Angel Heart (Special Edition) [Import]

This is definitely one of the creepiest movies you'll ever see and the ending is a shocker. Set in 1955, a private detective named Harry Angel (played my Mickey Rourke) is hired by Louis Cyphre to find a long ago crooner named Johnny Favorite, who owes him something. The search leads Angel to a dark underworld of voodoo and strange murders. In his search for Favorite, Harry goes to New Orleans, where he runs into Epiphany Proudfoot, played by Lisa Bonet. As Harry gets closer to the truth of Favorite's whereabouts, things just get weirder and weirder. And Louis Cyphre turns out to be Harry's worst nightmare. And the title is an excellent play on the movie's denoument. Overall this is a great creepy thriller.

The DVD extras are also interesting (see the Mickey Rourke interview, is tragi-comic).

Let's see. A mesmerizing Mickey Rourke in his element. A brief but blood-curdling cameo from DeNiro sporting overgrown fingernails, dark flowy suits and a baritone drawl. A starkly bold turn from the beautiful Lisa Bonnet who exudes sexual abandon..

Cut to the chase, Angel Heart is a riveting psychothriller with cojones. It absolutely boggles me, then, why this is not the cult classic that it so richly deserves to be!

What begins as a fairly innocuous sleuthing adventure quickly takes on the contours of a supernatural drill, replete with mythological and biblical symbolism, as our private-eye discovers the true nature of his horrifying engagement.

Trevor Jones' riveting score and Parker's immaculate direction could be some of the reasons why this grand nightmare lingers in your thoughts long after the credits have rolled, but whatever the motivation, I highly recommend getting a hold of this classic with an unforgettable twist.

Despite the fact that this movie virtually tiptoed in and out of the box office limelight when it was released, it is still a very watchable, and often scary detective style thriller. What seems a simple missing person case brings Mickey Rourke to steamy (and often seamy) New Orleans and Harlem in the fifties. Working for a curiously menacing but well spoken client called Loius Cyphre, played superbly by Robert De Niro, our gumshoe must dig and delve into the past and try and retrace the steps of the disappearance. Cleverly twisted, and at times a little hard to follow, it transpires that the aforementioned Mr Cyphre (Lucifer in case you missed it) is actually on a harvest of souls that have been previously owed. The closer O' Rourke gets to the truth, the more horrifying it becomes, for him and everyone around him, in a very suspenseful, and often quite disturbing way. A young Lisa Bonet appeared in a fairly graphic, explicit and questionable sex scene in the original movie, which brought much controversy upon it, but has been restored in the unrated version. Despite the unlikely 80's designer stubble sported throughout by our hero, being fashionable in even the shadiest areas of town in the 50's, O'Rourke plays his part extremely well, often bemused, and superbly portarying genuine fear at the revelations he uncovers. Sure to thrill any audience today who likes the supernatural/thriller/mystery drama, it's still highly watchable. Perhaps enjoy is the wrong word here, but worth a visit!