Angel Heart

UK Release Date. 2 October 1987
Certification. 18
Running Time. 1 hour 53 mins
Director. Alan Parker
Cast. Lisa Bonet, Robert De Niro, Charlotte Rampling, Mickey Rourke.
Rating. 73%

Review.

Alan Parker followed the release of Birdy with unquestionably the darkest film in his impressive filmography, Angel Heart. Adapted from the novel, Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg, the screenplay of Angel Heart was effectively rewritten by Alan Parker. Set in Louisiana in the 1950s, Angel Heart is a brooding, intense and seedy crime drama. Mickey Rourke plays New York private detective Harry Angel who is employed by the mysterious and enigmatic Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro) to find a missing singer named Johnny Favorite. The search for Johnny Favorite plunges Angel into a web of conspiracy, occult powers and stolen identities. 

Beneath the surface of this pulp detective novel thriller, exists a film with supernatural undercurrents. A neo-noir horror that over time evolves into more of a psychological affair, building an oppressive sense of dread and paranoia. The evolution is electrifying.

Angel Heart is carried by Mickey Rourke. He deftly flits from metropolitan charm to harrowing pity, while his physicality embodies the weariness of a hardened private detective. Unwashed, unshaven and hungover, Rourke occupies centre stage like a violent unmade bed. Equally, Robert De Niro revels in the role of Louis Cyphre. His elegant black suits, slicked-back hair and sharp, pointed fingernails set the foreboding atmosphere of the film. Finally, a sultry Lisa Bonet, plays Epiphany Proudfoot, a beguiling young woman who may hold the secrets of the past Harry Angel is in search of. A role that was as far removed from her character of Denise Huxtable in The Cosby Show (1984-1991) as you can imagine.

Angel Heart is an exuberant film that never fails to unnerve and shock. Atmospheric, and with style to burn. Parker keenly focuses on colour and detail in his establishing shots - spartan and devoid of life, New York is like a living purgatory, whereas New Orleans, by contrast, is a vibrant world of raw, sensuous energy. 

After the dust has settled, it is possible to revisit the plot of Angel Heart and agree that it's really fairly straightforward. But it doesn't feel that way at the time. Angel Heart has the unsettled logic of a nightmare - a nightmare in which nothing follows and yet everything seems inevitable. A thoroughly enjoyable, depraved hellish hallucination.