Night of the Demon

John Holden, an American psychologist, arrives in England for a conference. His purpose is to debunk supernatural claims. Behind the suspicious death of a colleague stands Julian Karswell, the leader of a cult. Karswell hands Holden a scrap of paper marked with runes, and whoever is given it dies within three days. The subject is not the monster but a non-believer being forced towards belief. Holden spends the film looking for an explanation and each one he finds is more strained than the last. Karswell himself is an ordinary man: he lives with his mother and performs conjuring tricks for children. The form rests on shadow and sound; Jacques Tourneur was known for implying horror rather than showing it, and he designed this film that way. That is exactly where the fight broke out. Over the objections of Tourneur and his lead actor, the producer Hal E. Chester added footage of an actual monster and put it on screen in the opening minutes. The addition weakened the film's whole structure of ambiguity and the decision is still argued about. In America it played in a shortened version as Curse of the Demon. Dana Andrews plays Holden, Peggy Cummins his colleague's niece and Niall MacGinnis plays Karswell. Who it is for: viewers who like classical British horror and tension built on implication. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a modern horror tempo; the film is slow and its dread is hidden in the conversation scenes.