There's enough broken down fans, chickens, dark allys, twists, and seedy characters in this thing to keep you glued to your seat, contemplating the film, for hours after its concluded. Quite frankly, you'll be too terrified to even move. If anyone has played the excellent Sierra adventure game, "Gabriel knight: Sins of the Fathers", you'll see a clear inspiration with this movie. Angel Heart is a nightmare of a film-noir flick with a little of the horror genre mixed in. Truly one of the most involving films I've ever seen and by the end of it, the audience will feel as though they've been taken through Hell. Mickey Rourke plays Harry Angel, a small time private investigator in New York City. Most of his clients are jealous lovers and that sort. Angel gets a call one day by Louis Cyphre, a clergyman of a strange religion, asking him to track down a man who is in dept to him. Angel Heart moves like a detective drama with the pacing. But the film is so much more than just a gather clues and evidence type of thing. There's a real psychological horror that builds up as Angel nears closer and closer to his man and as he begins to question the validity of his employer, Mr. Cyphre. Mickery Rourke is brilliant in the movie. He plays a detestable and dirty chainsmoking hustler who will do almost whatever it takes to find the person he's after. Yet the character is also likable because of Rourke's charm, which allows for us to care about him. Robert DeNiro is creepy and downright disturbing as Louis Cyphre in all his subdued glory. The production is amazing. Angel Heart feels like a dark moody blues and jazz number. The story starts in New York and ends up in New Orleans. Lisa Bonet and Rourke have one of film's most notorious moments, a sex-scene that got her kicked off "The Cosby Show" and almost landed the film with an X-rating. Parker's movie ain't for the squimish or faint of heart, that's for sure. Many of the voodoo scenes with chickens are freaky enough, let alone several of the films' gruesome murders. Alan Parker directed the film perfectly. He's vowed to work in every genre and made one hell of a flick with Angel Heart. Michael Seresin did the cinematography for the movie. He also shot Parker's earlier film, Midnight Express. Trevor Jones composed the film's score. Overall just a damn fine piece of movie making. You'll be hard pressed to find a more surreal and nightmarish movie than this with such great acting and storytelling. The ending will leave you gasping for air, yet somehow you will have seen it coming all along.
Grade: A+
Grade: A+
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