The poster image displayed here, with Val Kilmer holding a gun, is quite misleading. His character never uses a gun. He doesn't need one. The poster also raises the false impression that "The Traveler" is an action movie/thriller in the vein of "Assault on Precinct 13", but instead it's a supernatural horror movie. It has quite a lot in common with "Let Us Prey", but this modest B-movie is four years older.
Set on Christmas Eve, for no particular reason, a mysterious stranger - Kilmer - enters a small-town police precinct and announces that he has committed six murders. He doesn't have fingerprints and a few of the six police officers recognize him as the drifter they almost tortured to death about a year ago because they assumed he was responsible for the kidnapping of Detective Black's daughter. Whenever the stranger, who refers to himself as Mr. Nobody, confesses a vicious murder, it actually takes place with one of the officers as a victim.
The plot of "The Traveler" is original and predictable, but director Michael Oblowitz deserves credit for generating tension and atmosphere. Especially during the first half, when Kilmer's character is still silent, mysterious, often whistling an ominous tune, the film is reasonably uncanny. The kills are extremely violent, with the special effects supervisor clearly having a fetish for intestines flying around. The third and final act is dreadful, though, with a plot twist that pretty much ruins everything that happened and a fake & forced "happy" ending.
