Curse of the Demon

I ran across a great black & white horror movie on Turner Classic Movies, "Curse of the Demon" (1957) starring Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins and Niall MacGinnis.  American psychologist Dr. John Holden (Andrews) travels to England to attend a conference on paranormal research.  He is supposed to join a team headed by Dr. Harrington but when he arrives he discovers the doctor is dead.  He soon meets Harrington's niece, Joanna (Cummins) and together they try to discover what really killed Harrington.

Their investigations soon leads to the mysterious Dr. Julian Karswell, who not only put a Runic curse on Dr. Harrington but also on Dr. Holden.  The curse brings the demon monster upon the person and death occurs at the appointed hour.  It's not too long into the movie where we first see the demon.  The demon is very cheesy looking by today's standards but remember this is 1957 and the effects were probably state of the art back then.  What makes this movie a classic is the atmosphere which really comes through in this old black & white movie.  The film's use of darkness and shadows really adds to the eeriness and mood in the film.  There are fantastically done wind storms with the requisite thunder and lightning.  There are walks through the dark foggy woods and walking around dark houses with candlesticks. 

This film was very well done and held my attention throughout.   Don't get discouraged and stop watching when you see the demon.  Keep watching and be rewarded with a horror classic that you may have never heard of.  This was a great movie to happen upon on TV!