The Kate Bush track inspired by a British horror classic
Kate Bush’s discography has no shortage of literary and cinematic allusions. The most famous example is of course ‘Wuthering Heights’, based on Emily Bronte’s gothic novel of the same name. The song is in no way an isolated example, however. Throughout her career, Bush made great use of gothic imagery in her work, imbuing albums like Hounds of Love and The Red Shoes with a wonderfully unsettling flavour that endures all these years later.
The first second and a half of ‘Hounds Of Love’, the title track of Kate Bush’s 1985 studio album of the same name, contains an important detail. In that fleeting moment, we hear the line: “It’s in the trees! It’s coming.” The sonic fragment is in fact a sample from the 1957 horror classic Night Of The Demon, which was one of the singer’s favourite films, also making its way into Bush’s 1993 film Line, The Cross and the Curve, albeit in a more oblique sense.
Directed by Jacques Tourneur, Night Of The Demon starred Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins and Niall MacGinnis. It was adapted from Casting The Runes, a short story by British horror writer M.R James, and tells of an American psychologist battling a cult leader who kills his enemies by giving them a runic scroll without their knowledge. The line that opens ‘Hounds of Love’ is spoken during a seance scene in which Professor Harrington – played by Maurice Denham – is trying to commune with the spirit world. After crossing the threshold between the world of the living and the dead, he heralds the arrival of a dreadful demonic apparition. “It’s in the trees! It’s coming.”
If it had been up to the film’s scriptwriter Charles Bennett, it’s unlikely the monster in question would have made an appearance at all. The film’s production was riddled with creative conflict, often between Bennet and producer Hal E. Chester, who implemented a physical monster despite the objections of the writer, the director, and lead actor Dana Andrews. Indeed, the film’s original title, ‘The Haunted’, hints at the more spectral presence Bennett had in mind.
Arriving in cinemas in the December of 1957, The Night Of The Demon was part of a gothic horror renaissance breathing new life into primordial fears with gothic horrors like Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein and The House of Usher. Later, folk horrors like Blood on Satan’s Claw and The Wicker Man would build on Benett’s haunted landscapes, terrifying audiences with spectral, unseen and ancient horrors. Make sure you check out a clip of the demon’s arrival below.
