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TV on DVD Reviews > The Night
Stalker / The Night Strangler
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The Night Stalker / The Night
Strangler
Double Feature
(MGM-2004)
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RETURN TO TV SHOWS ON DVD REVIEWS MENU
 
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Description: |
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Back in 1972, TV movies were still new enough that they were not stuck in
the hard and fast rules they suffer by now. Back then it didn't have
to be about a brave person fighting a disease. Or a woman being
mistreated by a man. It didn't have to have a "message." It was
still all about the storytelling. The Night Stalker had a
whopper of a story. A hard-bitten reporter named Carl Kolchak is
working in Las Vegas on a series of murders in which the women killed had
been bitten on the necks and drained of blood. Much to the outrage of
the Vegas PD and the frustration of Kolchak's harried editor Tony Vincenzo
(Simon Oakland), Kolchak becomes convinced that the murders are being
committed by a vampire. The Night Stalker was at the time by
far the highest rated TV movie, stomping the previous record holder,
Brian's Song. It was so popular that a year later,
Kolchak and Vincenzo popped up in Seattle for the second movie of the
series, The Night Strangler. Nice to say that the second film
was even a little better than the first, with a knottier mystery and even
more humor than the first film. In this one, Kolchak stalks a
seemingly immortal serial killer who pops up every twenty-one years for over
120 years. The two movies spawned a TV series the next year, called
Kolchak: the Night Stalker. |
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What's Good About It? |
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The first thing you notice about the movies is how tight the writing is.
Both were the work of sci-fi legend Richard Matheson and the stories crackle
with humor and scares. The character of Carl Kolchak has rightfully
become a pop cultural icon. Since the series went off the air,
Kolchak has become the subject of a comic series and also was written into
an episode of The X-Files, whose creator Chris Carter acknowledged
that he created the show to try to make something as good as Kolchak.
The DVD has a couple of nice extras, interviews with producer and director
(of the second film) Dan Curtis, who also created Dark Shadows. |
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What's Bad About It? |
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I don't have a single complaint. I suppose that some portions of the
films are a little dated, but really not enough so that it is noticeable.
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What's Missing? |
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It is great to get the Kolchak movies on DVD. However, The Night
Stalker and The Night Strangler were only the beginning of the
Kolchak story. Each of these have also been released on videotape and
there was a limited edition DVD release of these two titles a few years ago.
Why not release the series that sprung from these stories, Kolchak:
the Night Stalker? The series only lasted one season (20 episodes)
and was nearly as good as the movies. Granted, the series has not aged
quite as well as the movies, just because some of the special effects were
made on the cheap and sometimes now look corny. (Lots of people
holding their hands in front of their faces as men in monster suits hover
over them.) The writing was crisp, the acting was fantastic (the
series was a who's who of early 70s celebrities) and the stories were
intriguing, though. Having these two movies is a good start, but it is
only a start. |
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PopEntertainment.com
final grade:
A
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With crackling scripts by sci-fi master Richard Matheson and a career-defining role for McGavin, these movies are both funny and scary at the same
time. For TV movies (not even feature films!) that are over thirty years old, these
have aged incredibly well. It is not a coincidence that Kolchak has a
cult following to this day.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright © 2004 PopEntertainment.com.
All rights reserved. Revised:
September 08, 2021. |
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