The Psychological Themes Explored in "Curse of the Demon" (1956)

"Curse of the Demon" is a British horror film released in 1956, directed by Jacques Tourneur. Based on the story "Casting the Runes" by M.R. James, the film follows the character of Dr. John Holden, an American psychologist who investigates a satanic cult and a series of deaths believed to be caused by a demon. The film opens with the mysterious death of a professor who had been investigating a satanic cult.

Though presumably not the intent with which Night of the Demon was made, Dr. John Holden (Dana Andrews) is an astonishingly apt avatar for the way white men — and white people in general — function in modern culture. For Holden, the world in which he lives is the only world, and any attempts to question it are greeted with derision, dismissal ("What truths? Myths. Demonology and witchcraft have been discredited since the Middle Ages.") and, most importantly, the claiming of a position — the position — of authority ("I wrote a book about it."). Even when he's asked to simply listen to another point of view, Holden's response is firm and immediate: "I'm not open to persuasion." There is…

Also, there s a really cool shot where the camera is following someone down the stairs when, suddenly, a hand appears on the banister behind them in the foreground. I like atomic bug and Martian flicks of the 1950 s but they were never my favorite 50 s movie like say, Invasion of the Body Snatchers or The Thing from Another World were, but then there s this little gem that feels like a pre- X-Files monster of the week episode through the lense of Jacques I Walked with a Zombie Cat People Out of the Past Tourneur as he channels his previous Val Lewton vibes with great effect especially with that damn fine cinematography and an evil Doctor named Karswell.

The film opens with the mysterious death of a professor who had been investigating a satanic cult. Dr. Holden attends the funeral and becomes involved in the investigation, skeptical of the supernatural claims surrounding the deaths.

Curse of the Demon (1958)

The working titles of this film were Night of the Demon , The Bewitched , Casting the Runes and The Haunted . The film opens with an image of a Stonehenge-like ruin over which an offscreen narrator states: "It has been written since the beginning of time even unto these ancient stones, that evil, supernatural creatures exist in a world of darkness. And it is also said man using the magic power of the ancient runic symbols can call forth these powers of darkness, the demons of hell." The film was produced at Associated British Picture Corp. Studios, which is abbreviated on the print as A.B.P.C. The Copyright Catalog lists the film's running time as 95 minutes, which according to a modern source, was the running time of the British release.
In an interview contained in a modern source, director Jacques Tourneur stated that he was opposed to showing the demon. Tourneur said "The scenes in which you really see the demon were shot without me. All except one. I shot the sequence in the woods where Dana Andrews is chased by a sort of cloud. This technique should have been used for other sequences. The audience should never have completely seen the demon. They ruined the film by showing it [the demon] from the very beginning." In a different interview Tourneur explained, "I wanted, at the very end, when the train goes by, to include only four frames of the monster. but after I had finished [the film] and returned to the U.S., the English producer made that horrible thing [the monster]." .

The working titles of this film were Night of the Demon , The Bewitched , Casting the Runes and The Haunted . The film opens with an image of a Stonehenge-like ruin over which an offscreen narrator states: "It has been written since the beginning of time even unto these ancient stones, that evil, supernatural creatures exist in a world of darkness. And it is also said man using the magic power of the ancient runic symbols can call forth these powers of darkness, the demons of hell." The film was produced at Associated British Picture Corp. Studios, which is abbreviated on the print as A.B.P.C. The Copyright Catalog lists the film's running time as 95 minutes, which according to a modern source, was the running time of the British release.
In an interview contained in a modern source, director Jacques Tourneur stated that he was opposed to showing the demon. Tourneur said "The scenes in which you really see the demon were shot without me. All except one. I shot the sequence in the woods where Dana Andrews is chased by a sort of cloud. This technique should have been used for other sequences. The audience should never have completely seen the demon. They ruined the film by showing it [the demon] from the very beginning." In a different interview Tourneur explained, "I wanted, at the very end, when the train goes by, to include only four frames of the monster. but after I had finished [the film] and returned to the U.S., the English producer made that horrible thing [the monster]."

Based on othe story "Casting the Runes" by Montague R. James in More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (London, 1911).

One night, professor Henry Harrington, a scientist investigating a devil cult run by Dr. Julian Karswell, drives to Karswell’s country estate outside London to beg him to retract a curse he has invoked on the professor. After Harrington promises to recant his exposé, Karswell asks him to return a piece of parchment he was given that contains runic symbols. Harrington responds that the parchment flew out of his hands into the blazing fireplace at his house where it was incinerated. Later, as Harrington pulls into his garage, a demonic figure emerges from a stand of trees. Panicked, Harrington backs his car into an electrical pole and is electrocuted by the fallen lines. The next day, John Holden, an American authority on paranormal psychology, arrives in London to address a conference of his peers. Holden is met by Harrington’s aide, Lloyd Williamson, who informs him that Harrington was found dead that morning. At Holden’s hotel room, Williamson introduces the other participants of the conference—Professor Mark O’Brien, an expert in devil worship and Kumar, a psychologist from India. When O’Brien shows Holden several sketches of demons drawn by Rand Hobart, a member of Karswell’s cult who has been jailed for murder, and then suggests that the sketches prove Hobart was acting under forces of evil, the skeptical Holden scoffs at his theory. After Karswell phones to ask Holden to call off his investigation into the cult, however, Holden changes his mind about O’Brien’s theory and decides to question Hobart. The next day at the British Museum, Holden retraces Harrington’s research and discovers that a critical manuscript about witches and demons is missing. .

One night, professor Henry Harrington, a scientist investigating a devil cult run by Dr. Julian Karswell, drives to Karswell’s country estate outside London to beg him to retract a curse he has invoked on the professor. After Harrington promises to recant his exposé, Karswell asks him to return a piece of parchment he was given that contains runic symbols. Harrington responds that the parchment flew out of his hands into the blazing fireplace at his house where it was incinerated. Later, as Harrington pulls into his garage, a demonic figure emerges from a stand of trees. Panicked, Harrington backs his car into an electrical pole and is electrocuted by the fallen lines. The next day, John Holden, an American authority on paranormal psychology, arrives in London to address a conference of his peers. Holden is met by Harrington’s aide, Lloyd Williamson, who informs him that Harrington was found dead that morning. At Holden’s hotel room, Williamson introduces the other participants of the conference—Professor Mark O’Brien, an expert in devil worship and Kumar, a psychologist from India. When O’Brien shows Holden several sketches of demons drawn by Rand Hobart, a member of Karswell’s cult who has been jailed for murder, and then suggests that the sketches prove Hobart was acting under forces of evil, the skeptical Holden scoffs at his theory. After Karswell phones to ask Holden to call off his investigation into the cult, however, Holden changes his mind about O’Brien’s theory and decides to question Hobart. The next day at the British Museum, Holden retraces Harrington’s research and discovers that a critical manuscript about witches and demons is missing. Karswell then unexpectedly appears and invites Holden to his estate to peruse his personal copy of the manuscript. After “accidentally” pushing Holden’s papers off the table and onto the floor, Karswell picks them up, then hands Holden his business card. Once Karswell departs, Holden examines the card on which the handwritten message “In memoriam Henry Harrington, allowed two weeks” has been inscribed. When Holden shows the card to the librarian, however, the handwriting has vanished. At Harrington’s funeral, Holden meets the professor’s niece, Joanna who asks to talk with him later that night at his hotel. There, she warns of danger and reads an entry from her uncle’s diary concerning the parchment given to him by Karswell. When the parchment flew out of his hands and into the fire, the professor was convinced that he had been put under a witch’s spell. Although Holden ridicules the idea of witchcraft, his curiosity has been piqued by the disappearing ink on Karswell’s card, so he asks Joanna to drive him to the Karswell estate the next day. While strolling the estate grounds with Holden, Karswell demonstrates his powers by calling down a violent wind storm. After lightning strikes a tree next to Holden, Karswell predicts that he will die on the 28th of that month at 10 p.m. Karswell then agrees to rescind the curse if Holden terminates his investigation. Unperturbed by the death threat, Holden makes a date with Joanna for dinner the next evening. Back in his hotel room, Holden whistles a melody that begins running through his head and O’Brien and Kumar identify it as a folk tune associated with the devil. When O’Brien examines Holden’s schedule book, he is puzzled by the fact that all the pages past the 28th are missing. Over dinner the following evening at the Harrington house, Joanna reads Holden an entry from her uncle’s diary that notes all the pages from his calendar beyond the 22nd, the day he died, had been torn out. As Joanna warns that the parchment sealed her uncle’s death, Holden finds a parchment of runic characters among his papers. The parchment flies out of his hands toward the fireplace, but gets caught in the grate and falls to the ground. The next day, Hobart obtains permission from Mrs. Hobart to hypnotize her son, then returns to the hotel to find Joanna waiting for him there. Joanna asks Holden to accompany her to meet Dr. Karswell's mother, who has arranged a séance with the medium Mr. Meek. At the séance, after going into a trance, Meek begins to speak in Harrington’s voice. When Harrington, through Meek, tells Holden that he must seek out the manuscript that Karswell has translated, Joanna insists on driving to Karswell’s estate to search for the translation. Holden sneaks into the library and locates the translation, but is prevented from examining it when Karswell’s house cat transforms himself into a jaguar and attacks. When Karswell enters the room, the jaguar changes back into a cat. After exchanging hostile words with Karswell, Holden angrily departs. As he crosses the woods on the way to Joanna’s car, a ball of smoke suddenly materializes, expands into a cloud and then disappears. Joanna drives Holden to Scotland Yard to report the sighting, but once there, he debunks the cloud as “just a trick gadget rigged by Karswell.” Insulted by Holden’s insinuation that she has “stampeded him into hysteria,” Joanna leaves in a huff. On the 28th, Holden proceeds to the conference where he is scheduled to discuss hypnosis. Using Hobart as his subject, Holden puts him into a trance and shows him the sliver of parchment. Hobart admonishes that to save his life, Holden “must pass the parchment back to the one who gave it to him, who will then be taken by the demon.” Then, overwrought by the incantation, Hobart runs to a window and plunges to his death. Now realizing that to save himself, he must hand the parchment to Karswell before 10 p.m. that night, Holden tracks the doctor to the train station where he is scheduled to leave on the 9:45 train to Southampton. After jumping aboard the departing train, Holden locates Karswell’s compartment. Joanna, who has been hypnotized by Karswell, is also there. After Karswell releases Joanna from her trance, Holden offers him a note of apology and a cigarette, all rejected by Karswell, who fears they may contain the parchment. As Karswell nervously rushes for the door, Holden hands him his coat, the parchment stuffed into a pocket. As the parchment flies out of the pocket and out the stopped train, Karswell chases it along the tracks. Some distance away,the parchment transforms into a demon, then snatches Karswell off the tracks, crushes him and throws him into the path on an onrushing train. When the police find Karswell’s mutilated body, they conclude that his death was caused by the impact of the train. Holden then turns to Joanna and states "sometimes it is better not to know."

One night, professor Henry Harrington, a scientist investigating a devil cult run by Dr. Julian Karswell, drives to Karswell’s country estate outside London to beg him to retract a curse he has invoked on the professor. After Harrington promises to recant his exposé, Karswell asks him to return a piece of parchment he was given that contains runic symbols. Harrington responds that the parchment flew out of his hands into the blazing fireplace at his house where it was incinerated. Later, as Harrington pulls into his garage, a demonic figure emerges from a stand of trees. Panicked, Harrington backs his car into an electrical pole and is electrocuted by the fallen lines. The next day, John Holden, an American authority on paranormal psychology, arrives in London to address a conference of his peers. Holden is met by Harrington’s aide, Lloyd Williamson, who informs him that Harrington was found dead that morning. At Holden’s hotel room, Williamson introduces the other participants of the conference—Professor Mark O’Brien, an expert in devil worship and Kumar, a psychologist from India. When O’Brien shows Holden several sketches of demons drawn by Rand Hobart, a member of Karswell’s cult who has been jailed for murder, and then suggests that the sketches prove Hobart was acting under forces of evil, the skeptical Holden scoffs at his theory. After Karswell phones to ask Holden to call off his investigation into the cult, however, Holden changes his mind about O’Brien’s theory and decides to question Hobart. The next day at the British Museum, Holden retraces Harrington’s research and discovers that a critical manuscript about witches and demons is missing. Karswell then unexpectedly appears and invites Holden to his estate to peruse his personal copy of the manuscript. After “accidentally” pushing Holden’s papers off the table and onto the floor, Karswell picks them up, then hands Holden his business card. Once Karswell departs, Holden examines the card on which the handwritten message “In memoriam Henry Harrington, allowed two weeks” has been inscribed. When Holden shows the card to the librarian, however, the handwriting has vanished. At Harrington’s funeral, Holden meets the professor’s niece, Joanna who asks to talk with him later that night at his hotel. There, she warns of danger and reads an entry from her uncle’s diary concerning the parchment given to him by Karswell. When the parchment flew out of his hands and into the fire, the professor was convinced that he had been put under a witch’s spell. Although Holden ridicules the idea of witchcraft, his curiosity has been piqued by the disappearing ink on Karswell’s card, so he asks Joanna to drive him to the Karswell estate the next day. While strolling the estate grounds with Holden, Karswell demonstrates his powers by calling down a violent wind storm. After lightning strikes a tree next to Holden, Karswell predicts that he will die on the 28th of that month at 10 p.m. Karswell then agrees to rescind the curse if Holden terminates his investigation. Unperturbed by the death threat, Holden makes a date with Joanna for dinner the next evening. Back in his hotel room, Holden whistles a melody that begins running through his head and O’Brien and Kumar identify it as a folk tune associated with the devil. When O’Brien examines Holden’s schedule book, he is puzzled by the fact that all the pages past the 28th are missing. Over dinner the following evening at the Harrington house, Joanna reads Holden an entry from her uncle’s diary that notes all the pages from his calendar beyond the 22nd, the day he died, had been torn out. As Joanna warns that the parchment sealed her uncle’s death, Holden finds a parchment of runic characters among his papers. The parchment flies out of his hands toward the fireplace, but gets caught in the grate and falls to the ground. The next day, Hobart obtains permission from Mrs. Hobart to hypnotize her son, then returns to the hotel to find Joanna waiting for him there. Joanna asks Holden to accompany her to meet Dr. Karswell's mother, who has arranged a séance with the medium Mr. Meek. At the séance, after going into a trance, Meek begins to speak in Harrington’s voice. When Harrington, through Meek, tells Holden that he must seek out the manuscript that Karswell has translated, Joanna insists on driving to Karswell’s estate to search for the translation. Holden sneaks into the library and locates the translation, but is prevented from examining it when Karswell’s house cat transforms himself into a jaguar and attacks. When Karswell enters the room, the jaguar changes back into a cat. After exchanging hostile words with Karswell, Holden angrily departs. As he crosses the woods on the way to Joanna’s car, a ball of smoke suddenly materializes, expands into a cloud and then disappears. Joanna drives Holden to Scotland Yard to report the sighting, but once there, he debunks the cloud as “just a trick gadget rigged by Karswell.” Insulted by Holden’s insinuation that she has “stampeded him into hysteria,” Joanna leaves in a huff. On the 28th, Holden proceeds to the conference where he is scheduled to discuss hypnosis. Using Hobart as his subject, Holden puts him into a trance and shows him the sliver of parchment. Hobart admonishes that to save his life, Holden “must pass the parchment back to the one who gave it to him, who will then be taken by the demon.” Then, overwrought by the incantation, Hobart runs to a window and plunges to his death. Now realizing that to save himself, he must hand the parchment to Karswell before 10 p.m. that night, Holden tracks the doctor to the train station where he is scheduled to leave on the 9:45 train to Southampton. After jumping aboard the departing train, Holden locates Karswell’s compartment. Joanna, who has been hypnotized by Karswell, is also there. After Karswell releases Joanna from her trance, Holden offers him a note of apology and a cigarette, all rejected by Karswell, who fears they may contain the parchment. As Karswell nervously rushes for the door, Holden hands him his coat, the parchment stuffed into a pocket. As the parchment flies out of the pocket and out the stopped train, Karswell chases it along the tracks. Some distance away,the parchment transforms into a demon, then snatches Karswell off the tracks, crushes him and throws him into the path on an onrushing train. When the police find Karswell’s mutilated body, they conclude that his death was caused by the impact of the train. Holden then turns to Joanna and states "sometimes it is better not to know."

He meets the niece of the deceased professor, Joanna Harrington, who inherited the curse and becomes a target of the demon herself. Throughout the film, Dr. Holden faces skepticism from both the police and his academic colleagues, who believe the deaths to be mere accidents. Nevertheless, Holden becomes increasingly convinced that a demon is behind the deaths, especially after encountering various manifestations of demonic influence. As the plot unfolds, Holden discovers that the villainous cult leader, Karswell, possesses the power to inflict a curse upon his enemies through the use of runic symbols. Karswell threatens to curse Holden as well, leading to a climax where the protagonist must confront and overcome the demon. "Curse of the Demon" is known for its atmospheric black-and-white cinematography and the tense, unnerving atmosphere it creates. It has been praised for its sophisticated storytelling and psychological horror elements. The film's climax, which features a battle with the demon itself, has been hailed as a classic moment in horror cinema. Despite its release over six decades ago, "Curse of the Demon" remains an influential and well-regarded film within the horror genre. It continues to be studied and appreciated for its emphasis on psychological terror and its ability to evoke fear through suggestion and atmosphere rather than explicit visuals. In summary, "Curse of the Demon" is a British horror film from 1956 that follows a psychologist investigating a series of deaths believed to be caused by a demon. The film is renowned for its atmospheric cinematography and psychological horror elements, as well as its enduring influence within the genre..

Reviews for "The Influence of Satanic Panic on "Curse of the Demon" (1956)"

1. Emily - 2/5 stars - I was really disappointed with "Curse of the Demon". The acting was subpar and the story was poorly developed. The supposed suspense was non-existent, and I found myself more bored than scared. Additionally, the special effects were laughably outdated, which further detracted from any potential enjoyment. Overall, I do not recommend this film for anyone looking for a genuinely scary or well-made horror movie.

2. Michael - 1/5 stars - "Curse of the Demon" is a prime example of a horror film gone wrong. The pacing was incredibly slow, and it took forever for any action to happen. When it finally did, it was underwhelming and predictable. The characters were flat and lacked depth, making it impossible to care about their well-being. The demon itself was nothing more than a man in a rubber suit, which was more comical than terrifying. Save yourself the disappointment and skip this one.

3. Sarah - 2/5 stars - I had high expectations for "Curse of the Demon", but unfortunately, it fell short. The film attempted to build suspense, but it ended up coming across as tedious and tedious. The demon itself was not scary at all, and the practical effects were simply laughable. The story had potential, but it never fully delivered, leaving me unsatisfied and unimpressed. I would not recommend this film for anyone seeking a genuinely frightening horror experience.

Examining the Early Career of Dana Andrews: Star of "Curse of the Demon" (1956)