Shruti Haasan revisits her love for cult classic ‘The Night of the Hunter’

Actor-singer Shruti Haasan shared her long-time admiration for the 1955 horror classic “The Night of the Hunter”, reposting a still from the film on Instagram. Calling it a timeless favourite, she praised its haunting imagery as she awaits the release of “Salaar Part 2”.

Mumbai: Actor-singer Shruti Haasan revisited one of her long-time cinematic obsessions as she shared a moment from the 1955 horror thriller cult classic “The Night of the Hunter” directed by Charles Laughton.

Shruti took to her Instagram stories and re-posted an eerie still from the film, calling it a timeless favourite.

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“Forever obsessed with this film,” she wrote, reaffirming her admiration for the Laughton-directed thriller, known for its haunting imagery and performances.

“The Night of the Hunter” stars Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish. The film was based on the 1953 novel of the same name by Davis Grubb.

The plot is about Preacher Harry Powell (Mitchum), a serial killer who poses as a preacher and pursues two children in an attempt to get his hands on $10,000 of stolen cash hidden by their late father.

The novel and film draw on the true story of Harry Powers, who was hanged in 1932 for the murder of two widows and three children in Clarksburg, West Virginia.

The film’s lyrical and expressionistic style, borrowing techniques from silent film, sets it apart from other Hollywood films of the 1940s and 1950s, and it has influenced such later directors as Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Robert Altman, Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese, the Coen brothers and Guillermo del Toro.

The Night of the Hunter premiered on July 26, 1955, in Des Moines, Iowa, to negative reviews. Over the years, the film has been positively reevaluated and is considered one of the greatest films ever made.

Talking about Shruti, she will next be seen in “Salaar Part 2: Shouryanga Parvam”. The first installment of “Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire” released in 2023. The epic neo-noir action thriller film directed by Prashanth Neel.

The film stars Prabhas in the titular role, alongside an ensemble cast of Prithviraj Sukumaran, Shruti Haasan, Jagapathi Babu, Bobby Simha, Sriya Reddy, Ramachandra Raju, John Vijay, Easwari Rao, Tinnu Anand, Devaraj, Brahmaji and Mime Gopi.