Although Tourneur was frustrated by having to show the demon in literal form, the way the film handles its appearance still stands, 60 years later, as perhaps the best and worthiest ever use of a special effect in a horror film, a ne plus ultra in genre spectacle – the strange apparition appearing vaguely in the distance, wreathed in smoke and fire..., and then a great, looming close-up of the demon's snarling visage and terrible clawed paw splayed to grip its prey and prize.
Roderick Heath
October 27, 2017