Seventy years after its release, The Night of the Hunter remains as mesmerising and haunting as ever, a masterpiece of shadow and suspense. To celebrate its anniversary, we are bringing Charles Laughton’s Southern Gothic classic back to the big screen, where its striking imagery and eerie fairytale quality belong.
Charles Laughton’s only film as a director is a haunting fable about good and evil, wrapped in a Southern Gothic nightmare. Robert Mitchum delivers an unforgettable performance as the sinister preacher Harry Powell, whose chilling hymn and tattooed knuckles mark him as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Lillian Gish stands as his perfect foil, embodying resilience and kindness in a world teetering on the edge of darkness. With stark, expressionist cinematography and dreamlike sequences, the film blends fairytale and horror with poetic elegance. Though initially misunderstood, The Night of the Hunter is now regarded as one of the most visually striking and thematically rich films in American cinema.
‘Charles Laughton's first and only film as a director is an enduring masterpiece...’ - David Kher, The Chigardo Reader
