Like Out of the Past, this was simply not a film I could enjoy. Here I pose two theories...first, Tourneur's films that stick closer to genre are not as good as those that defy them. Second, and relatedly, I am bad at watching great films. In particular, great horror films? I had a similarly disappointing experience watching Eyes Without A Face. But in that I could see the good film that wasn't reaching me. In Night of the Demon, I saw a visually striking film that, in the end, probably could have been good camp if it had tried. My mind shouldered that responsibility as, for whatever reason, I found myself replacing Peggy Cummins' face with a face-masked Edith Scob. An amazing seance scene (the highlight of the movie maybe) helped too.
Three aspects of this film that are fun to think about yet nonetheless made it bad:
1. In somewhat of an inversion of Cat People, Holden/Dana Andrews seems surrounded by people who are quick to believe in the demonic powers of Karswell. It's almost laughable but it makes Holden's skepticism grating somehow.
2. In case we did not grasp that Andrews is a rational guy, he gives a moving speech (at least in form and placement) where he reveals that he's been that way since he was a young boy. He tells Cummins that while his friends walked around the ladder, he defiantly walked right under it. Well.
3. Karswell's supposed satanic cult exists? Maybe- we only meet Hobart who dies almost immediately. Does Mrs. Karswell play both sides because she doesn't want to crush the fanciful imagination of her strange son who has never quite grown up?
I also came up with a dream-related theory after watching Hong Sang-soo's Woman Is the Future of Man, so maybe I'm just into that right now. But Night of the Demon, unlike the great Tourneur films, offers no such space for mystification, in spite of a seemingly perfect opportunity.
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