Hypno (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Hypno |
| Original title | Night of the Eagle |
| Country of production | Great Britain |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1962 |
| length | 87 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Sidney Hayers |
| script |
Charles Beaumont Richard Matheson George Baxt |
| production |
Albert Fennell Samuel Z. Arkoff |
| music | William Alwyn |
| camera | Reginald Wyer |
| cut | Ralph Sheldon |
| occupation | |
| |
Hypno (English original title Night of the Eagle ) is a black and white shot British horror film from 1962 by Sidney Hayers . It is based on the 1943 first published novel Conjure Wife (dt. Plaything of witches , later witches people ) by Fritz Leiber .
A psychology professor and his wife become the target of a series of attacks that threaten his professional career and then both lives. Contrary to his convictions, he feels compelled not only to accept supernatural phenomena, but also to make use of occult practices.
action
Norman Taylor, a professor of psychology at an English university, discovers that his wife Tansy practices witchcraft . Tansy insists that their practices not only favored his career, but also warded off attacks by envious peers, as Taylor is the youngest teacher and has moved in from outside. Taylor, a staunch rationalist and avowed opponent of any kind of superstition , forces them to collect and burn all cult objects in the house.
A short time later, fate turns against Taylor: a student accuses him of rape, her boyfriend threatens him, and an invisible force tries to invade the Taylor's house. Tansy wants to sacrifice her life for that of her husband and tries to drown herself. Against his convictions, Taylor uses black magic to save his wife. Shortly afterwards, Tansy returns to him in a trance state . She later attacks him with a knife, but Taylor is able to disarm her and lock her in the house. Tansy's limping gait during the attack gives him a clue as to where to look for the person who caused the incident. He exposes the handicapped Flora Carr, secretary of the university, as a mastermind who wants to take revenge for Taylor's promotion at the expense of her husband. Flora sets the Taylor house, where Tansy is still locked in, up in flames. Then she uses a ritualistic tape recording to bring the stone eagle enthroned at the entrance to the university building to life in order to destroy Taylor. Flora's husband appears in the office and stops the tape. Tansy escapes the burning house and the eagle disappears. When Flora leaves the university campus, she passes the stone eagle, which is again standing motionless in its place. The statue falls from the pedestal, buries Flora under itself and kills her on the spot.
background
Fritz Leibers Conjure Wife appeared (in a shorter form) 1943 as serial in the magazine Unknown and 1953 as a stand-alone novel publication. Sidney Hayers' adaptation moved the setting from American New England to rural Britain. The films Weird Woman (1944, with Lon Chaney junior ) and Witches' Brew (1979, with Teri Garr , Richard Benjamin , and Lana Turner ) were also based on Conjure Wife .
All three of Hypno's screenwriters were high profile film and television writers with a focus on horror, mystery and science fiction . Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson repeatedly adapted works by Edgar Allan Poe and HP Lovecraft for the screen.
Hypno opened in British cinemas in May 1962. The film opened in Germany on November 29, 1963. Unlike in the FRG, where Hypno was approved by the FSK for young people aged 16 and over (with the restriction “not holiday-free” ), the film received an “X” (absolute youth ban) from the British Board of Film Classification in its country of origin, Great Britain . - In the USA the film started under the title Burn, Witch, Burn! on April 25, 1962.
Subject
Witchcraft was a recurring theme in horror films, albeit mostly in combination with the myths about hybrid creatures ( Cat People , The Wolf Man ) or the voodoo cult ( White Zombie , I Walked with a Zombie ). Hypno shows the use of witchcraft or black magic in an everyday environment and contrasts it with a rationalistic worldview that is shaken in the course of the action. Jacques Tourneurs Night of the Demon (to which William K. Everson compared Hypno , giving Hypno a lower rating) works in a similar way.
reception
The New York Times described Hypno as "the most powerful supernatural thriller since Village of the Damned " and "best guarantee of goosebumps about witchcraft since I Walked with a Zombie ".
Film historian William K. Everson rated Hypno critically, among other things because of the unsurprising resolution, but praised the story as such and Janet Blair's portrayal.
Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader compared the film with the films of Val Lewton , and David Pirie by the magazine Time Out settled Hayers' embellishing directed even close to Orson Welles on.
Author ST Joshi particularly emphasized the realistic presentation of the university's internals.
The lexicon of international films judged: "Among the horror films of the 60s, in which witchcraft and ghost-haunted set the fantastic tone, a barely above average work."
In 1963 Hypno was nominated for the Hugo Award in the "Best Dramatic Presentation" category.
Publications
Currently (2011) Hypno is in Great Britain as Night of the Eagle and in the USA as Burn, Witch, Burn! available on DVD . The American edition is a so-called " on demand " DVD-R .
The American releases on Laserdisc and VHS-Video , both under the title Burn, Witch, Burn! , the British DVD box called Horror Classics , consisting of The Masque of the Red Death , Night of the Eagle and Zoltan, Hound Of Dracula , and the British VHS video of Night of the Eagle .
literature
- Fritz Leiber: Witches' Play Ball (abridged), Rastatt 1976; Hexenvolk (unabridged new translation), Bellheim 2008.
Web links
- Hypno in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Hypno in the Lexicon of International Films , accessed on March 23, 2012.
- ^ A b Hypno in the Internet Movie Database.
- ^ Hypno in the British Board of Film Classification
- ^ A b William K. Everson: Classics of the Horror Film , 1974; German horror film classic , Munich 1980.
- ^ "[...] quite the most effective 'supernatural' thriller since Village of the Damned [...] best outright goose-pimpler dealing specifically with witchcraft since I Walked with a Zombie [...]" - The New York Times, July 5, 1962.
- ↑ Review of Burn, Witch, Burn by Jonathan Rosenbaum in Chicago Reader, accessed March 23, 2012.
- ↑ David Pirie, Review of Night of the Eagle in the Time Out Film Guide, Seventh Edition 1999 , London 1998.
- ^ ST Joshi: "Icons of horror and the supernatural: An encyclopedia of our worst nightmares", Greenwood Press, Westport (Connecticut) 2007.