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The Night Digger (1971)

Posted: September 16th, 2012, 1:43 pm
by Konway
SPOILERS

Hello Everyone,
Although The Night Digger doesn't belong in the category of Sci-Fi, still I felt that it belongs in the category of Horror. What do you think about this film? Recently, I got a chance to watch The Night Digger DVD released by Warner Bros. I was horrified by the terrible condition of Bernard Herrmann's music. I have the old recording of this film which is at least 10 times greater than the one they released on DVD. DVD does have some good points. But the audio quality is absolutely terrible.

I do agree with Bernard Herrmann that ending of this film should have been changed. Anyway, What do you think about this film? It does have some interesting points.

It raises the question about who is perverted? and who is not? With a character like Billy, we cannot blame him for his actions. This is because of his serious psychologically disturbed condition. He don't want to do any horrifying actions. But he is forced to do it. That's why he refused to go to church. If he does, he know that the horror that exists within him will control him. And he can't do anything about it.

With Maura, she is in a different kind of mental prison. She is physically disabled and dominated by her adopted mother Edith (Pamela Brown). Edith thrived through the sickness, calamity and misfortune that existed in Maura. Through this, Maura is psychologically controlled by Edith while Billy is psychologically controlled through the horror that existed within him.

Now comes Mr. Bolton. I think he is the most perverted character out of all major characters we see in the film. He loves and appreciates the horror that controls Billy. Just listen to his conversation. He loves and is also fascinated by what Billy's disturbed nature does to the poor and innocent female victims. Physically, Bolton looks and acts like any normal man. Unlike Billy, Bolton has control over himself.

But mentally, we know what kind of a character Bolton is. So the question is who is the perverted one? Billy or Bolton. An Action of a person doesn't have to be physical. An action can be applied emotionally. The way Edith controls Maura for her own satisfaction or Bolton wanting Billy to do more horrifying actions to the women for his own pleasure in his mind are examples of the actions that are applied emotionally. But not physically.

Through Billy's character, we learn that we cannot judge a person through his physical actions. We also need to look into his psychological condition. Maura understood Billy's condition, because she also led a disturbing life with no help from anybody.