Fury of the Demon is one of those films that has become the stuff of myth and legend, it is said to have the ability to send it's audience insane, causing them to attack each other and pull their own hair out amongst other things!
There is a description of the film, it supposedly starts with a red Demon dancing and emerging from a coffin, the Demon then throws a women in white into a cauldron, 2 more victims are thrown in and the Demon stir the pot with a pitchfork. There's an explosion and the spirits of the victims emerge from the cauldron and turn into fireballs, these fireballs turn on the Demon who curses them, a crowd enters the crypt where this is taking place and the Demon turns them into monsters.
The film itself is shrouded in mystery, it is thought to be either lost or in a private collection, the maker of the movie is also pretty unclear as well, so it's an enigma wrapped in a puzzle.
So who made the film do they think, well, Georges Melieses name has been attached to it, he, (as well as being known as one of the fathers of cinema) was a prolific filmmaker with over 500 to his name. I think one of my favourite theory is that the film was made by a protege of Melies, his name was Victor Sicarius and enigmatic and violent man who allegedly had had deep ties in the occult, sounds like he's made for the job.
The film has been (allegedly) screened 3 times, 1897 was the original screening in Paris, details of what happened are quite hazy but reports claim that the audience erupted in a fit of uncontrolled violence and 3 died.
In 1939 the film was purportedly screened again, it was shown before Tod Browning's (more from him in later blogs) final film Miracles for Sale, again reports are hazy but again the audience went a bit loopy and tried to kill each other, there was also a fire at the theatre, at least 6 people died and dozens were hospitalised, there was supposedly a news report in the New York Times, but it has been suggested that this was fabricated (who'd ever think that a news story would ever be fabricated!) There was an eye witness (again allegedly) Maurice Goldberg, he said he was actually in the theatre at the screening "What an awful sight! People had gone mad. Pulling their hair, fighting, tearing each other's clothes"
The final screening was by a private collector Edgar Allen Wallace in 2012 at the Grevin wax museum Paris, Wallace's associate Randy Wellington said of the screening "When Edgar organised the screening of the film in France , I think he wanted to prove it wasn't a myth"
As with the first 2 screenings it didn't end well, those involved recalled feelings of uncontrollable rage, entering a mesmeric frenzy of insanity and becoming involve in brawls. Benedicte Royer, a film theorist who claims to have been at the screening said "I'd never seen anything like that. It was crazy" Wellington stated "After that, we didn't have to make people belive the film was cursed, because, I can tell you, the truth of the matter? That film, it was cursed"
After that screening the film was lost again (these people are quite careless) but obviously there's a rumour that a print is sequestered in a secret film library!
Real or hoax? What do you think?
There is a "documentary" called Fury of the Demon, check it out.
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