Hal E. Chester

Hal E. Chester

Night of the Demon is a 1957 British horror film, produced by Frank Bevis, directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins and Niall MacGinnis. It is adapted from the M. R. James story "Casting the Runes" (1911). The film's storyline concerns an American psychologist who travels to England to investigate a satanic cult suspected in more than one death. The production was turbulent due to artistic differences that arose between producer Hal E. Chester on one side and director Tourneur and writer Charles Bennett on the other. The original plan was not to show the demon on screen, but Chester inserted a special effects creature over the objections of the writer, the director and lead actor Dana Andrews. To accelerate the pace, the 95 minute British feature was trimmed down to 83 minutes and retitled Curse of the Demon for the US market, playing there in June 1958 as the second half of a double feature with either The True Story of Lynn Stuart or The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), depending on the local film market.

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