#Night of the hunter screenwriter serial#

“ The river was too beguiling and treacherous in her female moods of gently passing shadows and strange voices floating crystal-sharp across the ripples and lights passing like fallen stars among the dark, distant trees”. Grubb makes these points across while referring to the immediate environment of the characters, hinting that appearances may be deceiving, and calm waters may not be what they appear to be: The only thing is that behind the vision of friendliness and stability lies something dark, cunning and merciless. When Willa Harper loses her husband, she harbours hopes that she can yet find domestic bliss, and when Harry Powell arrives, it seems like calmness, security – man of God also entered her household. It was Hard Times in the land and larders held precious little extra for roadside wanderers”, and the author also uses evocative language to transport the reader to that time and place where uncertainty and fears about future and strangers ruled alongside American hospitality and friendliness. Davis Grubb sets the books in West Virginia during the Great Depression and the times are hard for everyone on land: “…. The Night of the Hunter is not read like some kind of a screenplay (as most Stephen King books do), but a novel of literary merit with a convincing character study at the heart of it and insights into child psychology. It is convenient now to talk of The Night of the Hunter as the book that resulted in a great movie, but that comparison does little to shed light on literary quality of the original source. The novel is suspenseful and thrilling, with great characterisations and an eerie atmosphere. The Night of the Hunter is a chilling, unforgettable tale of crime and evil set in the background of a Depression-hit community on a riverbank in West Virginia. American writer Julia Keller called Davis Grubb’s book a “ lost masterpiece”, and there is truth in that. It is safe to say now that The Night of the Hunter was unjustly overshadowed by its cinematic counterpart. Preacher knows that Ben Harper disclosed to his children before his execution the location of ten thousand dollars he gained through robbery, and Preacher will use any means – kindness or more disturbing pressure to discover the location of the money. After the execution, Willa and her two children, John and Pearl, are the centre of sympathy in their community until their “salvation” arrives in the form of Harry Powell or “Preacher”. In the book by Davis Grubb, Willa Harper is a recently widowed mother of two whose husband, Ben Harper, has recently been convicted and executed for killing two men in armed robbery.

#Night of the hunter screenwriter serial#

The Night of the Hunter is best known as a film of 1955 by Charles Laughton, but it was first a great book by Davis Grubb, who based his story on a true case of serial killer Harry Powers, a deranged psychopath who preyed on and killed lonely widows in the late 1920s.