Despite bombing at the box office after failing to recoup its $18 million budget at the domestic box office, 1987’s supernatural thriller Angel Heart must have done plenty of things right for Christopher Nolan to lavish high praise on the cult classic, which he credited as a huge influence on his approach to breakthrough feature Memento.
Of course, the Dark Knight trilogy architect isn’t exactly famed for foreboding atmosphere and trappings of horror, which only serves to reinforce the impact Alan Parker’s criminally overlooked gem holds over a generation of fans and filmmakers alike. No list ranking the cult classics to end all cult classics is complete without it, but that doesn’t mean the haunting parable isn’t immune from criticism.
A recent Reddit thread did make a point of heaping adulation on Angel Heart, which is understandable when claiming otherwise would be a seriously misguided take. However, the original poster does make a point of explicitly naming and shaming the aspects that don’t work, most noticeably the ending.
Judging by the responses, replies, and comments, the finale continues to split opinion after 35 years. It’s definitely an outlandish and unexpected way to close out what’s been a slow-burning descent into many different kinds of madness throughout, but it does at least fit the eerily subversive tone of Angel Heart as a whole.
Either way, it’s already been made clear that modern audiences haven’t gotten tired of seeing Mickey Rourke’s private investigator get caught up in the depths of darkness thrown over his existence by Robert De Niro’s Louis Cyphre, regardless of how you feel about the resolution to the case of missing singer Johnny Favorite.
