Just about every horror fan worth his salt fondly remembers the
old Night Stalker TV series that aired in the 1970s. Starring Darren McGavin as
Carl Kolchak, an intrepid print reporter who seeks the truth no matter how
bizarre it might be. Each week he battled various supernatural menaces, acting
as sort of a Cassandra figure that tried to warn the world about these outer
worldly menaces, only to have his dire warning fall on deaf ears. Chris Carter,
the creator of The X-Files, has openly acknowledged the influence of The Night
Stalker on his seminal show, and has even cast McGavin in several episodes of
The X-Files. But the whole thing actually started with two TV-movies that were
aired in the early '70s. And while the series itself is not on DVD, these two
films thankfully are.
In The Night Stalker, Carl Kolchak is called back from vacation to investigate
what he at first considers to be the "third-rate murder" of a young woman who
worked at one of the casinos on the strip of Las Vegas. However, upon further
digging into the case, Kolchak discovers that the murdered woman was a karate
expert, and she had been drained of all of her blood. When several more women
turn up dead with their blood drained, the normally chatty Las Vegas police
department become reluctant to talk to Kolchak, or any other member of the press.
While it's becoming obvious from the forensics that these murders are being
committed by a man who apparently thinks he's a vampire, only Kolchak knows that
this is indeed a real bloodsucker who is stalking Sin City. His name is Janos
Skorzeny and he has been hunting his prey for a very long time before setting up
shop in a creepy old house. And since the Vegas police refuse to listen to
Kolchak's theories about the vampire, the intrepid reporter takes it upon himself
to hunt down and destroy the vampire in his lair.
With it's scenes of the vampire battling members of the Las Vegas police
department--and easily winning--The Night Stalker not only brought the vampire
legend into the latter half of the 20th century, it also created a template for
updating the overall horror genre in that then-modern time. Vampires, which
existed mostly in period costume dramas of the Hammer Horror Films, now existed
in the drab everyday world, a world that, ironically, allows them to thrive,
thanks to the rampant skepticism of people who refuse to believe in the "fairy
tales" that Carl Kolchak tries desperately to convince them are all too real.
The script by Richard Matheson is superb, and the acting and direction is first
rate. Simon Oakland is memorable as Tony Vincenzo, Kolchak's long-suffering
editor. His scenes with McGavin are a joy to watch because these two acting vets
play off of each other so well, turning their incessant shouting matches into
hysterically funny moments.
Kolchak returns in The Night Strangler, which takes place in Seattle, Washington
a year after the events of the first film. After meeting up with Kolchak in a bar,
Vincenzo takes pity on him and hires Kolchak as a reporter for the Seattle
newspaper he now works for. Yet no sooner does Kolchak start his new job than
Vincenzo gives him--very reluctantly--a news story about a woman having been
murdered. She is one in a series of murders where all the female victims have
been strangled. Yet once again, as Kolchak digs deeper into the story, he
discovers that the victims suffered a loss of blood from a puncture wound caused
by a needle. He also uncovers the creepy fact from a morgue attendant that minute
remains of dead skin flakes had been left on some of the women, as if a dead man
had strangled them. But the alarm bells really go off for Kolchak when a
researcher points out this series of strangulations is a lot like a series of
attacks in the 1950s. Going through the files, Kolchak finds out that there were
yet more attacks in the 1930s, and going even further back, starting in the
mid-1800s. There have been a series of strangulations every 21 years within an
18-day period, and all clues point to a single man being the prime suspect. Now
if Kolchak can only convince the local police.
Although Matheson also wrote the script, The Night Strangler is not as good as the
first film. There are sections where the film sags, especially near the end,
when the ghoul is revealed and we are treated to a clumsy "chatty-villain"
speech that can usually be found in a James Bond film. Still, the humor is
enjoyable, and the performances, notably Richard Anderson as the ghoulish killer,
are very well done. And McGavin and Oakland once again provide some great laughs
with their scenes of hysterics. Both films are presented in full screen, and the
picture is remarkably crisp and clear. The sound is in its original mono. The two
films are presented on both sides of a flipper disc. Special
features include an interview with producer/director Dan Curtis, and a featurette
that looks at the directing of The Night Strangler. And so until the series
itself can be released on DVD, fans of the Night Stalker, as well as those who
have never seen the show, can at least enjoy the first two cases of Carl Kolchak, the
rumpled reporter who was a thorn in the side of all things that that went bump
in the night. --SF
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