Night of the Eagle (1962 film)
Night of the Eagle, AKA Burn Witch, Burn (1962)
Summary
"Do the undead demons of hell still arise to terrorize the world?" When a skeptical British professor ties his success to his wife's black magic, he destroys her voodoo kit to prove a point, but quickly wishes he hadn't....
Details
- Release Date: 1962
- Country/Language: UK, English
- Genres/Technical: Horror (Folk Horror), Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller, black-and-white
- Runtime: 1 hr 30 min
- Starring: Peter Wyngarde, Janet Blair, Margaret Johnston
- Director: Sidney Hayers
- Writer: Fritz Leiber Jr. (novel Conjure Wife), Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson (screenplay)
- Producer/Production Co: Independent Artists
- View Trailer: (link)
- IMDB: (link)
- Wikipedia: (link)
Ratings
MPAA Ratings
- Rated: (not rated) (perhaps a PG for mild Violence and maybe some mild Adult Content)
This film had once somehow earned a British X rating, perhaps because of the witchcraft subject matter, but is actually probably closer to a modern PG for early 1960s British horror content comparable to what might be seen in a typical Hammer or AIP horror film of the era.
Tentacle Ratings
A rough measure of how "Lovecraftian" the work is:
- SS___ (Two Tentacles: Barely Lovecraftian; could be a very loose adaptation)
Not extremely "Lovecraftian", but any story from the minds of Fritz Leiber Jr., Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson is bound to come close, and this atmospheric movie delivers a horror story about a skeptical professor finding himself suddenly dragged into a world of black magic when he learns about things that man is not meant to know which comes just a Necronomicon or Cthulhu reference short of getting a stronger recommendation; it seems that the original story would have been set in or near Lovecraft Country.
Note: This rating is not intended as a measure of quality, merely of how closely related to Lovecraftian "Weird" fiction the work is.
Reviews
Review Links:
- Johnathan Lewis at Mystery*File (link) - " Although filmed in a noticeably flat black and white, making it highly adaptable to television screens in the early 1960s, Burn, Witch, Burn retains a Gothic, strikingly off kilter atmosphere that I found to be quite effective."
- Mitch Lovell at The Video Vacuum (3.5 Stars) (link) - "Burn, Witch, Burn is a moody, elegant horror flick that relies on low key shocks and realistic paranoia for its terror. And boy; is it ever effective. Usually whenever supernatural horror films take the “realistic” route, they come up short in the scares department, but not this one."
- Richard Schieb at The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review (4/5 Stars) (link) - "There is lucid eeriness as the film plays out and the world of superstitions starts manifesting around Peter Wyngarde with scary but ambiguous effect."
- Brian Schuck at Films From Beyond The Time Barrier (link) - "Night of the Eagle very effectively takes the primeval/gothic horror elements of witchcraft, curses and talismans and relocates them to the most pedestrian of settings, a sleepy 20th century college community."
Synopsis
Spoiler Section (Highlight to Read)
When a skeptical British professor discovers that his wife has been practicing black magic, he destroys her voodoo kit to prove a point, but quickly wishes he hadn't, when he learns that his professional success has been depending on the spells, and it soon becomes evident that a rival witch has been casting harmful spells on the professor and his wife, putting their very lives in danger....
Notes
Comments, Trivia, Dedication
- In common with some of the amusing film gimmicks of the era (see the promotional techniques of William Castle, for example), American theater audiences were given a special pack of salt and words to an ancient incantation "for protection", and were warned not to watch the film unless they were able to withstand the shock of the supposedly dangerous film.
Associated Mythos Elements
- fiction: Fritz Leiber's Conjure Wife
- TO DO
Keeper Notes
