Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

jrephthurn The making of 'Night of the Demon' was interesting because of the struggle between the director Jacques Tourneur and the producer Hal E. Chester. Tourneur had a long successful history directing movies of creating more suspense by delaying the appearance of the 'monster' and showing less when it is shown, to let the imagination take over. Don't show a close up of the monster. Instead, show a medium range shot of the monster, gradually approaching. It can't be seen to clearly because of the darkness, smoke and range. And let the viewer imagine what it would look like from close up, as the victim gazes upon it from a hundred feet away and knows it will soon be upon him.But Chester argued that bad directing is good and good bad. So, he insisted that the demon be seen in a close up. And insisted that it be shown in the first few minutes of the film, so that there is no suspense. And that it be shown on the movie posters so there wouldn't even by a minute of suspense in the movie. Tourneur and others tried to get Chester to see reason. But it is easier to stop a demon than a producer with his mind made up.As it turned out, Chester, not Tourneur, was the true visionary, at least judging by the movies that are produced today. It was Chester who had the visor of the future. However, despite Chester's meddling, 'Night of the Demon' is still a very good movie. One needs to see the movies of yesterday, the movies of Jacques Tourneur, to see really good horror movies.

ksf-2 Even the opening credits are shown over a background of Stonehenge. Dana Andrews is american John Holden, skeptical student of the occult. He has come to Great Britain, and right away has a curse put on him by Mr. Karswell. Holden decides to break into Karswell's house, which is always a bad decision, but gives us a plot. A black cat, who may have turned into a leopard and attacked him. Close-up camera angles on the cat, and loud, sudden noises, which probably scared the theater-goers out of their seats. Peggy Cummins is "Joanna", the neice of the man recently killed by "the demon", and she teams up with Holden to figure out what happened. This one is also known as "Night of the Demon", and is directed by Jacques Tourneur. We see the demon monster right near the beginning, and it's a bit cheesy, like a cardboard godzilla. as others have pointed out, sometimes it's better not to actually show the monster. It's pretty good. shown occasionally on Turner Classics.

jason-210 I realise this film has its fans and they will downvote this review. It's not that the monster effects are bad. Well, they are, but this is not what ruins the film. What ruins it is the fact that the monster is fully revealed within the first 5 or 6 minutes. The smoke effects were scary enough - we didn't need to see more. By revealing a cross-eyed rubber giant right at the beginning, the film lost much of its power to engage and frighten. They could have saved this disappointment for the end, after we had had the chance to enjoy the films many merits. I guess the producer wanted to see all his money on the screen from the start. Had they chosen not to show the demon at all, this film might have been a masterpiece.As horror writer H.P. Lovecraft once said: "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown". Having something unknown, undefined and not entirely visible after us is far more unsettling than something we can see and define.Even the author of the original story upon which this film is based, M.R. James, never described the demon, but rather left it to our imagination, with only hint here or there as to its appearance. James, the master of the Ghost Story, wrote all his stories like that. In his essay on writing fiction, James said "...our ghost should make himself felt by gradual stirrings diffusing an atmosphere of uneasiness before the final flash or stab of horror." All of James's stories follow this rule, so it's somewhat disappointing to see this fundamental rule broken in this adaptation of one of his classics.

gavin6942 Dr. John Holden ventures to London to attend a paranormal psychology symposium with the intention to expose devil cult leader, Julian Karswell. Holden is a skeptic and does not believe in Karswell's power. Nonetheless, he accepts an invitation to stay at Karswell's estate, along with Joanna Harrington, niece of Holden's confidant who was electrocuted in a bizarre automobile accident.In the early 2010s, Time Out conducted a poll with several authors, directors, actors and critics who have worked within the horror genre to vote for their top horror films. "Night of the Demon" placed at number 52 on their top 100 list.I have known for many years that this is one of the classics in the horror genre, one of the truly must-see films. But somehow it escaped me until now (2016). This film is every bit as good as they say it is, ranking as possibly the greatest black magic / witchcraft film ever made, with the only real competition being "Burn Witch Burn".What makes it great, more than anything, is the suspense built throughout rather than the use of "bus" scares. Jacques Tourneur is best known for his horror films with producer Val Lewton, but this movie clearly shows he was just as strong of a storyteller on his own.