Dana Andrews plays John Holden, an American scientist who's travelled to Britian to attend a symposium. His main mission will be to debunk the idea of the "devil cult" and to expose a leader of one such group, Karswell (Niall MacGinnis), as a fraud. What he finds is that Karswells' power is all too believable, even for a hard-headed skeptic such as Holden. Karswell appears to place some sort of death curse on Holden by passing a parchment to him, and while he scoffs at first, Holden eventually must figure out how to remove this curse.
Those genre fans that desire subtlety will find a solid story here, scripted by Charles Bennett and executive producer Hal E. Chester from the story "Casting the Runes" by M.R. James. In truth, there's not a lot in the film that would qualify as horror, as much of the running time is taken up by dialogue. We do get to see the demon of the title, and while there may be people who would have preferred that we never see a thing (such as director Jacques Tourneur), the beast is decently designed and the special effects not too bad. (It actually gets a reveal much sooner in the film than one might think.) There are some pretty good set pieces, such as the windstorm, Holdens' night time search through Karswells' mansion, and the final flight of one particular character from certain doom.
Andrews is fine in the lead, and receives fine support from the very pretty Peggy Cummins as the niece to the demons' first on-screen victim, Athene Seyler as Karswells' meddling mother, Liam Redmond as Holdens' associate Mark O'Brien, and Reginald Beckwith as the medium Mr. Meek. But the film truly belongs to MacGinnis, who delivers a performance of low key charisma and evil. When he's speaking, one does want to pay attention. As played by Andrews, Holden is a mostly unflappable type who chides himself later when overcome by nervousness.
Absorbing entertainment, with a satisfying conclusion, "Night of the Demon" remains a somewhat lesser known and undervalued 1950s production.
Also available in an 82 minute American version titled "Curse of the Demon".
Seven out of 10.
Those genre fans that desire subtlety will find a solid story here, scripted by Charles Bennett and executive producer Hal E. Chester from the story "Casting the Runes" by M.R. James. In truth, there's not a lot in the film that would qualify as horror, as much of the running time is taken up by dialogue. We do get to see the demon of the title, and while there may be people who would have preferred that we never see a thing (such as director Jacques Tourneur), the beast is decently designed and the special effects not too bad. (It actually gets a reveal much sooner in the film than one might think.) There are some pretty good set pieces, such as the windstorm, Holdens' night time search through Karswells' mansion, and the final flight of one particular character from certain doom.
Andrews is fine in the lead, and receives fine support from the very pretty Peggy Cummins as the niece to the demons' first on-screen victim, Athene Seyler as Karswells' meddling mother, Liam Redmond as Holdens' associate Mark O'Brien, and Reginald Beckwith as the medium Mr. Meek. But the film truly belongs to MacGinnis, who delivers a performance of low key charisma and evil. When he's speaking, one does want to pay attention. As played by Andrews, Holden is a mostly unflappable type who chides himself later when overcome by nervousness.
Absorbing entertainment, with a satisfying conclusion, "Night of the Demon" remains a somewhat lesser known and undervalued 1950s production.
Also available in an 82 minute American version titled "Curse of the Demon".
Seven out of 10.