Angel Heart (1987)

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Angel Heart (1987) (R)

Directed by Alan Parker (The Wall, Evita)
Written by Alan Parker, based on the novel by William Hjortsburg (Legend)
Cinematography by Michael Seresin (Fame, Midnight Express)
Starring Mickey Rourke (Harry Angel), Robert DeNiro (Louis Cyphre), and Lisa Bonet (Epiphany)

Spolier alert!!!!! If you haven't seen the movie, and are interested in seeing it, do not read the third paragraph of this review.

This film was famous for its 15 minutes, mostly because of the sex scenes between Mickey Rourke and Lisa Bonet, fresh off The Cosby Show. Well, it deserved a little infamy, because those scenes are pretty nasty. Yuck. Anyway, there's more to it than sex. Harry Angel is a private investigator hired by Louis Cyphre, a mysterious man to say the least, to search for a missing singer. As his search goes deeper into the secrets of both the singer and himself, he journeys to New Orleans, where he encounters a voodoo cult and an exotic girl. As usual with occult/horror films, bodies pile up.

All of this is done through pretty run-of-the-mill plot and photography. The constant use of cell-like framing devices and an ugly, desaturated palette hits the viewer over the head with the eventual truth: Harry is damned. Come on, Louis Cyphre... Lucifer? The film does feature a wonderfully new look at hell, but you have to wait for the end.