Night of the Demon

One of Carrols requirements for a work of art to be considered horror involves a monster. This can’t be just any monster, however, it must be one that is disgusting, fear invoking, and impossibly existing according to science. The demon in the movie is meant to be fearful and disgusting. The demon, however, is only seen through the eyes of the characters in the movie. Therefore, it could be interpreted as an illusion. The hand on the banister, in which Holden doesn’t see, makes the presence of something unnatural appear to be truly there. Even if the hand didn’t belong to a demon per say, the hand was in fact fearful, disgusting, and scientifically not belonging to any known species. Night of the Demon, therefore, fits into the horror genre according to Carroll.

Karswell can also be considered a monster. A monster must be disgusting, fear invoking and its existence must be considered impossible. Karswell, while not physically disgusting looking, certainly can be considered disgusting due to his interactions with dark magic. This same reason makes him fearful. His existence can also be considered impossible due to the fact that magicians/ witches should not exist.

This movie is an example of a complex discovery plot. A complex discover plot, according to Carroll, is one that has an onset of a horrifying event, the discovery of the cause, the confirmation of this cause and the confrontation at the end. All four of these things occur in the movie. In the beginning there is the death of Harrington in which our interests are intended to be sparked as to where the monster came from and why. Then, Holden is led throughout the movie to come closer and closer to the truth of the demons existence. Since he denied the truth in the beginning, he is given the magic ruins which are meant to in the end kill him. Carroll says that a complex discover plot has the idea that denying the unknown will lead to bad things. In the movie, this is the case. In the end, Holden does believe, and this is what saves him.

I found the most suspenseful scene to be the one at the end in which Holden is trying to give the slip back to Karswell. This is when I felt the most interested in the movie because I felt like his life was truly at stake this time. The end scene on the train took place really close to the time in which the devil was going to come and kill whoever had the paper. If Holden didn’t get rid of the paper, then he would die. I felt suspense because I knew someone was going to die, but it was unknown as to who was going to. Carroll believes that suspense is created by the unknown. This scene has the presence of the unknown because we are unsure as to who is going to die. Also another aspect of horror is that the reader believes the worse to be the most plausible. With Karswell’s stubbornness to take anything from Holden, it really does seem like Holden is going to be stuck with the paper. Although other scenes were scary, I knew he most likely wouldn’t die then since it wasn’t the time that Karswell predicted yet. The scene with the hand on the banister was the scene that scared me the most. Anyone sitting behind me can attest to the fact that a jumped when the hand came into view.

Tourneur employed a few cinematic techniques to heighten the sense of horror during the film. An example of this is during the hand on banister scene in which the music made it very eerie. Knowing this music was typical scary movie music didn’t make a difference either for me clearly since I still jumped. I do wish, however, that Tourneur’s wish that the demon not be shown was fulfilled. I think it would have made the movie more horrifying. Although there would be no monster, which is a main requirement for a horror story, it would have been more horrifying to be left completely unsure whether or not there was a demon.

I think there are a few themes addressed to the film. First, I think one social theme is to mind your own business. Karswell said from the very beginning that if they would simply leave his cult alone, nothing would happen. Harrington didn’t listen and died because of it. Holden also almost died as well. Another theme that can be seen is to keep one’s mind open to new things. Holden was in denial the entire movie and stubbornly stayed in denial which again almost caused him to die. In the end he opened up his mind and acted on the possibility that the demon may be real. This led him to be able to be saved from his impending death. He never does truly decide if the demon is real or not. When given the chance at the end of the movie to see Karswell and decide if the killing looks to be done like a demon, he almost does. He changes his mind though with the words, “Maybe it's better not to know."