Review of Angel Heart (1987) by Declan M — 20 Nov 2009

I watched Alan Parker's supernatural drama Angel Heart for the first time last night and thought it was a truly unique film experience.

Mickey Rourke gives a terrific performance in the lead role as the detective Harry Angel looking for a Jazz Singer called Johnny Favourite. Angel is working for a mister Louis Cyphre (a marvellously sinister Robert De Niro)and stumbles into a lot of people in his investigation who keep getting bumped off in increasingly horrifying ways. Lisa Bonet is also delightfully sexy as a black woman involved in a lot of voodoo rituals.

Alan Parker creates a really dirty, horrible atmosphere that never leaves the film. It is especially evident in some really disturbing nightmare sequences.

I also thought that the film starts out quite like a procedural detective drama and then in the last half an hour takes a completely different route that you're totally not expecting and then the ending comes along and totally throws anybody watching, yet I was paying very close attention and kind of gussed that *SPOILER ALERT* Louis Cyphre is the devil, yet I loved the way it presented the fact.

Overall, although I guessed who Louis Cyphre was but I was still left gasping for breath at the end. It's just not the type of film I'd watch everyday, yet still it was if you'll excuse the awful pun a devilishly fiendish delight.