[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Angel Heart (1987)

Alan Parker's film is brilliant in concept - The devil hires a private investigator in the neo-noir setting of New York and New Orleans.

However in it's execution it's a a bit of a rambling mess with a central story of a missing musician that isn't very interesting. Robert De Niro steals the film from under Mickey Rourke's nose with his portrayal of Louis Cyphre and the film has a sordid atmosphere but that's about it.

I was asked yesterday if i'd seen the film before and i replied yes, twice, but never owned it on any home video format. Well now i do, i wonder if i'll ever return to it?

I found the similarly themed The 7th Victim (Mark Robson) and Roman Polanski's The Ninth Gate to be far superior films.

Still for all it's shortcomings, Angel Heart was a million times better than the tripe that is Bloodsucking Pharaohs in Pittsburgh (1991) - A horror comedy that works on no level whatsoever and if the interview with FX maestro Tom Savini is anything to go off then 88 Films release of the film is heavily cut as none of the behind the scenes gore fx shown appeared in the film.

A sequel beckons on Monday - Bloodsucking Pharaohs in CEX.