“Would you like me to tell you the little story of right-hand/left-hand?” asks Reverend Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) in the most famous scene of Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter. The knuckles of the reverend’s right hand are tattooed with the word “LOVE,” and the knuckles of his left bear the word “HATE.” In a strange and violent play, the hands wrestle each other as the reverend proclaims “LOVE” as the ultimate victor of his allegory. The irony here comes from the fact that the good reverend is a fraud and often ranked as one of the greatest cinematic villains of all time.

The Night of the Hunter (1955) tells a surprisingly dark and violent tale of greed, betrayal and sin in the Depression-era South. After the loss of their father, a bank robber whose treasure is said to be hidden on his property, the Harper children find themselves faced with the unspeakable evil of Harry Powell. A religious fanatic and violent criminal, Powell marries Mrs. Harper and sets off a chain of events that threatens the lives of the children and highlights religious perversion.

Dark and noir-esque, The Night of the Hunter is visually stunning, featuring long, nightmarish shadows in stark contrast with eerie white walls and the kind of monstrous and unsettling framing that no doubt inspired modern masters like Tim Burton.

The film does have some faults, particularly when it comes to the plausibility of the plot. Occasionally, the characters appear outlandish and their actions seem frustrating, but it’s easy to look past these minor details when overwhelmed by the fantastic performance of Robert Mitchum. His dialect is powerful, seductive and subtly terrifying as he brilliantly exudes an aura of attraction and dominance. He is matched only by co-star Lillian Gish, who appears only in the film’s final act. She is a symbol of goodness and earnestness as well as the perfect adversary for Powell’s sinister nature.

In a hauntingly beautiful scene, the two play off each other in the moonlight as Gish is silhouetted holding a shotgun to keep Powell at bay, and they enter into an unnatural duet of the spiritual “Lean on Jesus.”

The Night of the Hunter seems ages ahead of its time in the way it seamlessly blends innocence and evil, borrowing techniques from expressionism and film noir. Cinematically spectacular and featuring memorable performances, it’s haunting in ways many of today’s films could only hope to be.