The Night of the Hunter by Charles Laughton
So in class we watched The Night of the Hunter and it was basically The Shining Experience version 2.0. Or I suppose because it came first, I should call it the original version. Regardless! Both these movies were similar to me and my experience was basically the same because they involved.
- a murderous man
- a dumb as dirt woman (or women)
- a little boy hero
- AND STRESS. TONS AND TONS OF STRESS.
Let’s start from the beginning. This film is set in the times of The Great Depression, somewhere in West Virginia. It’s a sunny day and children are playing. happy times everywhere. Then CUE OMINOUS MUSIC. The random group of children find a woman dead in a cellar. And then some weird guy is driving a car and speaking to God about all the women/mothers he murdered and it is clear at this point that he is fucking crazy. Also, he’s a self-appointed preacher. If this doesn’t spell out trouble for you, idk what does. But yeah he gets arrested because he’s driving a stolen car (and not for the murders of women.
Ben with his father
Meanwhile, elsewhere, a small boy named John is playing with his sister Pearl when his father runs up to him with a bag of money, telling him that the cops are coming (because he killed two people at a bank) and that John needs to take care of the family but that he can’t tell his mom about the money because “you got common sense. She ain’t.” -___________- Yes the 10-12 year old boy can handle the stolen thousands of dollars but the wife…nope she’s too stupid. Moving on…the father makes the kids swear they won’t tell anyone about the money.
So of course, the father ends up arrested and lo and behold, he is roomed with Crazy Preacher. (<that’s his name. remember this) Crazy Preacher knows that the father has kids and a wife and that he also hid the money somewhere and he schemes to find it when he gets out of jail (because he was arrested for stealing a car not murdering women, remember? his sentence is short.)
Meanwhile John and Pearl are living life with their mom…but there comes a day when their father gets hanged and then, there comes another day when Crazy Preacher shows up at their house in the middle of the night like a First Class CREEPER. He leaves though and bides his time before finding John’s mother.
Crazy Preacher is seen bonding with everyone; he gets everyone to love him because he has Hate and Love tatted on his knuckles (WHAT!??) and he has some stupid anecdote about how you think Hate will win but Love always does and he demonstrates this by wrestling his hands idk. Let me just say right here (again) that EVERY WOMAN in this movie is stupid. The mother, Willa, thinks from the start that Crazy Preacher is probably only talking to her because of the money but the old lady she works with insists that she isn’t a spring chicken and she needs to get with it basically. Even though Willa’s husband JUST died…basically everyone is just accepting Crazy Preacher’s sketch behavior because he’s a “preacher.”
Old Lady is stupid too and I blame her for most of the events of this film. She is the reason Willa and Crazy Preacher get married. John does not approve of Crazy Preacher and immediately calls bullshit. Crazy Preacher doesn’t like John because John sees THE TRUTH. Crazy Preacher keeps harassing John with scary looks and vaguely threatening statements.
Pearl AKA LITTLE SHIT immediately taking a liking to Crazy Preacher
Pearl, aka Little Shit, immediately starts calling Crazy Preacher ‘daddy’ and she is SO FUCKING STUPID I JUST WANNA KICK SOMETHING. There’s a part fairly early on where she’s like well he’s our new daddy so that means we can tell him our secrets and John is like bitch you promised and she’s like I like our new daddy and I’m just like -_____- you are too old to be acting this way. THEN another scenes shows Crazy Preacher asking her for the secret but Pearl says she can’t tell because of John and he GRABS HER ARM and yells “come here you filthy little wretch” and then she screams and runs to get to the closet but for some fucking reason, she still finds it in herself to unconditionally love this STRANGE MAN who randomly came into her life, demanding money. Up until the last couple of scenes, she still responds to his call and enthusiastically hugs him DESPITE him calling her a wretch or filthy numerous times. Pearl is a little shit and while Old Lady is the reason John’s mother gets married to Crazy Preacher, Pearl is the real cause of stress in this entire movie. The depths to which I hate Pearl will never be accurately expressed.
So anyways…shit begins to go down when Crazy Preacher rejects Willa and says sex is for procreation only and their marriage isn’t going to be filled with such nonsense (um what?) and so she becomes super religious (and crazy) and eventually when she finds out that he only married her for the money, she DOES NOT EVEN SEEM TO CARE. She even seems to expect the knife he pulls out and stabs her with and I’m just like……YOUR CHILDREN THOUGH. WHY ARE YOU SO ACCEPTING!?!? YOU ARE LEAVING YOUR CHILDREN IN THE HANDS OF A MURDERER!!!!! Ughhhhh…
Crazy Preacher murdering Willa
So Crazy Preacher tells people that Willa left a note and ran off (like ANY sane woman would ever leave her children with some random guy she just met so that she can go sin and have fun. um what?) but he really put her in the river. This is the part where more womanly stupidity comes into play. The old lady who Willa worked with BELIEVES THIS STORY. She totally just shrugs it off like oh willa that dumb whore even though I’ve known her way longer than you and I’ve never known her to run off like a harlot. The old lady’s husband is the one who is suspicious AS ANY SANE PERSON SHOULD BE LIKE THIS RANDOM MAN COMES INTO YOUR TOWN AND SHIT STARTS GOING DOWN BUT NO IT’S THE WOMAN’S FAULT. But the old lady is one of those strong independent (white) women and promptly shuts him up.
John and Pearl floating down the river like sweet baby moses
Meanwhile John and Pearl are caught in the basement with Crazy Preacher and John lies about the location of the money and PEARL THIS LITTLE SHIT goes – GET THIS!! OKAY? SHE FUCKING GOES “John’s sinning. John’s telling a lie.” The. Little. Shit.
And Crazy Preacher gets upset because he’s CRAZY and he’s about to kill John I’m sure. By the way, the money is in Pearl’s doll as Pearl reveals (and I suppose it’s somewhat justified because John’s life is being threatened) But John manages to escape with Pearl (I honestly would’ve just left her dumbass and taken the doll but that’s just me…) and he gets a small rowboat and goes down the river, stopping for food and/or sleep whenever he thinks its safe. Crazy Preacher follows the river on a horse. This montage of scenes shows how hard things were in the Great Depression, especially for children….
She’s not taking shit today.
THEN, LIKE A FERVENT PRAYER I NEVER MADE WAS ANSWERED, Rachel appears on screen. Rachel is an older woman who is taking care of three young girls in her house. She forces John and Pearl to come into her house so they can get a bath. My faith in humanity is restored immediately when Crazy Preacher appears- and PEARL RUNS TO HIM!?!?!??!?! – and he calls John and Rachel goes “What kind of boy doesn’t answer his father’s call.” “He ain’t my daddy” Rachel runs in the house, muttering “He most certainly ain’t. And he ain’t no preacher either.”
AND SHE COMES OUT WITH A SHOTGUN AND FINALLY!! COMMON SENSE HAS MADE AN APPEARANCE. SHE ISN’T TAKING ANY SHIT TODAY!!! (btw, I lied when I said all the women were stupid so you could feel the same sense of joy and shock and relief that I felt when she appeared like an angel onscreen.)
Crazy Preacher leaves with a promise that he’ll be back in the night. Rachel ain’t having it and she stays posted up at the window, shotgun in hand. Omg, I almost cried tears of joy. basically, Crazy Preacher gets shot in the arm or something and Rachel calls the cops/state troopers and Crazy Preacher gets arrested.
There’s this supposedly iconic scene where John sees Crazy Preacher getting taken down just like his father was in the beginning…and suddenly he starts screaming “Nooo. Don’ttttt. Dad I don’t want the money. You can have it daddy! I swore like you said and I don’t want to do this anymore.” (something along those lines) and honestly I really could’ve done without the scene but whatever. Crazy Preacher gets arrested and a mob forms in town when everyone figures out that he’s murdered countless people. But Rachel takes all the children home and it’s suddenly Christmas…? And they all have a merry little morning in their new home. The end.
Overall, I honestly found this movie pretty enjoyable. The characters were pretty static but I found myself rooting for John. I felt really bad for him. It was suspenseful and a bit fantastical but still somehow believable/relatable. The ending felt a bit too happy but taking into account the undertones and biblical references to Moses and Jesus and the young age of the protagonist as well as the time this film was made, it’s to be expected. I could watch it again despite its old age.
3.5/5 Stars
Rated E... 