Angel Heart

On the whole, I still love ANGEL HEART. I love movies that are heavy on atmosphere and this movie gave everything I wanted in that department. It was eerie, unpredictable and the majority of the cast was good. Mickey Rourke was just made to play these gumshoe parts, Robert De Niro was effective and I must say De Niro knows how to be scary but then I forget he was Travis Bickle.

I do have my complaints. Charlotte Rampling deserved a bigger part, the little screen time she had, I was just in awe. I wish she had a bigger part, she looked radiant, femme fatale supreme.

But my biggest issue was the Lisa Bonet character. I didn't get the point of the lap dance on the chicken, the sex scene was just gratuitous and pointless and the twist involving her character, it felt rushed. Like they didn't know how to end the movie so they just sprang this on us. I felt cheated in a way. After everything I saw, I expected a much better conclusion.

Watched the film a few days ago. I couldn’t believe how overwhelming the film was. Mickey Rourke and Robert De Niro's performances were God Tier and their chemistry was awesome, including their exchange of dialogue. The film has a strong atmosphere and mystery. The twist was just astonishing, disturbing, and haunting. It was heartbreaking at the end. It’s a movie I would love to re-watch multiple times and analyze. It’s sad, not many people talk about this movie. Classic horror movie. Highly recommend.

I'll assume you've seen the film. Spoilers ahead.

So: I got to the 'I know who I am!' scene. Then Cypher says to Johnny: 'for twelve years you've been living on borrowed time...'.

I thought 'hmm'.

Because, typically, the faustian bargain lasts 24 years. It was as if the film was saying 'look for the other half'.

I did, and found something interesting. There seems to be two bargains. One made but not complete; one complete but not made:

1-As we are told, Johnny made a bargain with the devil before the war. Let's say a 1939-1963 bargain.

2-But the devil returned to collect Johnny's soul in 1955, so the bargain would have been made in 1931. But Johnny made no bargain back then!

The explanation seems to be obvious: Johnny tried to duck out of the 1939-63 deal, but the devil had foreseen that possibility and switched to the 1931-55 bargain.

So Cypher was already there in 1931, when Johnny was a 13 year old boy. Maybe laying some kind of subconscuous backdoor through which he could guide Johnny's hand if he tried to trick him. And that's what we actually have in the film.

Now in the novel, Johnny's secret love Evangeline Proudfoot is ten or more years older than he. But in the film, and as we can see (the date on her gravestone), she had been born in 1918, just like Johnny.

Alan Parker changed that. Why? Remember what Ethan Krusemark says to Johnny in the 'it's a crock of shit!' scene: [Johnny] needed a victim, someone his own age...to steal their soul

So did Alan Parker, I guess. Johnny and Evangeline had to be of the same age for Cypher to lay a hook on his 'favorite' Johnny Favorite.

Maybe that's how Cypher laid the backdoor, through Evangeline, who was a voodoo priestess at that age, and therefore connected to the demonic, just as her daughter would be.

And that's what we see in those dreams. The woman in black (whose face is DeNiro's, as we can see at the end).

The song 'girl of my dreams'. Maybe Johnny had already seen Evangeline in her boyhood dreams, before actually meeting her.

According to Epiphany, Johnny 'stole her mother's heart', a pretty banal line in itself, but maybe not in this film. Nothing is given without something being given away and vice versa. So maybe Johnny lost or compromised a piece of his soul back then - before the 1939 bargain. And yet, and as Cypher says, it was killing Angel in 1942 that doomed him.

'He needed a victim, someone his own age'. Johnny had been born on Feb.14 1918. Evangeline had been born in 1918, but what about her birthdate?

We don't know...but Parker himself had been born on Feb.14.

13 year old Johnny and Evangeline. Precocity seems to be a thing in this film. Margaret Krusemark, who was into tarot card before she could read. Epiphany, a voodoo priestess since age 12/13. The names Johnny (not John, as in Johannes Faustus) and Harry (not Harold). Both are called 'boy' in the film.

So this idea more or less fits with this theme too, and obliquely so with films like The Exorcist and the 12 year old Regan girl. It was about sexual awakening in a way.

“Do you know Johnny Favorite” Mr. Cyphre asks private detective Harry Angel. Cyphre (Robert DeNiro) has hired Angel (Mickey Rourke) to find out the whereabouts of the famed missing singer Johnny Favorite. It appears that Johnny had made a deal with Mr. Cyphre and refused to return the favor, which is why he seems to have went into hiding. For Angel, it seems like a mostly straightforward case. However, things go south (figuratively and literally) when everyone who has a connection to the lost singer wind up dead in highly ritualized and gruesome murders. It becomes apparent that Johnny does not want to found at all costs, forcing Angel to dive deep into the occult world of voodoo, black magic and satanism for answers.

I think this is an amazing mystery movie that doesn’t seem to get much love these days. It gets under your skin so easily, probably because there is just something so terrifying and unnerving about underground and secret cults. It’s not just the unknown that’s scary here, the events that unfold onscreen are just horrific enough to give you nightmares but not enough to make you want to turn off the tv.

The last third of the movie is a little confusing, maybe because all the answers come pouring out at once, making the last act a little messy, but it all makes a lot more sense on a second viewing. If you’re not into movies that require multiple viewings, then just ignore this one.

One last thing I need to mention is the ending, don’t worry I wouldn’t dare spoil it. People on Reddit frequently say movies like Oldboy and The Mist have the most disturbing endings. Well they obviously have not watched this one, because this is seriously one of the most demented and evil endings out there.

Overall, a twisted and engaging mystery horror flick you won’t regret watching.

8/10

I just rewatched it. I find it both clumsy and alluring. More clumsy than alluring though.