Review of The Night of the Hunter (1955) by Vig S — 29 Jun 2008

This film has the most amazing macabre style throughout, with its Expressionist angles and long, distant shots which always seem to reflect the Preacher's mindset. The script is amazingly dark for the time; yet it' what Mitchum *doesn't* say which makes his character all the more malicious.

It's a damn shame that this is the only film which Charles Laughton directed, as his artistic styling is perfect in portraying the siniter themes of religious mania, Hitchcockian intent and above all, the primeval urge of man to survive, whether it be down the path of good or evil.

And Laughton helps demonstrate that all men have some evil in them - through innocence it's the children that endure where the adults will kill each other.