Angel Heart

The next Alan Parker film is Angel Heart, a horror-noir film that is alternatively spooky and silly. i mean, the main villain is Robert De Niro as a mysterious figure calling himself Louis Cyphre. If you haven't figured that out from the get-go, it will be explained at the end in no uncertain terms.

Mickey Rourke stars as a private eye, Harry Angel, in a very fine performance. He is hired by De Niro to find a man who owes his something (not money, natch). The trail leads to New Orleans, where Rourke gets involved with some voodoo practioners, including Lisa Bonet, who was just coming off a long run on a squeaky clean TV series, The Cosby Show, and turns in a steamy nude performance, which was the biggest news when this film was released.

The settings of 1955 New Orleans and New York City are exquisitely rendered, as is the photography of Michael Seresin. But there are a lot of unconnected dots in the plot, and the film is excessively bloody. Rourke and Bonet's sex scene is even covered in blood.