As dark and brooding a slice of American Gothic as you could wish for, ANGEL HEART is one of the best straight horror outings to come out of the late '80s – a time when most genre offerings were cheesy, rubbery outings of stupidity. ANGEL HEART is in essence a mood piece. Set during the 1950s, it chronicles the efforts of a private detective to track down a missing person who soon finds himself in some very dark places. With a string of unpleasant sex and violence scenes, excellent direction from the always-good Alan Parker and some quite wonderful performances, this is a real classic. There aren't that many films that deal with modern-day voodoo in a non-biased way so this one's a real treat.
Parker is adept at crafting atmosphere and you can almost smell the cigarette smoke in this seedy, grubby little film. Mickey Rourke, in a career-best performance, is Harry Angel, the protagonist. Angel is a pretty unpleasant guy who thinks nothing of using violence as a method and yet Rourke embodies him with a raw humanity that makes us warm to him from the start. Although he's the archetypal tough guy he projects an air of bruised vulnerability that makes him riveting to see on screen. He has some great supporting actors with him, too; Lisa Bonet excels in a layered performance as the voodoo-practising Epiphany Proudfoot; Charlotte Rampling as a fortune teller; finally Robert De Niro, as great as ever as the sinister Louis Cyphre.
The film is pretty slowly paced but laced with moments of action and violence that breathe life into it. My attention never wavered for a second. There are occasional missteps – I could have done without the 'glowing eye' stuff that takes place at the climax, that only serves to cheapen the effect; good when used in films like FRIGHT NIGHT, but not here! But the handling of Rourke's gradual realisation as he pieces together the mystery and his final understanding of the true horror of his situation is top notch and the film then ends on an unforgettable piece of imagery. Altogether a great work and a film I thoroughly enjoyed.
Parker is adept at crafting atmosphere and you can almost smell the cigarette smoke in this seedy, grubby little film. Mickey Rourke, in a career-best performance, is Harry Angel, the protagonist. Angel is a pretty unpleasant guy who thinks nothing of using violence as a method and yet Rourke embodies him with a raw humanity that makes us warm to him from the start. Although he's the archetypal tough guy he projects an air of bruised vulnerability that makes him riveting to see on screen. He has some great supporting actors with him, too; Lisa Bonet excels in a layered performance as the voodoo-practising Epiphany Proudfoot; Charlotte Rampling as a fortune teller; finally Robert De Niro, as great as ever as the sinister Louis Cyphre.
The film is pretty slowly paced but laced with moments of action and violence that breathe life into it. My attention never wavered for a second. There are occasional missteps – I could have done without the 'glowing eye' stuff that takes place at the climax, that only serves to cheapen the effect; good when used in films like FRIGHT NIGHT, but not here! But the handling of Rourke's gradual realisation as he pieces together the mystery and his final understanding of the true horror of his situation is top notch and the film then ends on an unforgettable piece of imagery. Altogether a great work and a film I thoroughly enjoyed.