Image via Shutterstock
Published Jul 2, 2026, 5:46 PM EDT
Erik Hawkins is an award-winning writer and editor who's been obsessed with cinema since he was old enough to hold Roger Ebert's Video Home Companion in his hands. He lives in NYC, where he rabidly watches everything from the newest releases to the more odd and obscure, and regularly shares his thoughts on Letterboxd. From ghost-writing fiction and webisodes in South America to local news, trial coverage, and politics in NYC, he's rarely put down his laptop over the past 15 years.
In 1987, idiosyncratic British director Alan Parker unleashed a unique and horrifying vision on American audiences with a twist that still echoes in the supposedly" shocking" film endings of contemporary thrillers. Primed for perhaps a sleazier-than-usual film noir in the vein of Body Heat or Fatal Attraction, the audience instead got Angel Heart. This downright Satanic supernatural film also revealed a shocking side of actor Lisa Bonet, known for her work on The Cosby Show, and initially got an X-rating for its sins.
A New Orleans-set period detective thriller at first, the film follows private dick Harry Angel (an already weary and weathered Mickey Rourke) on a search for a vanished lounge singer named Johnny Favorite. In the employ of Louis Cyphre (a long-fingernailed Robert De Niro), Angel spirals into a world of voodoo and deeply buried secrets. Parker directs the hell out of the film from the get-go, immersing the viewer in the New Orleans streets and erotic madness, and eventually dragging you down with Angel into a personal and literal hell.
The film's brashness divided critics at the time, with legends like Pauline Kael dismissing it as "hokum" and asserting that Parker "edits like a flasher." Roger Ebert, meanwhile, celebrated its excesses and declared Angel Heart "an exuberant exercise in style, in which Parker and his actors have fun taking it to the limit." It's undergone a critical reappraisal over the years, and fans of horror, fantasy, and film noir who missed it initially owe it to themselves to experience its darkness, unspoiled.
Alan Parker Took a Wild Career Turn With the Satanic 'Angel Heart'
Image via TriStar Pictures.Alan Parker already had one of the most bizarre careers of any major Hollywood director when he took on Angel Heart. The man who brought Pink Floyd - The Wall to the big screen also lensed a children's film (Bugsy Malone) and harrowing real-life dramas like Mississippi Burning and Midnight Express. This 1987 thriller was still a big swing, though, from its disturbing content to the controversial casting of 20-year-old sitcom star Bonet as a sexy (and often nude) voodoo priestess — especially considering the horrifying implications of the ending.
As the film moves from New York City to the bayou, Parker, throughout, demonstrates much of what makes him a special filmmaker, no matter the genre: he gives special attention and authenticity to religion, rituals, music, and subcultures, from a Black Harlem church to a bloody, ecstatic voodoo ceremony. It's all special, lived-in stuff that adds an aura of reality and thick atmosphere — and makes what's coming hit even harder.
Related
The 'Angel Heart' Twist Still Feels Like a Nightmare
After following a long trail of elliptical occult clues and sleeping with Bonet's beautiful Evangeline Proudfoot (in the sex scene that nearly damned Angel Heart to an X-rating), Harry Angel eventually comes face to face with the truth. The missing man he's seeking is his amnesiac self, and the devil has come to collect his due after a Satanic ritual performed on a young World War II vet that Angel hoped would keep him safe. Even more horrifying, the beautiful young priestess he's slept with has been murdered in as disturbing and graphic a fashion as you can imagine — and she was his own daughter.
It's impressive that Parker keeps a firm hand over all of this lurid expository insanity, but he does. Using recurring images of fans and elevators, brief glimpses of the most gruesome crime scenes imaginable, and rock-solid performances from Bonet and Rourke, he guides viewers into the darkest possible place. There's no redemption remaining, only the realization of what Angel has done and the price he owes Satan — now revealed to be De Niro's Cyphre.
Today, it's hard not to find a resonance between Angel Heart's nauseating twist and the final revelations of Park Chan-wook's thriller masterpiece Oldboy. But even for a seasoned horror or dark fantasy fan, the tactility of Parker's vision and dedication of his performers makes the climax every bit as gut-churning as it must have been for audiences in 1987, and its Satanic spell leaves a lasting, upsetting impression. And the curious today are in luck: Angel Heart is currently streaming for free on YouTube.
Release Date March 6, 1987
Runtime 113 minutes
Director Alan Parker
Writers Alan Parker
English (US) ·