Review: Angel Heart
Director: Alan Parker
There seems to be quite a few supernatural detective movies where your average gumshoe comes in contact with the forces of hell: God Told Me To, the Prophecy, Fallen... But there's something about Angel Heart that sets it apart. It seems to draw a lot influence from pulp noir-style detective stories. I like to think of it as like a voodoo “Chinatown”. The original story takes place in '59, but in the commentary Alan Parker mentions backing up the time period a few years so that it's closer to the 30s-40s. The voodoo/new orleans element makes it stand out as well. Hollywood traditionally has a pretty ridiculous approach of depicting voodoo, but the rituals in this were very intense (one scene features Cosby Show's Lisa Bonet in a sexual frenzy while covered in chicken blood). All the acting in the movie was pretty top-notch. Robert Deniro shows up as the devil with some nice claw-like fingernails. The supernatural elements are brought out through the story and acting rather then through special effects (except for one point at the end, it was pretty haunting but seemed very out of place). One more thing worth mentioning is the music, it had everything from blues, to early jazz, to crooning. It really fit the mood of this movie and helped establish the period and locations.
Reviewed by: Ravenous, added January 06 2005
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