Capital Celluloid 2017 - Day 244: Sun Sep 3

Night of the Demon (Tourneur, 1957): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 4.30pm


This film, part of the Stephen King Picks strand at BFI Southbank, is also being screened on September 7th. You can find the full details here.

Chicago Reader review:
A major work in that minor genre, horror movies. Intelligent, delicate, and actually frightening (no kidding), this 1957 feaure was directed by Jacques Tourneur, author of many of the best of Val Lewton's famous series of B-budget shockers. A shot or two of a cheesy monster (insisted upon by the producer) are the only violations of the film's sublime allusiveness, through which the unseen acquires a palpitating presence. Tourneur is attempting a rational apprehension of the irrational, examining not so much the supernatural itself but the insecurities it springs from and the uses it may be put to. With Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins (of Gun Crazy), and Niall MacGinnis in a witty, Hitchcockian performance as an urbane warlock.
Dave Kehr


Here (and above) is a video essay on the film by Chris Fujiwara.

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