Night of the Demon A.K.A. Curse of the Demon
(1957) 96 min
Rated: NR
Country: UK
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Starring: Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall MacGinnis
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★★☆☆
An American skeptic is cursed by the English leader of a devil-worshiping cult.
Synopsis:
It is a dark night in England. A man named Professor Harrington arrives at the estate of Dr. Julian Kraswell (MacGinnis). Harrington begs Karswell to lift a curse on him as Harrington had planned to expose Karswell and his demon worshiping cult at a convention.
Harrington promises he will keep quiet and Karswell thanks him. Karswell asks about a paper Harrington was given, but Harrington admits the paper burned up. Karswell glances at the time and tells Harrington to go home. Harrington, believing himself to be free of the curse drives home, however just as he arrives there he sees a billow of light and smoke come out of the dark woods. Harrington backs his car into a electric pole, toppling it. He sees a large demon slowly approaching his car. Panicked, he climbs out of the car and over the live wires. He’s electrocuted.
Dr. John Holden (Andrews) arrives in England for a parapsychology conference and learns that Professor Harrington has just died. Holden is informed that the only known link between Karswell and Harrington was former cult member and murderer named Rand Hobart who cannot be questioned now because he is in a catatonic state. As his peers suggest supernatural forces, Holden rejects the notion.
Holden goes to the British Museum’s Reading Room and requests a specific old book. It seems the book is no longer there. Karswell runs into Holden as he’s researching and tells him that he has the book at his home. He invites Holden to visit and while he hands him a card, he knocks over a small pile of papers, picks them up and hands them to Holden. He apologizes and leaves. Holden notices the card Karswell gave him has letters that seemingly vanish.
Holden attends Harrington’s funeral and runs into his niece, Joanna Harrington (Cummins), who gives Holden Harrington’s diary. The diary implies Harrington was increasingly terrified of Karswell’s supernatural powers.
Joanna and Holden both go to Karswell’s mansion. They find Karswell holding a party with his mother, Mrs. Karswell. Karswell seemingly creates a wind storm but Holden is skeptical. Karswell tells Holden that he will die in three days.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Karswell talks to Joanna and shows her the book that Holden was looking for. Neither can read the runic script. Karswell finds them both looking at the book. Joanna promptly leaves and Karswell explains to his mother that they have the house and all their things as his followers pay them out of fear. Karswell himself does what he does out of fear of the magic himself. If others did not die, it would be him instead.
Holden spends the evening discussing Rand Hobart and supernatural hallucinations with his academic peers, Mark O’Brien and Kumar. O’Brien finds that all the pages of Holden’s desk calendar are torn out after the 28th, the day that Holden is expected to die.
The next evening, Holden and Joanna have dinner together. Joanna finds a note from her uncle where he recalls that he found the days torn out of his desk calendar after he was predicted to die. Though he’s concerned, Holden dismisses it.
Joanna’s uncle was cursed after a paper with ruins was given to him by Karswell. Holden looks into the papers that Karswell handed him on the day he was in the library and finds a parchment with runes written on it.
The next day Holden visits the Hobart family farm. He wants the family to sign release papers for Rand Hobart so that Holden and his fellow scientists can place Rand under hypnosis and find out what he saw and did the night that a fellow believer was killed. The family sees the cursed parchment in Holden’s wallet and declare him “chosen”.
Holden visits Stonehenge and notices the runes are similar to those written on the parchment.
Joanna and Holden are invited to a séance run by Mrs. Karswell who wishes to help Holden. Mr. and Mrs. Meek will lead the séance as Mr. Meek is a medium. Seemingly Mr. Harrington comes through and warns Holden to drop the investigation since Karswell is too powerful. Karswell has a translation to the ancient book. Holden leaves the building in disgust believing the entire thing to be a sham.
Joanna drives the two of them to Karswell’s estate. Holden enters the home through an open window. Conveniently, Holden finds the key translation book lying open on Kraswell’s desk. Some key pages are torn out and missing. He is then attacked by Kraswell’s house cat who morphs into a jaguar. Holden wrestles with a stuffed jaguar. Kraswell turns the light on and the house cat is sitting calmly on a chair. Kraswell’s cat is named Grimalkin and is kept as a minor demon to watch over his things. Kraswell mocks Holden and reminds him that he is fated to die the next day.
Holden exits the manor and is chased through the dark woods by a glowing smoke-orb.
Joanna and Holden go to Scotland Yard but are treated skeptically so they leave.
The next day Mrs. Kraswell tells Joanna that Rand Hobart also knows the secret of the parchment paper.
Rand Hobart is put under hypnosis by Holden at the academic lecture. Rand says that a parchment was passed to him so that he was “the chosen” one to die. Holden shows him his own parchment and asks if it is the same. Rand cries that he passed it back to the person who gave it to him saying “it’s the only way” to be rid of the curse. Rand starts to believe Holden is trying to pass his paper to him and panics. Rand throws himself out of a nearby window and dies.
Holden learns that Karswell is taking a train to Southampton and finds that Karswell is keeping a hypnotized Joanna with him. Karswell wakes Joanna from her trance and she tells Holden that Karswell is terrified of him and is trying to run away. Karswell tries to avoid accepting anything from Holden, but as he leaves he grabs his coat and realizes that the paper was slipped into the pocket by Holden.
The parchment flies out of Karswell’s grip and sails outside of the train. Karswell chases it. The demon appears and chases him. Soon an oncoming train is approaching and Karswell is stuck between both. The demon attacks Karswell, killing him.
The police believe the body was hit and dragged by the train. Joanna and Holden walk away from the event unharmed but a bit shaken.
Review:
An amusing story about the occult from the point of view of a skeptic. The movie never once plays with the idea that everything may be fake. Instead we are thrust into a world where demons routinely murder cursed victims and the average English person seems to be superstitious.
The titular demon is so fuzzy and cute. It appears more to look like an oriental dragon than something that is truly menacing. Indeed, the only menace seems to be the limited time in which Holden has to realize that the superstitious things in this world are real and he is fated to die.
There are a lot of nice practical effects. From the mechanical looking demon, the orbs of smoke filling the night sky, to the flying parchment papers. For the time it was made, this film has a good amount of special effects.
Unfortunately, the film is bogged down more by plot. The pace is slow and not quite as exciting as more modern fare. However, this is a notable film and recommended for anyone who is interested in older horror movies with nice special effects.
Notes: The American released version, named “Curse of the Demon”, runs at 81 minutes and cuts several scenes. Scenes omitted include: The Hobart farm, parts of the séance, stonehenge and conversations between Kraswell and his mother.