魔鬼的诅咒 (1957)

American psychologist John Holden arrives in London to participate in a symposium aiming to expose witchcraft and devil-worship as a fraud, with attention centered on a cult run by a Julian Karswell. Debarking his plane, Holden learns that the symposium leader, Henry Harrington, has suddenly died and he is now in charge. What only the audience knows is that Harrington was clearly killed by a demon, apparently summoned by Karswell to avenge his persecution. Despite both threatening and cajoling behavior by Karswell, Holden determines to proceed, though the only cult member willing to talk about his experiences is in a prison psychiatric ward, catatonic after allegedly killing yet another cult member. However, Harringtons niece, Joanna, believes, based on her uncles notes, that Karswell may indeed have some satanic powers derived from an ancient tome in an obscure language which he has been able to translate, and attempts to warn the skeptic Holden. Karswells mother also attempts to warn Holden off. However, the thing which begins to most get to Holden are the occasional, but mounting, sensory and mental disturbances he begins experiencing after an encounter with Karswell, and the discovery that, during this encounter, Karswell secretly slipped a slip of parchment with a curse in runic symbols on it into Holdens belongings, a parchment identical to one Harrington recorded having had passed to him in a similar manner shortly before his death... [N.B. Holden at no point stays at the Karswell estate]. 所谓科学与超自然力量的交锋 涵盖了大量神秘学元素 巫术 黑魔法 巨石阵 如尼文符咒 恶魔召唤 降神会 英国早期的恐怖片是真好看啊 优雅 扣人心弦 光影效果极佳男主这种最后居然没被教做人还机智了一把真的略无语 但这片每个恐怖元素都戳我点上 classic horror总是这么吸引人特纳好像就是心理恐怖，怪兽镜头是制片人自己加上去的，还是特摄片那种，特别呆哈哈哈哈。Presented by Dario Argento in Locarno，Dario也很呆萌哈哈哈哈这部57年的电影影响了无数影人：它是马丁斯科塞斯的11大恐怖片，更是山姆雷米的《堕入地狱》致敬对象。在RKO的val lewton调教后jacques tourneur将lewton式恐怖片发挥到了极致。虽打着魔鬼与巫术的噱头，但本片的视觉恐怖场景并不多，纯粹靠的是剧情的递进和悬念来制造恐惧感，十足大师范儿。3.5星，恶魔太low，不露出恶魔的真容才是上策。高潮部分的火车戏剪辑的很精彩全片的最亮点。影片对后世的影响不必赘述但是个人感觉受这片影响最大的应该是柳条人。PS雅克.特纳是无可救