Line #26 YMMV/TheNightOfTheHunter


1	%%Do not add any unapproved Complete Monster examples or edits without first bringing them through the cleanup thread.
2
3	* AccidentalAesop: Don't let someone push you into something you are unsure about. When she first meets Harry, Willa has some doubts about him, not the least being that John seems to know something is off about him. However, Icey keeps hounding her and basically trying to force Willa to date Harry. Things might have played out a lot different if Willa had not let herself be forced into marrying Harry.
4	* AdaptationDisplacement: Hardly anybody remembers that this was originally a novel by Davis Grubb (a best-selling and critically acclaimed novel, in fact).
5	* AwardSnub: Unavoidable, since the movie was panned on release. In hindsight it's considered one of the premiere Noir thrillers, and that Creator/RobertMitchum and Creator/LillianGish deserved Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress consideration.
6	* CatharsisFactor: While the ending does drag on for a bit, it's still really satisfying to watch Harry get his comeuppance after everything he's done.
7	* CompleteMonster: [[TheBluebeard Harry Powell]], a SerialKiller and [[SinisterMinister self-appointed preacher]], is introduced reminiscing about his previous murders as he was fleeing the sight of his latest murder. After sharing a cell with a bank robber, he gets out of prison and marries Willa, the bank robber's wife, believing her children knew where the stolen money was hidden. He [[ManipulativeBastard skillfully endears himself to the town]], and [[DomesticAbuser practically brainwashes Willa into believing his every word]]. When she overheard him asking the children about the money, he [[SlashedThroat slits her throat]] as she was laying in bed, dumps her body into the river, and makes up a story to cover for it. In order to get the children to tell him where the money was, he [[WouldHurtAChild threatens to murder the son, John]], while his sister watched. While pursuing them, he kills a farmer, steals a horse and chases them across the state. Believing that God wanted him to murder women, Powell was a chilling psychopath who is unfettered when it comes to what he wants.
8	* EnsembleDarkhorse: Rachel Cooper only appears in the final third of the film, and yet the audience absolutely loves her due to her sympathetic backstory, [[FriendToAllChildren the fact that she's a protective, considerate and reasonable adoptive mother to a group of orphaned children]], being the only person other then John to see Harry Powell for who he truly is, and not being afraid to stand her ground against him, and overall being just as well-hearted and caring as Powell is malevolent.
9	* EsotericHappyEnding: The ending can also feel a bit like this. Sure, Harry is going to be hung, but John and Pearl still lost both of their parents, and there's quite a bit of indication that John, if not both the kids, have either quietly [[SanitySlippage gone insane]] or at the very least now have a form of PTSD. The ending where John gives Rachel an apple for Christmas makes him seem more dead inside then the heartwarming moment it's meant to come off as. This does follow the fairy tale theme true, as the endings of those stories didn't always end happily ever after.
10	* EvilIsCool: Harry Powell is easily the most well-known and iconic character in the film. Yes, he's a absolute scumbag with no sympathetic aspects, but the fans still admire Creator/RobertMitchum's terrifying yet charismatic performance along with his symbolic values and the famous KnuckleTattoos.
11	* FandomRivalry: While there's plenty of intersection between fans who love Mitchum's performances in both Night of the Hunter and ''Film/CapeFear'', there's an ongoing [[http://www.moviefanfare.com/?p=24119 debate]] over which character is the overall better villain - Reverend Harry Powell or Max Cady. It's generally agreed on that Max Cady is the more physically imposing and immediately dangerous of the two, while Harry Powell is generally more dangerous because of his ideology and worldview coupled with his charismatic charm - with the rebuttals being that Max Cady is physically powerful but has too simplistic a motivation, and that Powell is more complex but is grandiose, hammy and gets easily taken down by a little old lady. The fact that the American Film Institute put Max Cady one ranking ahead of Harry Powell on its [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI%27s_100_Years...100_Heroes_%26_Villains#:~:text=Heroes%20%20%20%20Rank%20%20%20,%20%202000%20%2017%20more%20rows%20 50 Greatest Movie Villains]] list in 2003 hasn't done much to settle this argument.
12	* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: "They abide and they endure."
13	* LoveToHate: Harry Powell is an absolutely loathsome man with absolutely no redeeming qualities, but Creator/RobertMitchum's terrifying yet charismatic performance has left him as one of the most iconic villains in the history of cinema.
14	* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: Rachel singing "Leaning on Jesus, leaning on Jesus" in counterpoint to Powell's "Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarm." It's a [[http://thefilmspectrum.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Screen-Shot-2013-12-16-at-4.07.09-PM.png beautiful moment]] showing the tension between the two, and a [=CMoA=] for Rachel showing how tough she is, and that ''her'' motives are pure.
15	** It's awesome in a visual way as well. Powell is lit brightly from one side, with the other side of his face in dark shadow, emphasizing his "two-faced" nature. Rachel, on the other hand, though not directly lit, is easily visible in silhouette, with the spillover light strongly resembling a halo.
16	* MemeticMutation: LOVE and HATE tattooed on the knuckles, 'nuff said. The speech he gives explaining those tattoos also pops up every now and then (e.g.: ''Film/DoTheRightThing'').
17	* MoralEventHorizon: If Powell didn't cross it when he murdered Willa in cold blood, dumped her body in a river and made up a story to cover for it, he most certainly did when he [[WouldHurtAChild threatens to murder John]] [[ForcedToWatch in front of Pearl]]. You could argue that while he was a nasty and horrible person to begin with, threatening to murder a child just for stolen money shows just how much of a monster Powell is.
18	* OnceOriginalNowCommon: At the time of the movie's release, [[SinisterMinister portraying a priest as a villain]] was considered a shocking and controversial subversion of Hollywood's usual tropes. Nowadays, it would be more surprising to see one portrayed positively.
19	* OneSceneWonder: Creator/PeterGraves as Ben Harper, though he's technically a ''two''-scene wonder.
20	* {{Padding}}: For some viewers, the last twenty minutes or so drag and drag hard with their emphasis on Powell getting his comeuppance. While this satisfied UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode, which stated all villains needed to be punished and that murderers could not get away with the deed, you can't really blame this on the filmmakers since [[FranchiseOriginalSin that's how the novel ends]] and the film very faithfully adapts the novel. Likewise, the same sequence shows the hypocrisy of the townsfolk who want to lynch Powell and claim to be doing this on behalf of the same kids whose abuse they enabled by buying into Powell's scam, and the larger social point that Laughton wanted to emphasize was that Powell is merely an extreme manifestation of some of society's ugliest tendencies.
21	* SignatureScene:
22	** Rev. Powell telling the story of Right-Hand-Left-Hand and his KnuckleTattoos.
23	** The shot of Willa Harper's corpse at the bottom of the lake, with her body tied and weighted down to the car, and her hair floating eerily among the underwater vegetation.
24	** The entire river-escape montage scene, with Pearl singing a night-story and then John on seeing Powell's silhouette pursuing them from afar, mutters in horror, "Don't he never sleep?"
25	** The singing duet between Rev. Powell and Rachel Cooper during the Night when Powell stands outside the house, with Powell singing "leaning" and Rachel joining in "Lean on Jesus".
26	* SpecialEffectFailure: The spiderweb obviously made of string in the foreground, as John and Pearl sail down the river. The scene didn't need it, and it distracts from an otherwise beautiful nighttime montage.
27	* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Ben Harper. It may be difficult to feel very bad for him when he kills two men while robbing a bank and puts all the stress of hiding the stolen money on his eight-to-ten-year-old son, rather than telling his wife Willa (an adult who might have been able to handle it much better). Whilst he couldn't have known what Powell would do, it still isn't very fair to put that sort of burden on a child.
28	* ValuesDissonance: Yes, Rachel is a CoolOldLady, but the scene where she uses CorporalPunishment on one of the children may not endear her to some contemporary viewers.
29	* ValuesResonance:
30	** On the other hand, part of the reason for the film's revaluation over time was in critics finding the horrors represented by Harry Powell (a misogynistic religious fanatic fooling people with his aura of good pastor) increasingly relevant in modern society. This also goes for the film's portrayal of Ms. Cooper as a strong, independent older woman who saves the day without the aid of any man.
31	** While not the first film to tackle mob vigilante justice or lynchings - most notably Film/TheOxBowIncident, Literature/OfMiceAndMen, and Film/JohnnyGuitar had all tackled these themes prior - the angry mob that forms with the intent of lynching Harry Powell is depicted in as negative and ominous a light as the Preacher himself. Where most films of the period that were critical of lynching framed it as being wrong because the target was an innocent victim being unjustly persecuted, Creator/CharlesLaughton goes to lengths to show that mob justice is not justified even if it is directed towards the guilty or the evil. Icey Spoon's snarled face as she screams "Lynch him! Lynch him!" is especially disconcerting to watch through a modern-day lens, with the knowledge that lynchings throughout history have been perpetrated just as often by ordinary members of a community and not just by roughneck cattle ranchers in black hats.
32	* VindicatedByHistory: The film did so poorly that Creator/CharlesLaughton never got a chance to direct another, but is today widely acknowledged as a masterpiece.
33	* TheWoobie: Willa Harper. She loses her husband, and is pressured into marrying an evil serial killer by her friends. He then proceeds to force her into believing she is a sinful woman who deserves to be abused, before murdering and drowning her.
34

Context YMMV / TheNightOfTheHunter