Night of the Demon

This article is about the 1957 film. For other uses, see Night of the Demon (disambiguation).

Night of the Demon
UK quad crown theatrical release poster
Directed byJacques Tourneur
Screenplay by
Based on"Casting the Runes"
1911 story in More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
by M. R. James
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyTed Scaife[1]
Edited byMichael Gordon[1]
Music byClifton Parker[1]
Production
company
Sabre Film Production[1]
Distributed byColumbia Pictures[1]
Release date
  • November 1957 (1957-11) (United Kingdom)
Running time
96 minutes (original)
82 minutes (US cut)
CountryUnited Kingdom[1]
LanguageEnglish

Night of the Demon (U.S. title: Curse of the Demon) is a 1957 British horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins and Niall MacGinnis.[2] It was produced by Hal E. Chester and Frank Bevis,[1] and was adapted from the M. R. James story "Casting the Runes". The film's storyline concerns an American psychologist (Andrews) who travels to England to investigate a satanic cult suspected in more than one death.

Turbulent artistic differences arose between producer Hal E. Chester on one side, and director Tourneur and writer Charles Bennett on the other over Chester's plan to show the demon on screen, but Chester prevailed. To accelerate the pace and make the film more commercial, the 96-minute original feature was trimmed down to 82 minutes prior to its release in the United States.[3] This shortened version was retitled Curse of the Demon, playing in June 1958 as the second half of a double feature with either The True Story of Lynn Stuart (1958) or The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), depending on the local film market.[4]

Though not a significant commercial success on its initial release in 1957, Night of the Demon has been highly acclaimed by critics and filmmakers in retrospect, and is considered one of the greatest horror films of all time.[5][6][7] At the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100%.[8]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Night of the Demon". Monthly Film Bulletin. 25 (288). London: 7. 1958. ISSN 0027-0407.
  2. ^ "Night of the Demon". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 30 October 2023.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Earnshaw65 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Warren, Bill (1986). "Keep Watching The Skies Volume 2". McFarland & Co., Inc. ISBN 0-89950-170-2. Page 776
  5. ^ "The 100 best horror films". Time Out. Archived from the original on 8 April 2013. Retrieved 13 April 2014.
  6. ^ CC. "The 100 best horror films: the list". Time Out. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  7. ^ Scorsese, Martin (28 October 2009). "11 Scariest Horror Movies of All Time". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 16 December 2020. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
  8. ^ "Curse of the Demon (1958) - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes.com. Flixer. Archived from the original on 3 December 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2018.