Angel Heart (1987)
Angel Heart (1987), written and directed by Alan Parker.
A scruffy detective is hired to find a missing person. It gets curiouser and curiouser and a trail of bodies accumulates from New York to New Orleans and other infernal regions. Turns out he doesn't want find this guy. He really doesn't want to find him.
At the time I remember being confused about how this was intended. Is it meant to be a private eye story that gradually morphs into a supernatural thriller, or are we supposed to recognize the satanic element from the beginning? The music gives us the horror/thriller cues from the very start.
What I now notice most is how much everyone seems to be enjoying this project, with Mickey Rourke giving one of his most memorable performances (which is saying a lot), and how great are all the decaying, grubby, sweaty locations. The taint of spiritual loathsomeness comes across strongly.
It was controversial for a bloody sex scene. Lisa Bonet was in The Cosby Show before this; after this she wasn't.
Notes:
I'd forgotten we have Charlotte Rampling for a couple of scenes.
Slow electric fans and the color red: you know the devil is close by.
He likes at least one Black church as well.
As is traditional in private eye stories, much of the plot is following leads and interviewing people. As in Chandler this can go on and on: when the style carries you along it works, else it will become tedious.
They talk out the plot a couple of times, but it is fairly complicated so maybe we need that.
When the devil is closing in you have nightmares and can no longer distinguish dream from reality.
Smoking, drinking, nudity, sex, incest, violence, blood, dismemberment, murder, damnation and an elevator ride to Hell: we have it all.
What is his problem with chickens?
Trevor Jones score.
Available on Blu-ray.
