I think that if I had seen "Night Of The Hunter" on t.v. When I was six years old it might have left some kind of twisted, haunting impression on me; however, as an adult I don't see anything suspenseful about this film or for that matter anything of great value at all beyond its sheer ridiculousness. This movie is very dated. Don't get me wrong- I thoroughly enjoyed it until the novelty wore off, but then I got extremely bored about the time the kids started drifting down the river and then all of a sudden it seemed like an entirely different film altogether and then Mitchum came back and nothing particularly climactic happened and then I was like, "what???!!!??" But don't look for a scare here- it's more like farcical comedy. The whole religious freak theme is hilarious, and the music is beautifully silly. There are some neat shots (the underwater car/corpse etc.) and Mitchum gives a fine performance (if he intended to play the part as comedy), but don't expect anything amazing.