The Night of the Hunter (1955)

A preacher's hymn drifts across the night, allowing his voice to enter a space before his body does. For the children he pursues, that familiar melody can make distance feel useless: hiding him from the frame does not remove his presence. Robert Mitchum's easy, resonant singing is more chilling than a louder declaration of menace. The film's storybook images are famous, but listening reveals how a threatening adult can seem to occupy the whole landscape.