Have You Ever Watched: The Night of the Hunter
This is the eleventh in a recurring series I will be doing highlighting obscure, unknown, forgotten and underrated horror movies. The goal is to bring to light great horror of yesterday and today that is just not on most people’s radar. Just assume spoilers will be included. Enjoy.
The genre of horror is the world of late night drive-ins, direct to video sequels, gratuitous nudity and absurd amounts of gore. Due to this, many horror movies fall into the cult category, an obscure world of drive-in mutants who can’t wait for the next gruesome film release. Sometimes though a horror film will cross the rubicon and gain mass mainstream appeal. Some recent examples of this are the Paranormal Activity series, IT, Get Out and the Blair Witch Project and while these movies are popular, very rarely does a horror film transcend the genre to something more than an oddity of cinema.
To date, there are only six horror films to have ever been nominated for an Oscar. It’s crazy to think that over ninety years of the annual event and the thousands of films nominated there have only been six from one of the oldest, most prolific and most financially successful genres in film history. First there was The Exorcist in 1974 which was nominated for best picture, then two years later followed by Jaws which was also nominated for best picture and lost. There would not be another Oscar nominated horror film for seventeen years when The Silence of the Lambs broke the dry spell and won for best picture, actor and actress in the same year. In 2000 The Sixth Sense was nominated as well but lost in most categories including Best Picture. A decade later and the next horror nominee was Black Swan which some may say is a thriller to which I say screw you and your nuance, it’s horror. Check this one out on a double header with Suspiria and change your mind. Finally in 2017 Get Out was nominated for four Oscars but only won one for best screenplay. (EDITOR NOTE: Guilermo Del Toro has also been nominated for his films The Shape of Water and Pan’s Labyrinth which are horror fantasy)
You may be thinking, who really cares what the Academy has to say? There are tons of great horror movies! Agreed, but how many of those break through the realm of horror and make their mark as the great films in history? You can look around and find tons of lists from Criterion, AFI, BFI or the prestigious Cahiers du Cinema who compile their Top 10, 50 or 100 films list and there will not be many horror films. There will certainly be the six Oscar nominated films, plus regular appearances from Psycho, King Kong, Bride of Frankenstein and Eraserhead but these tend to be much further down the list and almost an afterthought. There is one film that consistently leads the pack when it comes to reception as greatest films of all time, some lists even have it so high as the #2 film and that film is the 1955 classic Night of the Hunter.
Have You Ever Watched Night of the Hunter? No? OMG let me tell you about it!
“Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly, they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Wherefore by their fruits, ye shall know them.”
There are probably 100 interpretations of the message and symbolism involved in Night of the Hunter and an astute viewer may feel the movie is trying to tell them something profound. That divination is something you will just have to sort out for yourself as I will simply tell you the movie is beautiful and leave it at that. Released in 1955 and directed by Charles Laughton in his one and only film, Night of the Hunter follows the story of a religious fanatic serial killer/preacher as he hunts a brother and sister pair who know the whereabouts of $10,000 that their father robbed from a bank. Played by Robert Mitchum, the character of Reverend Harry Powell is one of the most iconic and terrifying in all of film history. With love tattooed on the knuckles of his right hand, and hate tattooed on the knuckles of his left hand he smoothly and charismatically fools a small town and convinces a widower into marriage to get closer to the hidden money.
Now, I said the film was beautiful and I mean not only the visual beauty but the audio beauty as well. Much of the dialogue in the film is sung and not in a musical type of way, it just seems like someone in the film is always singing. There’s the little kids in the town singing a hangman song to mock young John and Pearl whose father was hung for robbing banks. And the eerie and haunting singing of the Reverend as he hunts the children in the night under the light of a crescent moon. The songs are a combination of old church hymns, bluegrass folk songs and lullabies that really up the creep factor to the whole film.
One of the most iconic scenes from the film is when the reverend finds the children under the care of an old woman who takes in orphans. He sits outside the house at night on a tree stump and sings a hymn as the old woman waits inside with a shotgun in hand. She joins in on the singing as hunter and protector begin a haunting duet under the cover of shadow and darkness. The entire scene is creepy, haunting and beautiful beyond compare.
“Would you like me to tell you the little story of Right Hand-Left Hand - the story of good and evil? H-A-T-E! It was with this left hand that old brother Cain struck the blow that laid his brother low. L-O-V-E. You see these fingers, dear hearts? These fingers have veins that run straight to the soul of man. The right hand, friends! The hand of love!”
The film was made in the 1950’s when many other horror films were focusing on Atomic Horror with radioactive beasts terrorizing the population. Night of the Hunter on the other hand is more personal and chilling. First the reverend convinces the widowed mother to marry him to get closer to the children. When she finds out what he’s up to, he murders her and hides the body in the river. For the 50’s this sequence is interesting for a couple of reasons, first being the cinematography of the scene that hearkens back to the old German expressionist films like Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari with its layers of shadows and bizarre angles. The second reason is the gore, a murdered woman's body at the bottom of the lake was just not something that was shown on film in 1950. Shortly after this when the reverend is alone with the children he pulls a stiletto knife out on the young girl Pearl who can't be more than 5 years old, certainly audiences in 1955 were not ready for such shocking imagery.
“It’s a hard world for little things”
The beauty, the music, and the storytelling are all reasons why the industry elite rank this movie so high. I’ve included it in my Have You Ever Watched series because I feel for the horror community, this is an under-viewed, underrated classic. Perhaps it is the age of the film, the more thriller style of movie or the very artsy nature of the film but this one is rarely included on any “Best Of” lists in the horror world.
An absolutely stunning film which was initially panned by critics, the reviews and reception were so bad in fact that the director left this as his one and only film. With the absolute beauty and majesty of this film it’s truly a shame as it would have been exciting to see what this director could have done with more films in his portfolio. This Halloween take some time and give this one some attention, it will certainly change your mind on the heights that a horror film can reach.
If you like this series and would like to catch up, check the archives here and feel free to follow along on letterboxd
