Curse of the Demon

Jacques Tourneur
1957

Maybe I'm not watching the right B-movies, but it seems that horror flicks inspired by Satanism are something of a rarity in classic Hollywood cinema. The only other example that comes to mind is Mark Robson's brilliant Val Lewton picture "The Seventh Victim" (1943). This exploration of the malevolent, directed by Jacques Tourneur, who had previously directed for Lewton as well, boasts a massive monster nipping at the heels of a skeptic American psychologist during a stay in soggy old England. Dana Andrews works well as the sober doc, and Peggy Cummins is nice as the hard-to-get love interest, but Niall MacGinnis's mephistophelian Karswell steals the show in being the epitome of a Lovecraftian character in search of dark knowledge. Karswell's got all the occult affectations one could wish for and subtly predicts the style and aesthetic of Satanic icon Anton Lavey. What's more, when he's not siccing hellish demons on his enemies he moonlights as a birthday clown! Tourneur was apparently against any visual depiction of the demon, and the director does a solid job of building atmosphere and mood, most successfully with the grim secret-hiding villagers, but I for one enjoy the giant fire-breathing puppet, and am grateful for it's inclusion.