The
made-for-television movie The Night Stalker first aired on ABC on January 11, 1972. Adapted from Jeff Rice’s
then unpublished novel The Kolchak Papers
by legendary writer Richard Matheson, it featured an investigative reporter by
the name of Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin), who covered a distinctly different
beat — a supernatural one. The ratings were so strong for the movie that
another one was made, entitled The Night Strangler (1973). It too was a hit and this led to a short-lived T.V. series
that ran from 1974 to 1975. With varying degrees of quality from episode to
episode, the show failed to catch on but it already planted the seeds in the
minds of several creative talents that would bloom later on in the form of shows
like The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The
movie begins with an enticing teaser as Kolchak listens to an audio recording
of himself recounting the tale we’re about to see – “one of the greatest
manhunts in history” and whose facts have been “suppressed in a massive effort
to save certain political careers from disaster and law enforcement officials
from embarrassment.” His narration continues with the tantalizing final
thought, “Try to tell yourself, wherever you may be. It couldn’t happen here.”
A
woman is brutally attacked in an alleyway and we never get a good look at the
assailant. He doesn’t say anything, just growls like an animal. Kolchak works
for the Daily News in Las Vegas. He’s
currently investigating the murders of several young women who have all been
strangled and seem to have mysteriously lost a lot of blood. He checks his
usual sources and doesn’t find too much out of the ordinary except for the huge
blood loss. However, as the murders continue, he discovers a few similarities. The
deeper he digs the more resistance he gets from the police and his
long-suffering editor, Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland). Kolchak soon discovers
that the killer possesses supernatural strength and may in fact be a vampire (Barry Atwater),
which doesn’t sit well with the powers that be. They tell him to drop the story
but of course this only encourages him to continue on.
Darren
McGavin is fantastic as Kolchak, a man dedicated to uncovering the truth. He
brings just the right blend of jaded cynicism and a wry sense of sarcastic humor
(“What do you want, a testimony for Count Dracula?” he quips at one point). He
delights in verbally sparring with the grumpy Vincenzo and their scenes
together give the film moments of welcome levity. Kolchak thinks he’s seen it
all, until this new case presents him with a series of baffling clues that
don’t seem to make sense until he tries thinking outside the box as it were.
There are also hints at a troubled past, a maverick reporter fired multiple
times from newspapers all over the country, who has “become extinct in his own
lifetime,” as he dejectedly muses at one point. Kolchak doesn’t have too many
chances left – in fact, this may be his last try at regaining respectability.
Fans
of character actors will delight in spotting several of them populating key
roles in The Night Stalker. There’s
Larry Linville (Frank Burns on MASH)
as a young coroner, Ralph Meeker (Kiss Me
Deadly) as Kolchak’s FBI buddy, Elisha Cook Jr. (The Killing) as a gambler and one of Kolchak’s contacts, and Claude
Akins (The Killers) playing a sheriff
who barely tolerates Kolchak’s presence. It is a lot of fun to watch these
seasoned pros bounce off of McGavin’s scrappy journalist.
Richard
Matheson’s smart, witty script for The
Night Stalker starts off in the tradition of cop/detective shows like Kojak with a very standard structure. This
includes Kolchak’s narration that is chock full of wry observations sprinkled
among “just-the-facts” hard-boiled gems, like when he describes the function of
a journalist in society: “Socially, he fits in somewhere between a hooker and a
bartender. Spiritually, he stands behind Galileo because he knows the world is
round. Not that it does much good, of course, when his editor knows it’s flat.”
This is only window dressing for what is to come: a gripping horror story very
much in the style of a murder mystery. The horror elements kick in after the
first 23 minutes when we finally get a good close-up of the killer’s eyes –
bloodshot and piercing. No matter how fantastic things get, however, the cop
show aesthetic always keeps the movie grounded in realism.
The
setting of Las Vegas is an apt metaphor for vampirism. The city sucks people’s
money away like a vampire drains their blood. It is an ideal feeding ground as
gamblers sleep all day and gamble all night and indoors. In a way, they act
like vampires. Seeing Vegas as it was in the 1970s is like visiting a by-gone
era where the world, make-up and special effects were all achieved in-camera —
no CGI, which makes it all the more tactile and real. This is due in large part
to John Llewellyn Moxey’s solid direction. For example, the vampire’s assault
on a hospital’s blood bank is impressively staged as he takes on several
orderlies and the police with Kolchak taking photographs of the killer’s daring
escape. This is topped by a second action sequence where the vampire takes on
four cops. There’s a great money shot when the police have pumped the vampire
full of lead and think they finally have taken him down but he just looks up, a
ragged scratch along his forehead. He gives them an intensely scary look with
those bloodshot eyes, which Moxey zooms in on for maximum effect. He then
proceeds to hop a fence and take off despite being shot repeatedly. Moxey also
has a good eye for detail, like the vampire’s lair, which is appropriately dark
and moody, resembling that of a run-down flophouse with trash strewn
everywhere. It is the lack of disregard for the place that makes it look even
spookier.
Jeff
Rice had always wanted to write a vampire story and author a tale set in Las
Vegas. He merged these two ideas together for a novel entitled The Kolchak Papers. However, not many
publishers were interested in buying the manuscript. Fortunately, agent Rick
Ray read it and felt that it would make a good movie. The ABC television
network bought the rights and honcho Barry Diller picked Richard Matheson to
adapt Rice’s then-unpublished novel. It was a smart move on Diller’s part as
Matheson wrote one of the quintessential vampire novels, I Am Legend. He was also a regular contributor to the original
incarnation of the popular genre T.V. show The
Twilight Zone. As faithful as Matheson was to the source material, he did
tweak the character of Kolchak who was then given an additional spin with
McGavin’s iconic take. During filming, Matheson was unavailable to do rewrites
and so Rice took over at producer Dan Curtis’ request and actually put material
from his novel back into the screenplay.
When
The Night Stalker aired, it pulled an
impressive 33.2 rating (percentage of American households) and a 54 share
(percentage of sets in use during that time slot) – unprecedented for a T.V.
movie back then and even today. Kolchak’s
legacy can be felt in all kinds of supernatural TV shows, from The X-Files (of which its creator, Chris
Carter has openly acknowledged as the primary influence) and Angel, with its blending of the
detective and horror genres. The movie is scary, yet has a good sense of humor,
with a something-goes-bump-in-the-night horror story vibe that works as well
today as they did back then. Just remember the insightful comments of Kolchak
at the end of The Night Stalker, “And
try to tell yourself, wherever you may be: in the quiet of your home, in the
safety of your bed, try to tell yourself, it couldn't happen here.”
NOTE: Check out this wonderful blog dedicated to all things Kolchak.
