Angel Heart (1987)

I'm a tad picky when writing about movies or shows.

There's no way I can count how many movies or TV shows I have seen over the years. And if I count how many of them I've written about, that would be around one-twentieth of what I've watched. Now that's a ridiculous number but it's true nonetheless. There are a few movies that I felt where the plot goes from okay this is mildly intriguing to WHAT IS HAPPENING at a high speed - I mean it in a good way. When I first watched Angel Heart (1987), it gave me the same vibe. I don't nitpick much for psychological thrillers, though the gory scenes tend to make me uneasy - but I like them as long as it has a solid story.

Angel Heart (1987)

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I have a special place in my mind for psychological thrillers and I don't often choose them. As I have said so many times before, I'm very selective, and the same for this genre but for different reasons. My mind has to be on different settings before I go for this type just for the sake of my sanity. Perhaps my sanity is easily swayed or I like to go down the rabbit hole; I wouldn't know. But this film isn't as unhinged as that. I chose to watch this film because of the biblical reference; I just wanted to see various portrayals of Lucifer and weigh the best. I have never seen a film directed by Alan Parker before and I have yet to see another. Though I have seen this film many moons ago, I'm now only posting about it.

My initial reason was to see the best portrayals of Lucifer but the protagonist, Harry Angel, is a character to see. He is a shabby private investigator with no money-worthy case coming his way. Worrying about survival he's going out of his mind when Louis Cyphre comes to him with a case of a missing person and an amount of cash that could keep Harry out of the streets for 3 months. From a shabby and desperate, Harry went down chasing one cold lead after another without realizing he was headed toward what would uproot his life. Every lead he chases ends up in a dead body. Louis played the role of the puppeteer - suave, sophisticated, and had a lot of money to throw around. As you can surmise, Louis Cyphre is Lucifer and Robert De Niro was marvelous although his screen time made him seem as a guest appearance. His presence in the film is short yet domineering - the puppeteer doesn't reveal himself often. The film centered around Harry but it was all about how Louis played him like a fiddle. This version of The Devil is one of my five favorites.

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The movie at first glance seems like a regular detective story with sly humor but gradually takes a darker turn and slowly descends to a psychological supernatural horror. Mind you, ghosts don't scare me but psychological thrillers do. One new lead and one dead body waiting at the end of it. From New York to Algiers to a remote town in New Orleans; as the plot was spiraling so were the locations. The leads and the deceased people perhaps acted in sort of a cruel misdirection. And the climax was befitting to all the madness or the roundabout that happened. I have seen crazier films than this but Angel Heart (1987) amid madness makes sense.

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