Angel Heart (1987)

Angel Heart is a 1987 mystery-thriller film written and directed by Alan Parker, and starring Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro and Lisa Bonet. The film is adapted from the novel Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg, and is generally faithful to the novel with the exceptions being the introduction of a child of Epiphany Proudfoot conceived at a voodoo ceremony by "a devil", and that the novel never leaves New York City, whereas much of the action of the film occurs in New Orleans.

A highly atmospheric film, Angel Heart combines elements of film noir, hard-boiled detective stories and horror.

The movie opens in January 1955. Mickey Rourke plays Harry Angel, a seedy private investigator in New York City. Louis Cyphre (De Niro) hires Angel to locate Johnny Favorite, a popular big band crooner who was severely injured in World War II and hospitalized with profound neurological trauma. Cyphre has discovered that the hospital may have falsified Favorite's records and wants Angel to find out what happened, as Favorite owed a debt to Cyphre.

But there's more to the case than initially appears, as the doctor who treated Johnny at the hospital is soon found dead after Harry questions him. The detective also has some serious reservations about the enigmatic Mr. Cyphre, who is vague about the "debt" that Favorite owes to him. At the same time Angel begins to detect hints of bizarre religious underpinnings to the case. Despite his misgivings, Harry accepts Cyphre's offer of $5,000 to continue with his investigations.

Angel travels to New Orleans as he digs deeper into the case, delving into a world of voodoo and Satanism and growing increasingly worried for his own safety. One informant after another that he speaks to turns up dead. Angel fears becoming a suspect in their murders and he begins experiencing terrifying dreams. One contact, Epiphany Proudfoot (Lisa Bonet), the beautiful 17-year-old daughter of a deceased voodoo priestess and, she eventually admits, Favorite's daughter, becomes his lover. In the film's infamous twist ending, Angel is faced with the fact that he is Johnny Favorite himself, having attempted to escape the selling of his soul to the Devil by taking the place and identity of the original Harry Angel, a soldier returning from the war whom Favorite had abducted, ritually killed, and cannibalized. Angel's conviction that he is simply being framed for the bloody murders is shown to be wrong. Acting under the influence of Cyphre, who is ultimately revealed to be the Devil himself (his name, Louis Cyphre, is a play on the name Lucifer), he has committed and suppressed the memory of each of the murders, the last being that of Epiphany, murdered with a pistol shot in her vagina. With Johnny finally remembering the truth, and since he will be executed for the murders, Cyphre can at last claim what is his: Favorite's immortal soul. Over the end credits, there is a lengthy sequence of a silhouetted Angel descending in an ancient iron Otis elevator cage, apparently on his way to Hell.

There are repeated motifs in the film:

• The Girl of My Dreams: Harry is haunted by this tune during the entire film, and the film score recycles it numerous times during the film. He later learns from Epiphany, who was singing the lyrics in a bathtub, that it was Johnny Favourite's best-known tune. Cyphre later plays a phonograph of it when forcing Harry to remember his life as Favorite. The actual song was written by Sunny Clapp in 1927, recorded by Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra featuring the vocal by Kenny Sargent. The vocal in the film is sped up from the original 78 rpm to 83 rpm to gain a higher, more warbling effect.
• Weapons: Harry can be seen finding the exact murder weapon, every time that he visits a character, before their death, which foreshadows the act that Harry carries out on all of the characters that end up being dead. For example, while searching the Doctor's home for any pharmaceuticals, Harry comes across a handgun hidden in a drawer, with a Holy Bible which later turns out to contain the handgun's rounds.
• Backwards rotating fan: The theme of a backwards rotating fan is present during every episode in which Harry commits a murder offscreen, which Harry forgets about, thinking Favorite committed the murder (which turns out to be true, in a way.) It is a reference to the fan that was present at the demonic sacrifice of the original Harry Angel. The act of fanning in classic Middle Eastern ritual also represents the act of separating the wheat from the chaff, the good souls from the bad. The first fan seen in the movie has six blades, and the total number of blades on all the fans that follow are sixty-six, making 6 and 66 (666, the so-called Number of The Beast).
• The mirrors: Every time Harry looks into a mirror, he has flashbacks to the sacrifice on New Year's Eve, though presented only as obscure visual cues, accompanied by the sound of a heart beating. Cyphre taunts, "That's it, Johnny. Take a good look. No matter how cleverly you sneak up on a mirror, your reflection always looks you straight in the eye."
• Names: The characters have special meanings in the film:
• Harry Angel: derived from herald angel, though its meaning is more clear when considering the novel on which the film is based, Falling Angel, which is synonymous with Lucifer and losing faith with God.
• Johnny Favorite: Lucifer was known as God's favorite angel.
• Louis Cyphre: While obviously a pun on "Lucifer", the last name also can be taken to mean cipher, a mystery.
• Evangeline Proudfoot: In the film, it is told that Evangeline is named after the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem Evangeline, about a woman who searches for her true love. (The film's characters incorrectly say that the woman fruitlessly waited for her love to return.)
• Epiphany Proudfoot: Implies epiphany, or revelation of mysteries, as she is the key to Harry realizing his true nature.
• Winesap and MacIntosh: The names of Louis Cyphre's lawyers are varieties of apple. The Latin word for apple, malus, is similar to the Latin word for evil, malum.
• Edward Kelly (the fake name used by Ethan Krusemark): Was an occultist and spirit medium circa the late 1500s who worked with John Dee in his magical investigations.
• Dogs: Any time that Harry encounters dogs throughout the film, their reaction to him is of a violent nature. It is popular superstition that dogs possess a sixth sense, and their reactions indicate that Harry's soul is deeply corrupted.
• Chickens: Harry has a phobia about chickens, which may be explained by the fact that they were probably used in the sacrificial ritual performed on him.