Diary of a Madman

Diary of a Madman is a 1963 American horror film directed by Reginald Le Borg and starring Vincent Price, Nancy Kovack, and Chris Warfield. The screenplay, written by producer Robert Kent, is an adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's short story "Le Horla" ("The Horla"), written in 1887. Plot Following the funeral of Simon Cordier (Vincent Price), a French magistrate and amateur sculptor, his secret diary is read out by Simon's pastor friend to a group of people gathered around the table, Simon's servants, and a police captain. The diary reveals that Simon has come into contact with a malevolent entity. The invisible yet corporeal being, called a horla, is capable of limited psychokinesis and complete mind control. It is implied that Cordier's particular horla is one of a whole race of evil beings which devote themselves to driving humans insane. Cordier first interacts with the horla when he meets a prisoner whom the entity drove to murder four people. The horla possesses the inmate and attempts to kill Cordier, who in self-defense accidentally kills the man. The magistrate inherits the prisoner's troubles as the horla turns its hauntings toward him.