Night Visitor

Very uneven thriller, but the results are still enjoyable. The film is about a constent liar (Derek Rydall) who witnesses his teacher (Allen Garfield) murder his sexy neighbor (Shannon Tweed). Film blends teen comedy, horror, and police detective films together. While it isn't very well directed or scripted for that matter, it is well cast right down the line and the actors turn in good performances, especially Garfield and Tweed in an appealing turn. The finale is especially amusing and the film has a good pace and is never boring.

Rated R; Nudity, Extreme Violence, Sexual Situations, and Profanity.

A pair of satanists drive around in an old black Cadillac, picking up hookers to sacrifice. A high school student who's always telling tall tales (I was late to school because my mother burned her hair when her hairdryer exploded!) tries to get closer to a female friend, and meets a sexy older woman who moves in next door.

The high schooler witnesses a murder, and even though when the police show up the body is there as described, murdered when and how he described, they don't believe him when he says who the killer is. I found that a bit hard to believe, even given his penchant for making up stories.

A bit randomly, his best friend is a smartass named Sam Loomis, like Donald Pleasance's character in Halloween.

The satanists (of which there are only two) kill some women in their car, and some in their house. They don't seem to actually have any satanic powers.

There's a few recognizable faces in the movie. Michael J. Pollard plays a sort of character he's played before, a man with the mind of a child. Henry Gibson shows up briefly as a police consultant on satanic crimes. Richard Roundtree plays a cop, as he has a thousand times. Elliot Gould is a family friend who the student tries to enlist.

The movie never really takes off at any point. The ending concludes things, and then follows with a musical montage and a freeze-frame which struck me as silly.

Basically the boy who cried satanist. High schooler Billy Colton (Derek Rydall) thinks his dreams have come true when "working girl" Lisa (Shannon Tweed) moves in next door. He gets more than an eyeful one night when he sees her murdered by a Satanic serial killer who just happens to be Billy's history teacher Zachary Willard (Allen Garfield). Of course no one will believe him since Billy and Willard have a history. So he enlists the help of girlfriend Kelly (Teresa Van der Woude) to try and convince his deceased dad's former cop partner (Elliot Gould) to help him prove it. This is pretty standard stuff and director Rupert Hitzig and screenwriter Randal Viscovich seem to be taking quite a bit from the earlier FRIGHT NIGHT (1985). If I had to recommend it for anything, it would be the loopy performance by Michael J. Pollard as Zachary's brother and co-killer. He really has some funny bits, which I'm sure were improvised, in that always amusing Pollard delivery style. Richard Roundtree is the unconvinced cop and Henry Gibson has one scene as a satanic expert. Surprisingly, Tweed stays clothed the entire time she is on screen (even during her sex scenes).

Even before "Night Visitor" reaches the end, there will be one question that will keep coming up in your mind: "How did this terrible independent production get picked up by a major Hollywood studio?" Indeed, it's a mystery as to why MGM/UA got the distribution rights, but it's pretty easy to figure out why they subsequently didn't do much with it. (I'm not even sure it played in theaters!) It's a pretty cheap movie, with the low budget making the movie suffer throughout, such as with poor audio and obviously post-dubbed dialogue. But even if the movie had been slickly executed, it would still suffer from a dumb and unlikable protagonist, unfunny comedy, and unthrilling thriller elements. Oh, and some of the most obvious padding you'll see - there's only enough plot for about half a movie. The movie does boast a once in a lifetime cast - Gould, Roundtree, Tweed, Garfield, Pollard - but none of these actors are particularly well used. (And their performances, especially Gould's, suggest they know they are in a turkey.) The movie should only be seen by those curious about how MGM/UA lost its touch by the end of the '80s.

This is a classic two week shoot genre flick that is fun all the way around. For the genre, the directing by Hitzig is great, and the show is stolen by a small part done by Jovanni Brascia as a john. Everyone studying film, should watch this to see how the basics work, when you have no or little budget. It is done remarkably well and the cast is stellar. Based on what is in this film, Rupert Hitzig is a man we will hear a lot about.