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"To show that, unconsciously, we all live in fear-that is genuine horror."-Jacques Tourneur

Curse of the Demon (known in Britain in a longer version as Night of the Demon) was Jacques Tourneur's first venture into the horror film since his work in the forties with Val Lewton at RKO. It has at least one thing in common with Tourneur's classic noir Out of the Past: a cynical, self-assured American is lured into the shadow world where logic can be dismissed, and only doubt survives. Dana Andrews is an American psychologist called in to investigate the death of his colleague at the hands of an occult wizard (Niall MacGinnis). He laughs at the cultist's assertion that he can conjure up malevolent spirits from runic inscriptions to thwart his enemies, but somehow we are convinced from the start. Through a Borgesian labyrinth Andrews and his equally skeptical cohort (Gun Crazy's Peggy Cummins) are led to a terrifying conclusion. Tourneur's credo, "the less you see, the more you believe" was violated by studio moguls who needed a monster they could see and touch, but Curse of the Demon remains a film of genuine horror nonetheless. (JB)