Welcome back, Boils & Ghouls...
... to 'Day Twenty-Seven' of "Another CreatureFeature Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku" and to the fourth & final instalment of "Macabre Movie Monday" where, each week, I've been recommending a different horror movie to send shivers down your spine that can be streamed to your TV via Roku !!
So... if you're planning to while away the hours, during these dark autumnal evenings, by watching a succession of Hallowe'en / Horror-themed movies to get into the "spirit" of things, you should make a point of looking back through the posts I've made on this blog EVERY MONDAY since the start of October for some absolute classics of creepy cinema to "get your fright on" for Hallowe'en !!
For "Scream Four" in this series, what better than a film with taglines such as... "Horror! The most terrifying story the screen has ever told" and "Sceptical? Don't make up your mind till you see this masterpiece of the macabre!" as well as "Chosen... singled out to die... victim of his imagination, or victim of a demon?" plus, my personal favourite, "TERRIFYING!! All the Dark Forces of Black Magic... Hurled Against a Man and a Woman Who Dared to Scoff!". Should you recognise any of those, then you will already know that I'm talking about a 1957 movie from the UK which was based on the classic horror novel, "Casting The Runes", by M. R. James. Anyway, to whet your appetite further, here's a quick look at the original poster for the film:-
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BRITISH QUAD POSTER.....................IMAGE SOURCE: MoviePosterDB.com
Directed by Jacques Tourneur, and starring Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall MacGinnis, Maurice Denham, Athene Seyler, Liam Redmond, Reginald Beckwith and Rosamund Greenwood plus Ewan Roberts and Peter Elliott (amongst others), it tells the story of Dr. John Holden (Dana Andrews) who ventures to London, to attend a paranormal psychology symposium, with the intention of exposing devil cult leader Julian Karswell (Niall MacGinnis). Originally released to UK audiences, under the title "Night Of The Demon", on 17th December 1957... it underwent a change of name, when marketed to cinema-goers in the USA in 1958, to "Curse Of The Demon" apparently because the "powers that be" thought it would otherwise have been confused with "Night Of The Iguana"?! Anyway... for those of you that have yet to see this subtle, thought-provoking (dare I say) almost Hitchcock-style thriller that, back in 2009, director Martin Scorsese placed among the "11 Scariest Horror Films Of All Time"... here's a brief taster for the movie, courtesy of this short trailer:-
If you'd like to know more about the film, there's a full list of the cast & credits on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) listing for "Night Of The Demon" (1957), FOUND HERE, which also includes a full storyline / plot summary as well as box office stats, technical specs & much more. For die-hard fans, there is more info on the Wikipedia Page for "Night Of The Demon", VIA THIS LINK, which may help to fuel your appetite for another screening. Although, as with the other horror films that I've featured recently, if you're already a big fan, you may not take much persuading to watch it again !!
Anyway (once again) the best recommendation I can make, as to which of the available Roku channels you could use to watch this movie, is to suggest "YouTube" as your first port-of-call on account of the vast number of horror movies which, thanks to this channel and it's associated apps, are now readily available to stream via your Roku player(s) whenever you choose.
YOUTUBE.......................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
If you haven't already added it to your channel selection, you'll find "YouTube" listed among the "Internet TV" channels in the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store and you can easily add it to your Roku player(s) by navigating to the built-in 'Channel Store' from the home screen and scrolling through the options until you see the (above) channel icon. It's completely FREE-TO-ADD as well as being FREE-TO-VIEW so, once you've located it in the list of channels, just click the "OK" button on your Roku remote to select it and then click "OK" again where it says 'Add channel' to install it on your Roku player(s). Having done that, it's simply a case of launching the channel via the 'Go to channel' option and navigating the on-screen menu to play "Night Of The Demon" on your Roku which, for the record, runs to 1h 35mins and can be found via the following link:-
LINK TO MOVIE: "Night of the Demon (1957)" on 'YouTube'
A quick FYI, for anyone interested... there's a dedicated page on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) listing all of the 'Release Info' for "Night Of The Demon" (1957), including the "Also Known As" (AKA) details, VIA THIS LINK. In the meantime, here are some more posters that movie-goers and home cinema viewers may have encountered over the years, dependent on their precise location:-
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ITALIAN 'SPECIAL EDITION' POSTER.....................IMAGE SOURCE: MouthOfHorror
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ORIGINAL SPANISH POSTER................IMAGE SOURCE: LeeLibros.com
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ORIGINAL USA THEATER CARD...................IMAGE SOURCE: WeirdHollow (Blogger)
Finally, to round-off this fourth & final "Macabre Movie Monday" for 2014 on 'Day Twenty-Seven' of the 'Countdown To Halloween', here's a few more FRIGHTENINGLY FUN FILM FACTS for you... for example, did you know that the line of dialogue, "It's in the trees! It's coming!", from this movie was "sampled" and used, by none other than Kate Bush, to augment the intro for the 1985 hit single, "Hounds Of Love" ?! Or, that there are references to both the lead actor in "Night Of The Demon", Dana Andrews, and the book by M. R. James, on which the story for the screenplay was based, having been mentioned in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (1975) when during the opening song, "Science Fiction Double Feature", we hear the line: "Dana Andrews said prunes gave him the runes... but passing them used lots of skill" - OUCH !! Then, of course, there's the fact that Joanna Harrington's sports car bore a license plate that included the number '666'... which, generally speaking, is widely regarded as being "the number of the beast" - just ask any self-respecting fan of Iron Maiden !!
Anyway, that's all for today... but do visit us again in 24-hours for 'Day Twenty-Eight' and more Hallowe'en / Horror-themed content, in "Another CreatureFeature Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku", when I will reveal the next selection of Hallowe'en / Horror-related music to feature as my batch of "Teriffying Tuesday Tunes", as we continue our "Countdown To Hallowe'en" 2014...
Fangs (as always) for reading !!
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