The Big Picture

Charles Laughton’s
The Night of the Hunter
starring Robert Mitchum changed horror forever.
The film’s unique visual style made it haunting and beautiful, analyzing the susceptibility of rural communities to corrupting influences.
Despite being initially considered a disappointment,
The Night of the Hunter
has inspired many great filmmakers and is now regarded as a cult classic.

Horror cinema is one of the oldest genres in the industry, as films designed to terrify their audiences have emerged since the German Expressionist era of the industry. As monster movies and science fiction stories grew increasingly popular worldwide, horror films were often associated with the depiction of surreal and supernatural creatures. While it’s notable that the genre grew its roots in science fiction and fantasy, there are also several great horror films that take place within a somewhat recognizable version of reality. In fact, horror films that seem plausible can be even scarier to audiences, as they may find it easier to place themselves in the same situation. With its allusions to a haunting true story, the classic noir The Night of the Hunter was a game-changing work of horror that went on to influence many of the industry’s greatest directors. And it takes inspiration from a real-life murderer.

The Night of the Hunter A self-proclaimed preacher marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real dad hid the $10,000 he’d stolen in a robbery.Release Date July 26, 1955 Director Charles Laughton Cast Robert Mitchum , Shelley Winters , Lillian Gish , James Gleason Runtime 92 Minutes Main Genre Noir

What Is ‘The Night of the Hunter’ About?
The Night of the Hunter is based on the novel of the same name by David Grubb, which had been loosely inspired by a real murder case that haunted West Virginia in the 1930s. After being convicted of murdering two young widows and three children, the Dutch-born serial killer Harry Powers was hanged to death at the West Virginia Penitentiary. While the film adaptation from Hollywood superstar Charles Laughton took a fair amount of dramatic license with his adaptation of the novel, The Night of the Hunter stood out from other horror films of its era because of its realistic depiction of evil. The notion that a mysterious stranger could come to torment and manipulate an entire community would become the basis of the gothic noir genre in subsequent decades.

Related This Neo-Noir Movie Gave Us 5 of Horror’s Greatest Minutes The Coen Brothers craft a scene straight out of a nightmare.

The film stars Robert Mitchum, who was cast against type as a charismatic traveling preacher named Harry Powell, based on Powers. Mitchum was a favorite among many critics, and seeing a beloved actor who was associated with heroic characters playing such a ruthless antagonist made The Night of the Hunter even scarier. After being arrested for a drunk driving incident, Powell ends up sharing a confinement cell with the convicted serial killer Ben Harper (Peter Graves), who reveals he has stashed away a secret fortune for his family. Powell’s attempts to extract the location of the money are futile and Harper is hanged for his crimes. Following his release, Powell attempts to woo Harper’s widow, Willa (Shelley Winters), so that she will marry him and allow him to reap the benefits of her husband’s fortune. This provokes conflict with Harper’s two young children, John (Billy Chapin) and Pearl (Sally Jane Bruce), who begin to suspect that their potential stepfather has rather malicious intentions.

Unlike the many great horror films of the pre-code era, there are no overtly supernatural elements in The Night of the Hunter. The central conflict regarding the collection of a cash deposit felt much more in line with the hard-boiled detective mysteries of the era; however, there was clearly a malevolence within Powell himself that indicated that he was no ordinary crime villain. While it remains one of the most haunting films ever made, there’s relatively little violence in The Night of the Hunter, as many of the most gruesome moments are merely implied. However, the unflinching relentlessness of Powell’s mission made it just as scary as any monstrous creature could be; his ability to slip into normal society suggested that evil could be lurking in the most unlikely of places.

‘The Night of the Hunter’ Changed Noir Horror Forever
Image Via United Artists

Finding the right perspective is critical to making a film scary, and The Night of the Hunter brilliantly chooses to tell its story from the perspective of the two children. Powell emerges from an enigmatic background and has a powerful ability to trick people into helping him. In the eyes of John and Pearl, he feels like a nightmarish vision comes to life. Initially, the children’s resistance to this strange new preacher is understandable, as he has come to replace the role that their father once occupied. However, it becomes steadily clear to the audience that there’s nothing active about their imagination; the audience is forced to feel the same frustration that the children do when their community does not believe them.

It’s unfortunate that this is the only feature that Laughton ever directed because he employed a unique visual style that made The Night of the Hunter both haunting and beautiful. Much of the film analyzes how susceptible seemingly idealized rural American communities are to corrupting influences; although Powell’s intentions are clear to the viewer, he is successful in convincing the townsfolk to accept him into their community. This puts even more pressure on John and Pearl, as they begin to realize that Powell has put a sort of “spell” over those who believe him simply because he is a preacher. The subtle satire of religious fundamentalism helps Laughton elevate The Night of the Hunter over other noir crime stories.

‘The Night of the Hunter’ Inspired Many Great Filmmakers

While it is now regarded as one of the greatest horror films of all time, The Night of the Hunter was considered a disappointment upon its initial release. Essentially marketed as a “B” movie and even banned in Memphis, Tennessee for its depiction of religion, The Night of the Hunter failed to impress early critics because of how radically it turned the genre on its head. However, the film’s home video release made it ripe for rediscovery, allowing it to become a cult classic in the years following its debut.

The Night of the Hunter has influenced many of the industry’s greatest directors. Guillermo del Toro praised how the film embodied a “spirit of dread” that merged surrealist imagery with stark landscapes, and Spike Lee referenced the film in his own classic, Do the Right Thing. Crime movie masters like Joel and Ethan Coen, Martin Scorsese, and Terrence Malick have also acknowledged the film’s lasting influence on their works within the genre.

The Night of the Hunter is streaming on Tubi.

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