Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
A down-and-out Brooklyn detective is hired to track down a singer on an odyssey that will take him through the desperate streets of Harlem, the smoke-filled jazz clubs of New Orleans, and the swamps of Louisiana and its seedy underworld of voodoo.
Angel Heart is a genuinely distinctive neo-noir horror thriller that blends hard-boiled detective fiction with Southern Gothic atmosphere and supernatural dread. Alan Parker's direction creates an oppressively atmospheric visual world — the cinematography by Michael Seresin is genuinely exceptional, drenched in shadow, heat, and dread. Mickey Rourke delivers one of his finest performances, and Robert De Niro's Louis Cyphre is an iconic, chilling creation. The film's fusion of genres — detective procedural, Faustian horror, voodoo mysticism — gives it a singular voice that remains unmistakable. The twist ending, while effective and well-constructed, loses a point for being somewhat telegraphed to attentive viewers, and the revelation, once seen, slightly diminishes the re-watch intrigue of earlier scenes. Still, a rare case of a film that genuinely earns distinction across nearly every dimension.