Night of the Demon

Plot

In England, Professor Harrington begs his rival, Dr. Julian Karswell, to rescind a curse he inflicted on him; in return, Harrington will cease his investigation into Karswell's Satanic cult. After learning that a parchment he gave Harrington has been destroyed, Karswell merely promises to do what he can. As Harrington arrives home, he sees a cloud of smoke appear out of nowhere and a gigantic demon materialise from it. Harrington tries to escape in his car but crashes into power lines. The authorities declare accidental electrocution as the cause of death.

Dr. John Holden arrives in Britain to attend a convention at which Harrington had intended to expose Karswell's cult. He is informed that the only link between Harrington's death and Karswell's cult is a man suspected of murder, Rand Hobart, who has fallen into a catatonic stupor. While Harrington's collaborators consider the possibility of supernatural forces, Holden rejects such an option.

Holden meets Karswell apparently by chance at the British Museum Reading Room. When a rare book that Holden requests goes missing, Karswell offers to show Holden his own copy at his mansion. At Harrington's funeral, Holden meets Harrington's niece, Joanna. She gives him Harrington's diary, which details Harrington's fear of Karswell's power. Holden remains sceptical, but goes with Joanna to Karswell's mansion the next day, where Karswell is holding a Halloween party for local children. When a strong windstorm abruptly starts, Karswell claims to have created it with a spell. When Holden mocks him, Karswell claims that Holden will die in three days.

Holden and his colleagues discuss Karswell and make plans to examine Rand Hobart. Holden goes to dinner with Joanna and she shows him her uncle's diary. Harrington's diary mentions a parchment with runic writing on it that was passed to him by Karswell, and Holden finds a similar parchment that Karswell secretly passed to him at the library. A powerful wind comes through the window, blowing the parchment from his fingers towards the fireplace, only to be stopped by a fire screen. Holden recovers and pockets it.

Holden visits Hobart's family to seek permission to hypnotise Hobart and find out about the death he is suspected of. The mother gives her consent but says that the family are "believers". As Holden leaves, the parchment is blown from his hand. Hobart's family becomes fearful and declares Holden to be "chosen". Later, Holden compares the parchment's runes to ones inscribed on the nearby stone circle at Stonehenge.

Production

Screenwriter Charles Bennett owned the rights to the original story "Casting the Runes" and wrote a screenplay loosely based on it, using the title The Haunted. He sold his script to independent producer and former child actor Hal E. Chester shortly before going to America. Bennett later regretted selling the script, because on arrival in America he was approached by RKO, who wanted to purchase it and allow Bennett to direct the film. Actors Robert Taylor and Dick Powell had been in line for the leading roles if this production had taken place.

Despite having acquired the project from Bennett, Chester decided the Bennett screenplay was too tame, or as Tony Earnshaw described it, "too British". He hired blacklisted writer Cy Endfield to create the final screenplay. Despite his contribution, which Earnshaw said was "significant", Endfield was ultimately uncredited.

Jacques Tourneur was brought in as director by Chester on the recommendation of Ted Richmond, the producer of Tourneur's previous film, Nightfall (1957). However, Tourneur and Chester had serious disagreements during filming. One argument was about the wind scene; Tourneur tried to convince Chester to replace two electric fans with two aeroplane engines. When Chester hesitated, star Dana Andrews threatened to leave the picture if Chester did not let "the director direct the picture". Locations for the film include Brocket Hall, Hertfordshire (as Lufford Hall), Stonehenge, Bricket Wood railway station and the Reading Room of the British Museum.

Producer Chester and his British co-producer, Frank Bevis, had decided to show the demon at the beginning and end of the film. Tourneur later said that he was against the addition: "The scenes where you see the demon were shot without me...the audience should never have been completely certain of having seen the demon." Stop motion master Ray Harryhausen was requested by Columbia Pictures to create the demon for the production, but he was already committed to his Dynamation film The 7th Voyage of Sinbad with producer Charles H. Schneer. Author Tony Earnshaw's book Beating the Devil: The Making of Night of the Demon argues that showing the demon was planned early on in the production (despite Tourneur's protests to the contrary), in order to heighten the tension in the film by letting the audience know the demonic powers were real. Bennett, also angry at the script changes, said "If [Chester] walked up my driveway right now, I'd shoot him dead."

Release

Theatrical

Night of the Demon was released in November 1957 in the United Kingdom. It was shown on a double feature with the American film 20 Million Miles to Earth.

In the United States, it was released (in shortened form) as Curse of the Demon. According to Charles Bennett, the title was changed because the studio did not want it confused with the similarly titled The Night of the Iguana. It had the same reduced length of 82 minutes for its June 1958 American release. The scenes removed included a visit to the Hobart family farm, a trip to Stonehenge, and snippets of the séance scenes and conversations between Karswell and his mother. The visit to the British Library scene was rearranged in the film's viewing continuity. In the United States Curse of the Demon toured drive-ins and theatres as a double feature with either The True Story of Lynn Stuart or The Revenge of Frankenstein.

Home media

In the United States, the film was released on VHS in 1986 by Columbia TriStar Home Video with a run time of 83 minutes. A second VHS with the Continental 96-minute running time was released by Goodtimes Home Video Corp in 1988. In the same year, the film was released on LaserDisc by Image Entertainment/Columbia Pictures with an 81-minute running time. Including both the Continental version (Night of the Demon) and the 83-minute US version (Curse of the Demon), the film was released on DVD in August 2002.

In the United Kingdom, Night of the Demon was released on VHS in 1995 by Encore Entertainment/Columbia TriStar Home Video. The film was released on DVD in the United Kingdom for the first time on 18 October 2010. This release also includes both the Continental and US versions of the film. A Blu-ray edition from Powerhouse Films' Indicator label, featuring four different cuts of the film, was released as a UK all-region release on 22 October 2018.

Critical reception

In a contemporary review, The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "This essay in the occult is handled with much of the assurance the same director brought to Cat People (1942), and is well above average. Inevitably the sequences where the demon takes on a visible form are the weakest – especially in the ending – and seem rather the product of a child's nightmare than an adult's imagination. But the summoning of the storm, the experiences of Holden in Karswell's library and the woods and the rousing of one of Karswell's victims (brilliantly played by Brian Wilde) from a hypnotic trance are effective."

In the early 2010s, Time Out conducted a poll among numerous authors, directors, actors, and critics who have worked within the horror genre to vote for their top horror films. They placed Night of the Demon at number 52 on their top 100 list. Director Martin Scorsese placed Night of the Demon on his list of the 11 scariest horror films of all time.

Night of the Demon is regarded as one of the precursors of British folk horror films. According to Little White Lies, this film is "arguably the second film summoned into existence of the folk horror genre, following on 35 years from Benjamin Christensen's Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages".

At the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100%, based on 17 reviews.

In other media

Kate Bush used a sound clip from the film featuring the line, "it's in the trees, it's coming!", in her 1985 song "Hounds of Love".

Dark Ambient artist Lustmord used a sample of the line "It was the night of the demon" from the hypnosis scene late in the movie for his track "Ixaxaar" from the 2011 album The Monstrous Soul.