Welcome to my very-first edition of Nick’s Horror Flick Picks everyone! In this series, I will primarily be giving you reviews of horror films that could potentially be hidden and underappreciated gems in the genre. For my first blog post to you on this journey, I have decided to shed some light on a low budget film by the title of Curse of the Demon (also known as Night of the Demon in the extended UK version). This horror flick was published in 1957 by the director Jacques Tourner, who is respected by critics for his work in the films Out of the Past, Cat People, and I Walked with a Zombie. The film was also intended to be an adaptation of a 1911 story titled Casting the Runes by M.R. James. Judging by the film’s somewhat campy cover art as well as its rather uninspiring and generic title, I went into this flick expecting it to just be yet another cheesy old-school film that has aged like milk. However, online critics and audiences have given Curse of the Demon seemingly endless heaps of praise, with the film currently sitting at an 7.4/10 audience rating on IMDB and an 85% audience rating plus 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Heck, even Stephen King (one of my favorite authors) tweeted that Curse of the Demon was “an excellent horror film” and a “spiritual ancestor of HEREDITARY and THE WICKER MAN”. After seeing all of this stunning online acclaim, I decided to devote an hour and a half of my night to see whether or not all of this hype was truly justified! WARNING: This post includes spoilers for the 1957 film Curse of the Demon/Night of the Demon.
Before I dissect certain scenes and acting performances that stood out to me, I’d first like to start out with an overview of what we’re getting into with this film. Basically, this flick centers around a man named Dr. Julian Karswell and his powerful cult he is running in the shadows. Karswell’s cult specializes in weaponizing powers of witchcraft and satanism against any foes who dare stand in their way, with no mercy shown whatsoever. After years of rumors spreading about the power Karswell holds, a group of scientists and psychologists decide to hold a major conference in London to try and expose the truths behind this sinister man once and for all.
One of the more vital professionals who is going to be lecturing at this conference is Dr. Henry Harrington, but right before the event takes place, Harrington ends up dying a very mysterious death out of the blue. While officials believe it was caused by him crashing into a power-line pole, some (especially Henry’s niece Joanna) suspect that something much more sinister had gone down that night! After all, his body was left completely battered and ripped up according to witness accounts, which would not seem to line up with the original hypothesis for his death.
Despite this tragedy, the conference goes on as scheduled, and Dr. John Holden (who had worked closely with Dr. Harrington) was also going to present at this get-together. Heading into the meeting, he thinks that the entire idea of this supposed cult is baloney, and he makes a mockery of the situation on countless occasions throughout the film. In response to Holden and the investigation, Karswell purposely crosses his path multiple times in order to get his attention and attempt to scare him. Of these encounters, one of the most notable is when Karswell sneaks a parchment paper with ancient runic symbols on it into Holden’s belongings after meeting him for the first time. Why is this significant you may ask? Well, on this slip of paper, Karswell wrote a curse on it that would end up summoning a demon out of hibernation on a set time and date. This puts Holden in immense danger for the remainder of the film, because if he does not pass this parchment back to Karswell before the deadline, then he will end up being mangled to pieces by the demon in just a few days. In other encounters, Karswell also performs black magic and other acts in an attempt to convince Holden of his otherworldly powers. However, Holden amusingly formulates excuses for each of these supernatural occurrences he witnesses! In one scene, Karswell summons hurricane conditions to start ravaging their location out of nowhere on a previously tranquil day. Rather than accepting that Karswell caused this storm with his magic, Holden instead excuses these impossible circumstances as just a cyclone moving into England, even though cyclones virtually never strike the UK. As you can evidently see, Holden is having absolutely none of Karswell’s mind games.
After an endless amount of failed attempts by Joanna Harrington and other characters to convince Holden about Karswell’s powers, he finally ends up becoming sold during the professional conference scene. During this scene, Holden hypnotizes a man named Rand Hobart who is a former member of Karswell’s cult. This man is in a trance-like state due to the traumatizing experience of the demon killing his brother, which is what led to the professionals testing and interrogating him. After Hobart eventually becomes responsive, Holden then holds up the parchment paper that Karswell had snuck into his belongings a few days prior in order to see if Hobart recognizes it. Once he focuses his eyes onto the paper, Hobart begins losing his mind, because he had actually passed one of these papers to his now-deceased brother before the demon murdered him! To Holden, seeing his reaction is the dire wake-up call he needed. He realizes that Dr. Harrington likely not only died from being passed one of these parchment papers, but that he could be the demon’s next victim if he does not manage to put his own paper back into Dr. Karswell’s possession.
In response to this realization, Holden hastily scrambles to a nearby train station where Karswell attempts to escape out of the city via train. After a hilarious and tense standoff with Karswell, he then miraculously manages to sneak the parchment paper back into Karswell’s possession while on the train with him! As soon as Karswell realizes that Holden sneaked the parchment into his belongings, the paper then flies out of the train’s door, and he is left with no choice but to chase it down outside on the train tracks. Despite Karswell’s last-ditch attempt to retrieve the slip and pass it back to Holden, he ends up running out of time, and Karswell is now officially screwed! Similarly to the Harrington death scene, we start hearing a bizarre squeaking sound, and the demon then surges into appearance from a billowing cloud of smoke. Karswell pathetically attempts to outrun the demon, but he is of course unsuccessful, and the movie concludes with the demon satisfyingly beating the cult frontman around like a ragdoll.
Moving onto noteworthy scenes here, a pivotal moment that set the tone for the remainder of this film (for better and for worse) was the initial arrival of the demon starting around the 6 minute mark. Here, the scene kicks off with Harrington putting his car away in his garage. Right as Dr. Harrington is entering his household, we suddenly hear a bizarre squeaking sound, and a bright cloud of smoke erupts out of the thin air in the woods. Within seconds, the cloud morphs into a menacing looking demon that starts charging after Harrington, and we are given intriguing long shots of the demon’s appearance!
However, this is where some issues started to arise for me. In my opinion, Dr. Harringtion’s reaction to the demon simply does not seem urgent enough. Rather than panicking and immediately sprinting away (which I would expect to see in this situation), he seemed like he took his sweet time in trying to escape the demon pursuing him. Another blemish to note here is that I found his initial scream to be absolutely underwhelming as well. It was a rather pathetic and forced-sounding wail, which reminds me more of someone who had just stubbed their toe rather than someone who is about to be torn to smithereens by Satan himself. To make matters even worse, Dr. Harrington then somehow runs into a powerline pole as he attempts to drive away, and oh boy was this moment perplexing. First of all, there is only one small pole near his driveway, and you’re telling me that he just so happens to reverse right into the damn thing as this demon is chasing him down? Then, Harrington not only stops attempting to drive (because power lines had landed on his car, but he probably still could’ve drove through them to be honest), but he somehow leaps right into the power lines as he attempts to run away, electrocuting himself. I mean, come on, really? I get that one of the essential themes of horror films is the main characters lacking basic critical thinking skills, but these decisions just felt far too unconvincing to me.
To top it all off, the demon swoops in to make him his next meal, and we are given rather cringe-worthy close-up shots of the monster as it grabs Harrington. If I’m being fair, the detail put into this monster is somewhat admirable given the film was made in 1957. At the same time, I still found the demon close-ups to be ridiculously cheesy despite this context. The monster just does not look life-like enough to scare me, and I instead found myself dying of laughter at these amateur close-up shots. Continuing my criticism of the demon, I also found the sound effects used for it to be quite baffling. Whenever it appears throughout this scene (and film in general), it sounds like a bunch of squeaking mice or the sound of a shopping cart with broken wheels being dragged across a store floor. If I’m being blunt here, neither of these are sounds I tend to associate with a hulking and blood-lusting demon!
One more scene that I feel is worthy of analysis is the grand finale. As mentioned in my overview, Dr. Holden has finally cracked the code at this point, and realizes that he must brainstorm an imaginative way of sneaking the cursed strip of paper back into Karswell’s hands. In order to attempt this plan, he hunts down Karswell, who is not only cowardly fleeing on a train, but has also taken Joanna Harrington hostage along with him.
For the first few minutes of the scene, the audience plays spectator to a grueling chess match between the film’s focal characters in Karswell and Holden. Holden’s first move in this tense struggle is to hand him an enveloped letter for him to share with the media as a way of apologizing to him and “admitting his power” to others. Dr. Karswell wisely shoots down this supposedly generous offer, because he knows that Holden has almost certainly hidden the parchment paper inside of this envelope. Holden then tries to offer up one of his cigarettes for Karswell to smoke. Once again, we see a paranoid Julian Karswell reject his advances, and he justifies this rejection by claiming he no longer smokes anymore (which we all know is BS). Since Karswell is too petrified to partake in Holden’s offers, Holden decides he wants to take a smoke for himself in what could be his last moments on earth. So, Karswell lets him borrow his lighter in order to ignite a cigarette. However, when Holden tries to give it back to him, he hilariously refuses to take back his own lighter that he had just shared out of so-called generosity. At this point, Dr. Holden can see right through this nice guy act that Karswell is putting on, and he takes comical and sassy jabs at the cult leader’s irregular behavior! Every single move made by Holden thus far is centered on sneaking the parchment into his possession, and Karswell is simply too intelligent to take the bait.
Knowing that Holden has him completely figured out now, Karswell attempts to flee the room they are sitting in. Despite this, Holden keeps the pressure on. He not only barricades the doorway, but he also shoves Karswell back into his seat like he’s a misbehaving child on a school bus. Karswell, a man who has seemed virtually impenetrable throughout this film, finally begins to show cracks in his persona for the very first time. He starts hurling aggressive verbal insults at Holden, and he even appears to be on the verge of tears as well. At this point, Holden is essentially only giving him two terrible options: either don’t take the parchment but still have to witness the horrors of the demon in front of him (since they’re in the same room), or take it and suffer the fate Holden is about to endure.
However, right when all hope appears lost for the fallen cult master, he is gifted a miracle from the heavens. A duo of police officers have overheard their conversation, and they decide to team up against Dr. Holden because they feel he was being unfair to Karswell! Because of this, the officers start escorting the cult frontman out of the room, and now the needle has abruptly flipped in Karswell’s favor. With this now becoming a do-or-die moment, Holden scans the room for any potential items that Karswell might have left behind as he is hastily scrambling to get off the train. The transition initially appears to be flowing smoothly for Karswell, but there is just one problem here: he has forgotten his jacket in the room. Holden pounces on this opportunity by “kindly” handing Karswell his jacket while simultaneously shoving the slip of paper into one of the coat’s pockets. For Holden, this was his checkmate move. He came out of this four minute long standoff victorious, and we are about to witness Dr. Karswell get a taste of his own medicine.
As soon as Karswell locates the cursed paper in the pocket, it goes flying out of his hands and out of the train’s door. An endless chase down with the paper then ensues, which I briefly referred to in the overview section of my post. Unsurprisingly, Karswell’s desperate pursuit of the parchment fails miserably, and we are re-introduced to a friend we know well from the beginning of the film; the demon. Right off the bat, I must say that I found Karswell’s reaction to witnessing the demon to be much more genuine than Dr. Harrington’s was, so we’re already off to a much better start. The audience is also once-again given effective long shots of the demon’s appearance, increasing the tension of the moment. Unfortunately, the tension would not last for much longer, as the dreaded demon close-up shot makes its disastrous return to the film. To be frank, I have absolutely no idea why anyone involved with the production of this film thought any of these close-up shots should have been included at all. While these shots did provide me immense laughter at their expense, I can’t help but feel that they greatly diminish any anxiety I was feeling prior. Despite the close-up shots making me cringe once again, the scene is fortunately still somewhat salvaged at the very end. At about 1:19:33 of the U.S. version, the audience is given a shockingly well-crafted low angle shot of the demon bashing Karswell to bits as a train zooms by. For whatever reason, the producers of this film managed to make the demon look much more menacing in this shot than in any of the others, which I found fascinating. I truly think it’s a shame that the demon could not be portrayed this effectively in other shots, as this film would have been significantly greater in my eyes with a more potent monster.
When analyzing the character performances in this film, there are quite a few that I found to be top notch. Dana Andrews starred in this flick as Dr. Holden, and I felt his performance was very witty, composed, and also admiringly sarcastic. He was supposed to play the role of a skeptical, scientifically-minded professional, and I believe he nailed this persona throughout the entire film. I especially loved how he would find the most hilarious excuses for downright bizarre occurrences happening, such as when he excused being chased by the demon in a forest around the 57 minute mark as a “trick gadget” Karswell set up to scare him away. Being someone who is also a major skeptic of the paranormal myself, I could not help but find Dr. Holden to be very relatable throughout my consumption of the film.
Another performance that I also found to be very astute was that of Niall MacGinnis as Dr. Karswell. From his bearded appearance to his foreboding vocal tone, he had all of the makings of a man I could envision running a dangerous black magic cult. I especially found Karswell’s immense confidence in himself to be quite striking. He always gave you the feeling that he had the entire world in his hands, and he almost seemed to view himself as a godly figure of some sorts at times. I will also note that Karswell was just as witty and sarcastic as Holden was, and I especially appreciated this since I am an avid fan of sarcastic humor.
As phenomenal as these two men’s performances were, they were arguably topped by a character who was not in the film for very long: Rand Hobart. Hobart’s character was played by Brian Wilde, and although he was only on the screen for about 7 minutes, I found his acting to be downright haunting. At around 1:05:20 (of the U.S. version), Hobart is awoken from his slumber in the conference room, and he unexpectedly lunges up and screams from his seat as a close-up shot of his sweaty face is presented to the viewer, delivering arguably one of the scariest moments of the film. A few minutes later, Wilde then delivers an even more intense moment when he (once again) rapidly lunges up from where he’s sitting. Here, he not only starts to hysterically throw objects at the professionals and shove them around the room, but he also sprints over to a window in the hallway and hurls himself out of it to his death. To me, this was one of the few times watching this film that I was genuinely on the edge of my seat! You could just feel and see the hurt in both the man’s eyes (especially from the fantastic close-up shots of his face) as well as in his strained and disjointed vocal delivery, leading to possibly the most harrowing and memorable scene in this flick. Of all the performances in the film, Wilde’s was probably the one that impressed me the most.
When looking at the positives here, I will say that Curse of the Demon is very shrewd for the time period it was released in. In my opinion, almost zero components of this film drag at all, which is a testament to the respectable work Jacques Tourner did here. Several reputable acting jobs were delivered in the filming process, and I also felt that the buildup to the ending was mostly worth the wait. Although the musical score is not mind-blowing, it is still worthy of receiving some praise, as it does an adequate job of enhancing the tension in just about every scene. Last but not least, there are multiple aspects related to the monster that I still find admirable. For example, I thought that the low angle shot of the demon thrashing Karswell at the end was incredible, and was one of the most awe-inducing moments of the film. I also found the medium-to-long camera shots of the demon to be much more detailed and enjoyable as well (when compared to the close-ups.)
However, there are also a few flaws that affected my score for this flick. In my opinion, the monster of this film is just not dreadful or memorable enough to have me truly terrified. I can clearly see that the film creators did everything in their power to make the demon as intimidating as possible for viewers of that time period (and to be honest, this monster probably was scary for a person watching back in the 50’s). At the same time, I found the monster’s sound effects to be very lackluster in nature, and the close-up shots of the demon also demolished much of the tension in the beginning and ending scenes. Another flaw (albeit not very big) is that I found Peggy Cummins (Joanna Harrington) and Maurice Denham’s (Dr. Harrington) performances to be rather mediocre. While Joanna did a proficient job of continually questioning Dr. Holden’s denial of reality and her voice acting was on-point, I somehow found her facial expressions to often not be expressive enough. This is a very minor gripe that did not bother me too much, but I just felt like she behaved in an oddly robotic manner throughout various points of the film.
All in all, Curse of the Demon is very much a product of its time period, which has caused some aspects of the flick to age questionably (cough cough, the demon). However, I would still recommend giving this film a chance regardless. It is not an all-time blockbuster, but it should still be a nostalgic watch for most horror film fanatics. This flick is a humorous and charming portrayal of old-school horror themes, and is packed with quite a few gems and underrated moments!
FINAL RATING: 6.5/10
– Nicholas DeBello, Blogger.
Nicholas DeBello – Blogger: Nicholas is a Senior at Lewis University who is currently working towards a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. After he graduates, he will likely pursue a Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Lewis University. He spends countless hours of his leisure time consuming YouTube videos and online forum posts of others reviewing/discussing music albums, films, and TV shows, which has inspired him to take his own stab at the art of media critique himself. Nicholas also enjoys going for nature walks, daydreaming, film-watching, and listening to his vinyl/CD collection in his free time as well. Some of Nicholas’ favorite films are The Silence of The Lambs, Parasite, The Truman Show, and The Thing (1982). He is also an avid fan of the television series Bojack Horseman.