Based on an M.R. James story called "Casting of the Runes", in certain respects "Night of the Demon" brilliantly anticipates Richard Matheson's adaptation of Dennis Wheatley's "The Devil Rides Out". The crucial difference between the two movies is that, here, Dana Andrews' smugly rational paranormal investigator, sent to discredit a charismatic black magician (Niall MacGinnis), is stubbornly sceptical of the malevolent forces gathering about him, whereas in Terence Fisher's movie, Christopher Lee's occult scholar is only too aware of the dread evil he is battling. Due to the producer's unfortunate insistence that the audience actually got to see the demon, Jacques Tourneur's suggestive horror mastery is completely undermined at the start and close of the picture, and the director's intended ambiguity - as to how much of the terror is real and how much imagined - is all but lost. Even so, "Night of the Demon" is still one of the best British fantasy-horror movies I've seen. Perhaps assisted by the censorship constraints of the day, Tourneur, unlike Fisher a decade later, neatly sidestepped the problem of portraying devil-worship without making it look silly by showing us very little of MacGinnis' cult followers and nothing of their rites. If Dana Andrews is a bit dull as the hero, Niall MacGinnis' perfect blend of charm and menace again prefigures Charles Gray's similar role in "The Devil Rides Out". Collectors of dotty English character performances should find plenty to enjoy, and fans of the sitcom "Porridge" will be amused by Mr Barrowclough's (Brian Wilde's) auto-defenestration. Nice b&w photography and a good score too.