imagine making one movie and it’s the best movie

I love when the deal with a guy is that he's the devil

flawless movie but Kevin McCallister would wipe the floor with this guy

"It's a hard world for little things..."

One of the all-time greatest. Horrific, mesmerizing, dark and lovely. Charles Laughton's enduring classic is hard to classify - is it a thriller? A horror movie? A fairy tale? A fable? It is all of these, and other things too, and it weaves a dreamlike - and nightmarish - spell that is unforgettable. The movie was a critical and financial flop upon release - so many wonderful works of art are, it seems - but was later rightly recognized as an American masterpiece.

"They abide, and they endure."

Cold take: Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) might be the devil incarnate, but Icey Spoon (Evelyn Varden) is more dangerous.

The transparency of Powell's whole gimmick is as exaggerated as the expressionist style Laughton uses to tell the tale. But Icey takes his schtick at face value, and leverages the trust her community has in her to give him an in-road for his sinister plans. It doesn't matter that young John Harper is immediately suspicious of him. Or that Powell's charm isn't enough, on it's own, to cut through Willa's very fresh grief. Mrs. Spoon trusts him because he talks a good talk about the scripture she loves so she pushes Powell and Willa together and says "Now kiss".

Fun that the film contrasts this with Rachel Cooper(Lillian Gish), another elderly woman with reverance for the Bible, but who doesn't entertain a single ounce of Powell's bullshit.

how can i see that underwater shot and be expected to live to see another day?!?!

also Pearl’s head is the perfect Big Head / Little Face equation 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

went to a mystery screening tonight and when the opening credits started playing, i couldn't contain my excitement. this works on so many levels for so many reasons, even the occasional hokeyness adds a new layer to the sickly dark humor. but it's the cinematography and unusual directing that kicks this up a notch, and as a result, it transcends

this might be one of the best films ever made

"i can feel myself gettin' awful mad. i'm out of patience, children. i'm coming to find you now."

My girlfriend finally gets why I sometimes walk around the house going "LEANNINGGGG, LEANNNINNGGGGG"

”don’t he never sleep?”

no, john, evil never does.

The year is 1955. I'm in a movie theater watching The Night of the Hunter. I keep shouting "WHAT INTERESTING BIRTHMARKS!" whenever Mitchum's LOVE/HATE knuckle tattoos are shown. Eventually an usher tapes a popcorn tub to my face as a makeshift muzzle. The crowd cheers when he does this. The next time the knuckle tattoos are shown, I attempt to shout again. The popcorn tub doesn't really do anything to stop the noise. If anything it's a little louder now. Everyone groans. The usher wails in agony. And me? I'm simply enjoying the wonderful smell of popcorn. And hidden inside the popcorn tub, I'm smiling.

What a god damn movie.