Harry Angel has been hired to search for the truth... Pray he doesn't find it.
It's only 29 days till Halloween so the only right choice for October's Movie of the Month is one of my favorite movies and one of my favorite horror films - Angel Heart.
It's 1955. Small time New York City gumshoe Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) is hired through a law firm by a mysterious man named Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro). The case is to locate a man by the name of Johnny Favorite, a popular singer before World War II, who served in the war and supposedly was institutionalized due to his injuries since, although Cyphre has not seen Favorite during that time. As Harry progresses through the case, he doesn't quite trust Cyphre as every step Harry takes leads to people angry about his questions. Johnny's associates are highly populated by those into mysticism and particularly voodoo, which takes Harry to New Orleans. As Harry continues his investigation, one by one, the people he interviews turn up dead. Although Harry isn't sure if he wants to continue with the case, he does so if only to satisfy his own curiosity as to Johnny's whereabouts and why Cyphre wants to find him.
Angel Heart is one of the most underrated movies out there. It features so many great things - Mickey Rourke, back when he was hot and the creepiest performance from Robert De Niro ever, which is by the way his impersonation of Martin Scorsese - Alan Parker claims that his performance as Louis Cypher was so eerie and realistic that he generally avoided him during his scenes, letting him just direct himself. It also has one of the most disturbing 1) egg eating scenes 2) sex scenes and 3) plot twists in the history of horror films.
The movie has two things every great scary movie should have - terrific atmosphere and a whole lot of creepy elements. It's all aided by brilliant editing and sexy and mysterious score. Rourke and De Niro are joined by the always mesmerizing Charlotte Rampling and gorgeous Lisa Bonet, in a performance so hot it got her fired from The Cosby Show.
Read the review of the movie - HERE
Man, that was a fucked up movie. Lisa Bonet... wow...
ReplyDeleteIt really was! She was so drop dead gorgeous in this movie.
DeleteWoah. Haven't seen all of this film, but it's on my watchlist. It looks far better than I remembered, so I'll try to see it this month then.
ReplyDeleteIt's definetly the month for it, hope you will like this one!
DeleteThis movie is such a hidden gem with extremely talented actors. The down-by-the-bayou touch...gotta love it. And Mickey Rourke....you were so beautiful...
ReplyDeleteGlad you like this one too! Yeah, Rourke used to be wicked hot back then.
DeleteOh my it feels like a life time a go I saw this film. you have reminded me I need a rewatch
ReplyDeleteThis is the month for it! I think I'll be rewatching it Halloween night :)
DeleteI've never seen this one and I only know Lisa Bonet as Lenny Kravitz' former wife (and now she's w/ Jason Momoa??? Boy she knows how to pick the hotties!) Anyway, I heard that this movie is quite racy, but hey it's got Mickey Rourke, no wonder, ahah. Wild Orchid was one of the steamiest movies I've seen on the big screen!
ReplyDeleteShe sure does, same goes for her daughter - she dated Fassy! :) Oh God Wild Orchid was a terrible movie but yeah it was really steamy! This one isn't like WO but it is pretty hot at times and even more often disturbing :)
DeleteFor some unknown reason, the Mac at work doesn't let me comment on Blogspot blogs! ARGH!
ReplyDeleteWhat I said this morning was along the lines of this.
Always heard great things about this film, but never made a proper effort to hunt it down. I think I will now!
Blogger really sucks at times, today it took me 2 hours just to change the images on the side bar.
DeleteYou should definetly watch it, really great film and terrific atmosphere.
Wow. I'd forgotten about this movie -- I saw it way back in the day. I remember when it was first released and the media was in an uproar about "that Cosby kid" being in a skanky role. Does that date me or what?
ReplyDeleteYes, this film was magnificently fucked up.
Yeah I heard that one, I imagine back then a scene like that was quite shocking :)
DeleteIt really is, love this movie - they just don't make horrors that atmospheric anymore.
It's kind of quaint, isn't it, that Lisa Bonet's role in this movie caused such a stir in the 80's?
DeleteIt is a bit weird, but on the other hand even nowadays where a star of family show has naked scene in the movie people go wild :) I saw On the Road yesterday and apparantly Stewart's naked/threesome scenes caused an outrage among mothers of Twilight fans :)
DeleteThis movie is magical.
ReplyDeleteIt really is! I sincerely hope the plans to remake it are dead.
DeleteI saw this back in the day because of all the notoriety it got. Man, could Lisa Bonet arch her back. I had sort of figured out Deniro's character, but I'm ashamed to admit I didn't get the name thing until it was mentioned in the movie.
ReplyDeleteDe Niro's character was probably not that hard to figure out, but everything in the movie was so strange, if his name didn't let to anything obvious I wouldn't be surprised :)
DeleteOne of my favorites although I never really thought of it as a 'Horror' movie. More a movie dealing with the occult and spirits beyond the grave. Some other films I put in this category (which I also thought were terrific) are 'The Others' and 'The Sixth Sense'. I totally freaked my 20yr. old nephew out one time when I lent him the dvd of the early '60's classic 'The Innocents' on the condition that he watch it by himself in a darkened room late at night. He rang me the next day and gave me an earful for scaring the crap out of him. : )) Worth a look for those that haven't seen it.
ReplyDeleteOh, The Innocents during the night is a very freaky idea :) For me the occult usually puts a movie into a horror genre, another really good film, though vastly underrated, is Skeleton Key.
DeleteHaven't seen that one, Sati. Have put it on my list...
DeleteVery nice review! I haven't seen this movie in ages, and I remember not thinking it was very good; but I saw it when I was young.
ReplyDeleteI do remember it being a sort of disturbing experience, tho. If I had to recommend something to pair this with, I'd try Jacob's Ladder - it's an incredibly unnerving horror film.
Jacob's Ladder is terrific - I really like this movie, I agree it's very disturbing. Good pairing with Angel Heart - these two certainly have very scary and interesting atmosphere.
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