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Angel Heart (1987)

Angel Heart (1987)

A private detective finds the devil in this southern neo-noir occult horror

7.3

Movie

Canada, United Kingdom
English, French
Horror, Mystery
1987
ALAN PARKER
Charlotte Rampling, Dann Florek, Eliott Keener
113 min

TLDR

The only thing scarier than other people is yourself…

What it's about

New Orleans, 1955. Small-time private detective Harry Angel is hired by Louis Cyphre to track down iconic singer Johnny Favorite, though the investigation leads to unexpected turns when every person Angel questions meets a tragic demise.

The take

In adapting hardboiled detective novel Falling Angels, writer-director Alan Parker mixes the story’s original noir with the New Orlean supernatural in 1987’s Angel Heart. The gamble mostly pays off. Mickey Rourke brilliantly brings hapless Harry Angel to a terrifying reveal, stoked by the mystery presented by an inscrutable Robert de Niro, while Lisa Bonet makes a striking debut as fresh-faced Epiphany Proudfoot. But what makes Angel Heart work is mixing the post-war disillusionment towards humanity with entities that people can’t ever hope to control, leading the film with the noir-like investigation into a terrifying descent into hell. It’s no wonder Angel Heart eventually garnered cult classic status, even becoming influential to the likes of Christopher Nolan.

What stands out

This film was initially X-rated, but viewers today might be surprised to see how this was somehow less explicit, but more scary than shows like Game of Thrones.

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