This brings us to the wonderful character of Julian Karswell, the kiddie-clown turned multimillionaire cult leader. The man who launched Alfred Hitchcock as a maker of sophisticated thrillers here creates one of the most interesting villains ever written, surely as good as any in Hitchcock's movies. In the short American cut, Karswell is a shrewd games-player who seems to show Holden too many of his cards, and finally outsmarts himself. The longer UK cut retains the full depth of his character.

The key to Karswell is that he's tapped into the secrets of demonology to make himself rich and powerful, yet tragically recognizes that he also is a powerless pawn, as potentially vulnerable to the forces of Hell as are the cowering minions he controls through fear. Karswell's coven means business. It's an entirely different conception from the aesthetic salon coffee-clatch of The Seventh Victim, where nothing really supernatural happens, and where the only menace comes from a secret society commiting new crimes to hide old ones.

Karswell keeps a huge following living in fear, supporting his extravagant lifestyle, under the idea that Evil is Good, and Good Evil. At first, the Hobart farm seems to harbor religious Christian fundamentalists who've turned their backs on their son. Then we find out that they're Karswell followers, living blighted lives on cursed acreage, bled dry by their cultist 'leader.' Karswell's mum (Athene Seyler) is an inversion of the usual insane Hitchcock mother. She lovingly resists her son's philosophy, and actively tries to help the heroes. That's in the Night version, of course; in our shorter cut she only makes silly attempts to interest Joanna in her available son, and arranges for a seance. Mother confronts Julian on the stairs, obviously concerned by his 'negativity'. He has no friends, no wife, no family. He may be a mass extortionist, but he's her baby, after all. "You get nothing for nothing" says Karswell, and explains how, by exploiting his occult knowledge, he's immersed himself forever in Evil.

Karswell is like the devil on Earth, a force with very limited powers that he can't always control. By definition he cannot trust any of his own minions. They're unreliable, weak and prone to doublecross each other, attracting publicity that makes a secret society harder to conceal. He can't just kill Holden, as he hasn't a single henchman on the payroll, and instead has to summon the magic of the demon he's only recently mastered. When Karswell turns Harrington away in the first scene, we can sense his loneliness. The only person who can possibly understand is right before him, finally willing to admit his power and perhaps even tolerate him, and Karswell has no choice but to surrender him over to the un-recallable Demon. In his dealings with Holden, Karswell is defending his turf against the cult-debunker, but is also attempting to justify himself to a peer, another man who might be a potential equal. It's more than just a duel of egos between a James Bond and a Goldfinger, with arrogance and aggression masking a mutual respect; Karswell knows he's taken Lewton's "wrong turning in life", and will have to pay for it eventually.

Karswell eventually gets Holden's respect, especially after the fearful testimony of Rand Hobart. It's taken some extreme demonstrations to do it, but Holden's finally budged from his smug position. He may not buy all of the demonology hocus-pocus, but it's plain enough that Karswell or his 'demon' is going to somehow rub him out. Seeking to sneak the parchment back into Karswell's possession, Holden becomes a worthy hero again because he's found the maturity to doubt his own preconceptions. And armed with his rational, cool head, he's a force that makes Karswell - without his demon, of course - a relative weakling. Curse of the Demon ends with a classic ghost story twist, with just desserts dished out and balance recovered. The good characters are less sure of their world than when they started - but able to cope. Evil has been defeated not by love or faith, but by intellect.

Curse of the Demon has the Val Lewton sensibility, as has often been cited in Tourneur's frequent (and very effective) use of the device called the Lewton 'Bus' - a wholly artificial jolt induced by fast motion and noise interrupting a tense scene. There's an ultimate 'bus' at the end, where a train blasts in and sets us up for the end title. It 'erases' the embracing actors behind it, and I've always thought it had to be an inspiration for the last shot of North by NorthWest. The ever-playful Hitchcock was bored by mainstream movies and was reportedly a big viewer of fantastic films, from which he seems to have gotten many ideas. He's said to have dined with Lewton on more than one occasion (makes sense, they were at one time both Selznick property) and carried on a covert competion with William Castle, of all people.

Visually, Tourneur's film is marvellous, effortlessly conjuring up menacing forests lit in the fantastic Mario Bava mode by Ted Scaife, who was not known as a genre stylist. There's more than a few perfunctory sets, with some unflattering mattes used for airport interiors, etc, but elsewhere the show is beautifully designed by Ken Adam, in one of his earliest outings. Karswell's ornate floor and central staircase evokes an Escher print, especially when visible/invisible hands appear on the bannister. There's an hypnotic, maze-like set for a hotel corridor that's also tainted by Escher, and evokes a sense of the uncanny even better than the horrid sounds Holden hears. The build-up of terror is so effective, that one rather unconvincing episode (a fight with a Cat People - like transforming cat) does no harm. Other effects, such as the demon footprints appearing in the forest, are very powerful.

In his Encyclopedia of Horror Movies, Phil Hardy very rightly relates Curse of the Demon's emphasis on the visual to the then just-beginning Euro-horror subgenre. The works of Bava, Margheriti, and Freda would make the photographic texture of the screen the prime element of their films, sometimes above acting and story logic.

Columbia TriStar's DVD of Curse of the Demon / Night of the Demon presents both versions of this classic in one package. American viewers saw an effective-but-not-as-complex cutdown. If you've seen Curse of the Demon on cable TV or rented a vhs or a laser anytime after 1987, you're not going to see anything different in the film. In 1987, Columbia happened to pull the English cut of the film when it went to remaster. When the title came up as Night of the Demon, they just slugged in the Curse main title card and let it go.

Being able to see the two versions back to back shows exactly how they differ. Curse omits a lot, and rearranges some scenes as well. Gone is some narration from the title sequence, most of the airplane ride, some dialogue on the ground with the newsmen, and several scenes with Karswell talking to his mother. Most crucially missing are Karswell's mother showing Joanna the cabalistic book everyone talks so much about, and Holden's entire visit to the Hobart farm, to secure a release for his examination of Rand Hobart. Of course the cut film still works, (we loved the cut Curse at UCLA screenings, and there are people who actually think it's better) but it's nowhere near as involving as the complete UK version. Curse also reshuffles some events, moving Holden's phantom encounter in the hallway nearer the beginning, which may have been to get a spooky scene in the middle section, or to better disguise the loss of whole scenes later. The chop-job should have been obvious. The newly-imposed fades and dissolves can look awkward, and one cut very sloppily happens right in the middle of a previous dissolve.

Night places both Andrews and Cummins' credits above the title, and gives McGinnis an 'also starring' credit immediately afterwards. Oddly, Curse sticks Cummins afterwards, and relegates McGinnis to the top of the 'also with' cast list. Maybe with his role chopped down, some Columbia executive thought he didn't deserve the billing?

Technically, both versions look just fine, very sharp and free of any digital funkiness that would spoil the film's spooky visual texture. Night of the Demon is the version to watch, both for content and quality. It's not perfect but has better contrast and much less dirt than the American version. Curse has more emulsion scratches and flecking white dandruff in its dark scenes, yet looks fine until one sees the improvement of Night. Both shows are 16:9 enhanced (hosanna), and properly cropped for widescreen - framing the action at its original, tighter aspect ratio.

It's terrific that Columbia TriStar has brought out this film so thoughtfully, even though some viewers are going to be confused when their 'double feature' disc appears to be two copies of the same movie. Let 'em stew. This is Savant's favorite release so far this year.

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Curse of the Demon / Night of the Demon rates:
Movie: Excellent
Video: Very Good
Sound: Good
Supplements: 2 trailers (none for Curse of the Demon)
Packaging: Amaray case
Reviewed: July 24, 2002