The Night of the Hunter - Charles Laughton (1955)

It's weird...I hadn't heard of this movie before. But about a week before I got it from the video store, Entertainment Weekly (yes...I have a subscription) had an issue on Heroes and Villains. Stephen King is a regular contributor and had an article on the top 10 villains in literature. And as it happens, he mentioned the character Harry Powell who happens to be the lead in 'Night of the Hunter'. So, going into the movie, that's about all I knew.

Having read that article, was a bit hesitant to watch. I have to remember to keep thing in context - scary from 1955 is definitely different from scary in 2009. 

It was a really good movie. Suspenseful and a good story. The story was echoed and supported by the cinematic-ness (is that even a word) of the movie. Having seen 'Days of Heaven', I can see that Terence Malick was definitely inspired by this movie. 

As suspenseful and 'scary' the movie was, it had definite moments of humour. Very cool.

Overall, a surprisingly  good movie.

Two words to describe 'The Night of the Hunter': 'Love' and 'Hate'