The Horror!
EXORCISING GHOSTS
Hounds Of Love’s healthy obsession with the supernatural.
By DORIAN LYNSKEY.
It‘s behind you: (clock-wise from above) Night Of The Demon’s titular ghoul; Jack Nicholson in The Shining; Isabelle Adjani and Klaus Kinski in Nosferatu The Vampyre.
Alamy (3)
IN OCTOBER 1956 THE AMERICAN ACTOR DANA Andrews met the young Queen Elizabeth II at a Royal Com-mand Performance in London. She asked him about the movie he was making. “Well, it’s about witchcraft in England,” he replied. Her Majesty wrinkled her nose. “Good heavens! Don’t bring that back again!”
The movie was Night Of The Demon, in which Andrews plays Dr John Holden, a sceptical psychologist who investigates Aleister Crowley-esque cult leader Professor Karswell. Based on Casting The Runes by M.R. James, the Edwardian maestro of the super-natural stor y, it was a tonal bridge between the chillers that director Jacques Tourneur had made for RKO’s Val Lewton in the 1940s and the lurid new wave of Hammer Horror. Tourneur and screenwriter Charles Bennett wanted to respect James’s taste for ancient forces that insinuate themselves into sleepy old England, unseen and un-explained, but the brash American producer Hal Chester was ada-mant: “You cannot cheat the audience. They expect to see a demon, so give them one.” A rather shonky fire demon duly appears.