Review: Curse of the Demon

Curse of the Demon, 1957, 95 minutes, B&W, British. Directed by Jacques Tourneur. Starring Dana Andrews as Dr. John Holden, Peggy Cummins as Joanna Harrington, Liam Redmond as Mark O'Brien, Niall MacGinnis as Dr. Julian Carswell, Maurice Denham as Professor Harrington, and Brian Wilde as Rand Hobart. Schlock-Meter rating: 9 stars out of 10.

Curse of the Demon is based on a short story, Casting the Runes, by M.R. James, a British writer who gained fame depicting horror in a subtle manner that often left a victim's fate to the imagination. The story is about an American psychologist (Andrews) who travels to England to try and expose the leader of a devil worshipping cult (MacGinnis) as a fraud. On the way, Andrews' character, Dr. John Holden, becomes acquainted with Joanna Harrington, the niece of a colleague of Holden's, Professor Harrington (Denham), who was murdered while investigating MacGinnis' cult leader, named Julian Carswell.

Holden's a cheerful skeptic, and he's amused that so many of his colleagues believe that Carswell can really raise demons. He gets to know Carswell, who informs Holden that he will die in three days. Before he dies, the cult leader informs Holden, he will suffer great anxiety. From that point on the suspense builds as evidence grows that Carswell can do what he says, and Holden slowly grows to realize that he's battling a terror he must learn to believe in.

MacGinnis, as the evil cult leader Carswell, is magnificent. He is a contrast, always full of arrogance, but able to apppear as cheerful as Kris Kringle. However, within seconds, he can move to anger, revealing his lack of humanity, yet never losing his courtly manner. Andrews is in a role where he slowly has to change his beliefs, and he does a good job of trying to resist what his instincts tell him can't be. Director Tourneur builds suspense with little surprises, such as Holden discovering that his date book appointments are all torn off after the 28th of the month, the night he is slated to die. Wilde is wonderfully creepy in a small role as a catatonic ex-disciple of Carswell's who is brought back to consciousness for a short time.

Curse of the Demon is a classic of its genre, and recommended for any cult film library. One minor quibble: The demon in the film should have been implied, rather than shown. It's adequate as a fright piece, but ultimately not as scary as our own thoughts can conjure it to be. Notes: In Britain, the film is titled Night of the Demon and runs 82 minutes; Liam Redmond, who plays a colleague of Andrews in the film, starred several years later as a typesetter in the Don Knotts semi-cult ghostly comedy The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.

-- Doug Gibson