting results.
Note that this release not only includes the full length Night Of The Demon cut but so too does it includes the shorter US Version, Curse Of The Demon. The longer version is the one to go with but it's great to have the alternate cut preserved here on this release.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Night Of The Demon hits Blu-ray from Anolis Entertainment framed at 1.66.1 widescreen in a very nice looking AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer. Aside from the minor print damage that shows up throughout the movie, things look really good here. Contrast is really solid, black levels are nice and deep but not at the cost of shadow detail and the picture is free of macroblocking and compression artifacts. We get a really nice upgrade in terms of detail and texture (so much so that you can see strings being used in some of the effects set pieces) that far surpass previous DVD versions - yeah, this looks really nice. There are no obvious issues with edge enhancement nor with any noise reduction and grain looks nice and natural here. This is a very solid picture.
Audio options are provided in DTS-HD Mono tracks in both the original English language and a German dubbed track. Optional German subtitles are also provided. The English track sounds just fine. The score sounds good, the dialogue is clean, clear and easy to follow and there are no problems with any hiss or distortion worth noting.
Extras on the disc start out with an audio commentary from Dr. Rolf Giesen and Uwe Sommerlad but it's in German only without any English subtitles. Thankfully the documentary Speak Of The Devil, which runs twenty-minutes in length, is in English with optional German subtitles. In this piece we hear from English Gothic author Jonathan Rigby about the story that the film is based on with some welcome background information on James himself. He also talks about Bennett's script, Tourneur's work with Val Lewton and how their collaborations were different from what was being made at the time and more. Tony Earnshaw, the man who wrote Beating The Devil, discusses the film further, noting how and why Andrews was cast in the lead, while Peggy Cummins herself shows up to talk about her character as well as her experiences working on the picture and her 'great respect' for the picture's leading man. Production Designer Sir Ken Adam offers up his thoughts on the film (and we get to see some neat artwork accompanying his input) and more specifically how to show the demon in the movie, and really, this just gives a really solid run down of what makes this movie as interesting and as compelling as it is.
Aside from that, we also get the German Super 8 version of the movie that runs eight and a half minutes in length. This is presented in HD with Dolby Digital Mono audio in German language with forced English subtitles in portions of the movie. Obviously with the running time cut down as drastically as it is for this presentation a LOT is missing but it is still very cool to see this odd little alternate version included here. The transfer is rough but again, better to have it here than to not.
Rounding out the extras are British and German theatrical trailers, a still gallery, a film festival program reproduction, menus and chapter selection. As this is a combo pack release a DVD version of the movie is also included inside the DVD sized keepcase that also houses a booklet of liner notes from Sommerlad in German text. The booklet also includes cast and crew credits for the feature and some technical information about the feature itself.
The Final Word:
Night Of The Demon is a truly great movie, a classic horror picture in every sense of that the term allows. The performances are great, the story is compelling and interesting, very ahead of its time in some ways, and the direction is remarkably strong. Couple that with the fact that it is an absolutely gorgeous film to look at and it is easy to see why it remains as popular is it is. Anolis' Blu-ray release is equally strong, presenting the movie in great shape and with a nice selection of extra features as well.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
