Angel Heart (1987)

[baumer]

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[baumer]

I have often said that horror is the most difficult to master. I believe this to be true because although it seems any moron with a camera can stalk a would be victim and try to psyche the audience out by shaking a few trees, then flagitiously embellish the film with blood instead of atmosphere, true fear is difficult to capture on film. I think we have all seen films that lay it on pretty thick but ultimately fail. I truly believe you can hire someone to make a dummy and stuff it with blood and even some rudimentary designs of intestines and hearts and various other functioning organs that have the ability to make the squeamish cover their eyes. But if you remember some of the greats, some of the icons of the trade, you will see that a good horror film is more about minacious shadows, the vicissitudes of lights, the ominous and foreboding music and finally the brilliant sagaciousness of the story. I think many people overlook the relevance of a story in the horror movie genre. Many inferior films like I Know What You Did Last Summer and Idle Hands and such will present us with a half-assed story and then try to build on it by bombastically insulting us with the banalities of gore and other not so shocking elements. But what they forget is most horror films that either succeed or develop a cult following are films that somewhere along the way hit a nerve in the collective mindset of their viewers. Friday the 13th's attack the very foundation of one of adolescent's unadulterated joys, that being camping. Halloween invaded our trick or treaters and Nightmare On Elm Street surreptitiously alienated our dreams. In short, we were not safe from these abominations on any front. Angel Heart follows that trend.

Spoilers Ahead... if you have not seen this film, do not read from here on out.

The basic premise of Angel Heart is a detective story at heart. This is a 40's style film noir complete with rain soaked streets, seedy detectives and lots of questionable characters. We meet Harry Angel ( Roarke) as he is taking a phone call from a stranger. This stranger is from the law firm Winesap and MacIntosh ( any similarities here? think about it). They would like to meet with him as they have a client that is familiar with his work. The client's name is Monsieur Louis Cypher.

"Is your client foreign? Is he a foreign gentleman?"

Harry then travels to a church ( strange enough place to meet a client who wants to hire a detective) where he enters the room and is first greeted by Winesap (who looks a lot like Stephen Tobolwolski), and then he sees his client. But what we see first is long, perfectly manicured finger nails, a strange cane, a ring that has either the star of David in the middle of it or a strange cult like pointed symbol, you decide. Also, the client's hair is put up in a bun and the man dressed impeccably. The man does not rise to shake Harry's hand. But he smiles with a diabolical, factitious grin that seems warm and inviting but reeks with deceit.

Harry then gets the facts of the case and is told that he will be searching for a crooner that owed Louis some money but disappeared during the war. So in essence, all Louis wants from Harry is to find out if this crooner is alive or dead. Cypher offers him a lot of money to find the guy and so Harry accepts.

"You must want this guy pretty bad," Harry says with a chuckle.

"I don't like messy accounts," Cypher replies dead-seriously.

And then just before the meeting concludes, Louis says to Harry,

"I've got a funny feeling we've met before." Harry has no recollection of ever meeting the man, and he would remember seeing how Cypher sticks out like a sore thumb.

From here Harry goes on a labyrinthine journey to find out what happened to this crooner. It takes him from Coney Island to New Orleans. And along the way, dead bodies begin to show up. First he interviews a doctor that had something to do with the case. He shows up dead in the next scene. Next we see an old guitar player named Toot Sweet and then he shows up dead, "strangled with a part of the body meant for pissing with." Now Harry is a suspect in two murders and it just keeps getting worse.

Every 20 minutes Louis Cypher shows up to check on his progress. And every time he does, more strange religion seems to get introduced to the plot. This French gentleman is obviously a fanatical, devout, religious iconoclast. He is not just seeking this missing person for personal accounts, it seems more like a reckoning. And the further Harry gets into the mystery, the more liable he is to be implicated in things that he had nothing to do with. To make matters worse, Cypher tells him that he has old fashioned and bucolic ideas about justice, "You know, an eye for an eye, that sort of thing." Finally Harry, in desperation, asks him in one of their sittings, "Who the @^&* are you Cypher?" Cypher's reply, "Watch your language, this is a church."

By now the film has us both intrigued with it's eccentric and neurotic characters, and confused in some ways by the abstruse manner in which the story is unfolding. This apparent confusion is by design, because this film takes pride in laying the foundation out for us but not the glue. We have to use our heads to figure things out and that is rare in many films, especially the horror genre. That may sound contradictory to what we are all lead to believe about most horror, but it is true. Horror, true horror has gone the way of the do-do bird. It is all but extinct. Angel Heart however, is more of a heterodoxy than one might think. It takes all that is good with the genre and makes it even better. Every scene in this film seems to quietly show us another piece to the puzzle. Every twist and turn seems to unravel the story like the layers of an onion. Without giving away the plot and the secrets to the film, here are a few scenes to digest and think about.

Take for instance the not so subliminal use fans in the film. Every time Louis Cypher is in the room, fans are first shown. This is relevant in some scenes because of the heat, but what about on a cold blustery day in the Bronx?

Also examine some of the intriguing lines that slither out of DeNiro's mouth. Lines like, "They say there is just enough religion in the world to make man hate one another, but not enough to make them love." Or: "Would you like an egg Mr. Angel?" After Harry says no, Cypher replies, "you know, they say the egg represents the soul." He then bites into the egg and chews it with perfect equanimity. You can never tell if Cypher is mad or satisfied. All we know is this man is here to find a missing person. Some of the time he cracks a smile but what he is really smiling about is just somewhere underneath the surface.

There are also a few times when Harry catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror but he sees two images of himself, the mirror is cracked or split or mangled in some way. And he always looks pensive and confused when he looks into the mirror as though he sees something.... but then forgets it.

We are also privy to scenes that are ripe with contradictions. Bullets are stored in a Bible, a nun is cleaning blood off the wall, a priest wants to drive in a Rolls Royce, a heart is cut out, almost like a butcher did it and took pride in his work and a few other images that confuse yet enlighten you at the same time. Angel Heart is the true working of a paradox in progress.

The climax of Angel Heart is one that will have you shell shocked. I wasn't prepared for it when I saw this film as a 17 year-old and even now when I am pushing 30 and have seen the film over 100 times, I am still in awe when I watch Harry and Louis banter about as Louis tells him of his ultimate fate.

"Alas. How terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the wise Johnny."

"My name's not Johnny."

"I know who I am. Cypher I know who I am!"

When all is about to be revealed, Louis tells Johnny to take a good look in the mirror because no matter how cleverly you sneak up on a mirror, you reflection always looks you straight in the eye. And when he does, all that we didn't know but may have suspected, is now revealed to us.

Angel Heart is not the type of horror film that will scare you every five minutes with ghosts that bounce balls down stairs or with pumpkin candles that flicker coyly enough to see a shadow float across the ceiling. But what it will do is turn your insides upside down with the promise that something pernicious and final is about to take place. Angel Heart is opulent with undertones of doom and sumptuous with forbidden overtones. Just as Blair Witch attacked us with what could be there, Angel Heart admonishes us to stay away from things that should not be there. Harry Angel has entered into an inchoate project and it is one that he will wish he never sought out in the first place.

This is one of the best films I have ever seen, and along with Halloween and Jaws, not only does this film rank highly on the horror charts, it cross polinates into the top films ever made. I am not sure where I would put this film because to compare a film like JFK and Raiders of the Lost Ark with an atmospheric, spine tingling film like this is like comparing a top of the line BMW to a top of the line Jaguar. Where do you start and how do you stipulate which is better. All I know is that this film made me fear what it warns us about. And it made me interested to read the Bible again. That has to count for something. After all, the Bible is filled with stories of fire, brimstone, people turning to stone and burning bushes and deceit and betrayal. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

10 out of 10-- This is the epitome of horror and if you have not seen this film, I urge you to find it and watch it this weekend. Mickey Roarke and Robert Deniro are priceless and keep in mind, this is brought to you by the same team that gave us films like T-2, First Blood and Basic Instinct. This was a different kind of film for Kassar and Vajna and I am thankful they decided to take a chance on a dark film like this. Add Alan Parker to this brilliant behind the scenes team and you have all the ingredients for one hell of a ride

[Jake Gittes]

That's a hell of an essay B.  Really shows how passionate you are about it.

 

And yeah, this is pretty much a total gem from beginning to end. I'm not a big fan of the glowing eyes thing, especially considering the rest of the film works perfectly at suggesting, rather than directly showing, the supernatural presence. Otherwise I unabashedly enjoy everything about it. A fantastic combination of horror and film noir, pulpy, sweaty and sleazy as fuck, yet chilling and effective on a human level. Rourke is at his ruggedly charismatic best and De Niro projects so much menace just sitting there and talking it's amazing. 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQfiuHK_U84

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLjy8Yb98nU