Since the origin of film, the visual medium has confronted audiences with questions of ethics, the failures of society, and the hypocrisy of order. Moreover, the most successful films within the horror-genre construct the characters, plot, and cinematography as a subconscious reflection of ourselves, thereby utilizing the genre to cognitively explore the philosophical, historical, and psychological terrors that inhabit our surrounding environment.
In the original King Kong, the film depicts the characters as a representation of colonization, slavery, minstrelsy, and fear of black men, where the explorers embark on foreign land inhabited by the native King Kong, capturing the relatively peaceful behemoth, forcing him infront of an audience of thousands as the “eighth wonder of the world,” and eventually leading to the death of Kong, after he overpowers the shackles that constrained him and fraternizes with the beautiful, blonde female. In Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, the “Master of Suspense” explores the sexual repression, childhood trauma, and the Freudian-like maternal dependence of men in the Fifties through the character Norman Bates, the clumsy, yet charming, childlike proprietor of the Bates Motel, who is later revealed as conjuring split-personalities, punishing himself and others for his self-perceived sinful libido, and entering a state of violence, paranoia, and internal isolation developed from adolescence. In the Coen Brother’s No Country of Old Men, the sociopathic Anton Chigur symbolizes the distorted conception of nostalgia, a rejection of law and order, and a man possessed by his nihilistic perception of reality, a reality that has no space for an existential meaning of life, rather a world that has always been decided by fate, ultimately forcing Sheriff Ed Tom Bell and the audience to acknowledge that despair, corruption, and moral ambivalence dilute the nostalgia of the past, that evil is reincarnated through the actions of man, and any pursuit of an existential universe is utterly meaningless.
In contrast to the characters and films listed above, the diabolical, vindictive, and remorseless nature of Reverend Harry Powell (played by Robert Mitchum) in the 1955 film-adaptation The Night of the Hunter further complicates the audiences conception of a virtuous universe, where codes of morality are tarnished by a man who manipulates everyone along his journey. Set to the backdrop of a small Ohio town during the Great Depression, The Night of the Hunter is the tale of Reverend Powell, who, while incarcerated for stealing a car, learns of his cellmate’s $10,000 stolen fortune. Upon his release, the Reverend befriends and eventually marries his cellmate’s wife, who is instructed by her friends that it is essential have a man around the house, in order to create a familial environment for herself and her two children, John and Pearl. The ensuing film revolves around the Reverend’s desire to retrieve the ransom, while John, the eldest sibling, is growingly skeptical of the stand-in for his father. On the surface, The Night of the Hunter is a simple cat-and-mouse chase, yet the exquisite portrayal of Reverend Harry Powell and the context of his character accurately depicts the misguided trust of a false idol, the greed illicit through a failed capitalist-state, and the internal dispute of love and hate.
Throughout the film, religious overtones drift through the plot, characters, and even the cinematography. In one of the most sublime scenes in cinematic history, the Reverend kills the wife and places her body in the bottom of the nearby river, where the slain woman’s hair slowly drifts along with the surrounding seaweed as the light shines through the surface of the water, creating a contrast between the light and the darkness of the water to appear angelic. The religious themes are apparent, but more importantly, the disingenuous Reverend Powell, a perceived religious leader, speaks to the folly of blind faith and the abundance of power Religion controls worldwide. Locals in the town are quick to accept the suspicious outsider and coerce the recently single mother to allow the Reverend to move into their house and wed. Meanwhile, the children, in particular John, voices his displeasure with Reverend Powell in the house, looming in the shadows, subtly threatening the children about the money, and yelling cruel and obscene remarks at the children when the mother is away. At every attempt to get an adult’s attention, the children are chided. The children in The Night of the Hunter foreshadow the events that would grasp national attention, when high-ranking officials apart of the Catholic Church were accused of sexual assault towards minors. Eerily similar, the children in the film and those who are victims of sexual assault through the church are shunned from any outside intervention, isolated in the events that occurred, and fear of retaliation by the church. Likewise, Reverend Powell and the Priests abroad are protected by their surrounding community and the church, thereby utilizing the protection to carry on their acts of villainy.
Furthermore, the Depression Era setting and the desperate acquisition of fortune for Reverend Powell ponders the corruption of man through a failed capitalist-state. At the beginning of the film, Reverend Powell is arrested and sentenced 30 days for stealing a car. Scenes later, the father of John and Pearl returns home with $10,000, after he robs a local bank and kills a man. The Great Depression, a grim period of American history that witnessed the impoverishment of millions of Americans, adds a complex layer to the plot of the film. Was Reverend Powell always an unrelenting sociopath, or is the corruption of Reverend Powell’s morality a product of the collapsed capitalist-state? Furthermore, if a man of God, such as Reverend Powell, is so quickly to embrace his greed, is any man truly able to absolve their sins? Greed, being one of the seven sins, is attributed to Revered Powell’s pursuit of the money, as is the father’s joint homicide-robbery, and ultimately dictates the direction of the film. The Night of the Hunter projects upon the financial insecurities that derail most families, asking the audience to ponder morality in a time of financial crisis. Surely a member of the upper-class would not be morally inclined to pursue a life of crime, yet if the opportunity was presented to a financially struggling family member to rob a grocery store to feed their family, is that person a lesser-human in the eyes of the Lord? Moreover, Reverend Powell uses his faith as a form of justification in pursuit of the money, believing as a man dedicated to the Lords work, he is owed a form of retribution. Ultimately, The Night of the Hunter explores the corruption of man in fiscally hard times, pondering money as the root of all evil, and the inability to abandon greed through the Reverend Powell and John’s father.
Finally, the discussion of “love” and “hate” is metaphorically and literally intertwined in The Night of the Hunter. In perhaps the most iconic scene of the film, Reverend Powell flaunts his knuckle tattoos, with one hand reading “love” and the other hand reading “hate.” Spike Lee famously included an adaption of that scene in his influential film Do the Right Thing, in which Lee examines the dichotomy of the love/hate paradigm within a racially hostile community, while also exploring the internal conflict of love and hate. Reverend Powell is a man filled with hate, often using disparaging remarks to describe woman, extorting the children with ominous threats, and eventually murdering his newly wed. Wrath, another of the seven deadly sins, courses through the blood of the Reverend, as he abandons the “love thy neighbor” philosophy of the Ten Commandments, further alienating himself from the theology he claims to follow. The Reverend believes the children are beginning to wrong him, as they continue to dismiss his acquisition into the whereabouts of the money. Once again, Reverend Powell reflects the internal strife at the heart of most human beings, who constantly try to outweigh the hate within themselves with love. However, the Reverend, a symbol in the church of man dedicated to spreading the word of love, proves to be consumed by the disease of hatred, rather letting the wrath inside him fuel his actions. In summary, the love that is void in the Reverend further rejects the principle that man’s wrath is salvageable through prayer, communion, and confession, rather man is innately fueled by wrath.
Overall, The Night of The Hunter is a spectacular noir-thriller that has provided a template for modern horror films. Likewise, the film is successful in its ability to evoke questions of morality, anxieties of religion, and the exploration into the sins of man. Reverend Powell simply embodies a man of a primal state, one that indulges his innate defects of character and rejects his assimilation into a wholehearted disciple of the Lord. Furthermore, The Night of the Hunter forces the audience to question religious leaders, wonder, if, an esteemed member of the church, such as Reverend, is so easily corrupted, is the rest of humanity threatened? Of course, this is not entirely the case, but with the films release date in 1955, The Night of the Hunter challenged the audience to reject the conformity of the Fifties and explore in-depth their own moral dilemmas, rather than relying on the group-conscious of Religious organizations. Regardless if you watch the film for its exploration into religion, morality, and sin, The Night of the Hunter is must-see for cinephiles interested in pre-New Wave Hollywood movies and delivers one of the more terrifying characters in Reverend Harry Powell.
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