Der unheimliche Besucher

I remember catching 'The Night Visitor' on UK late night TV in the late 70's. At that time I'd not heard of it but was hooked from the outset. Many of the haunting images stayed with me and recently I got all nostalgic and started searching for either video or DVD releases of several lost gems from the early 70's, amongst them 'And Soon The Darkness', 'I Start Counting' and of course 'The Night Visitor'. Success!!! as all titles were available on DVD (some are deleted from obscure labels but all frequently pop up on Ebay for reasonable amounts). Strangely, having caught up with several long forgotten film or TV shows from my childhood, most have been disappointing, however 'The Night Visitor' retains it's menacing, almost surreal air and Max Von Sydow carries the film with great support from Trevor Howard (who seems to be setting the tone for his later appearance in 1973's 'The Offence') and I even recalled Arthur Hewlett as the prison guard with the gnome-like features. All in all a MUST for any Von Sydow fan and any lover of quirky psychological thrillers, low on budget but high on plot and intrigue.

I guess that if Ingmar Bergman had ever made an out-and-out horror film, THE NIGHT VISITOR is what it would have looked like. This obscure USA/Sweden co-production brings together two of Bergman's favourite actors (Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullman) in a tale of madness, desperation, revenge, and sinister murder. It's quite a vicious film even though the on-screen violence is limited and the viewer never sees much of what's actually taking place.

The film's chilly, snowbound northern setting (Jutland) is as much a character as the cast themselves, and the story certainly has a unique feel to it: slow, stately, very much like an art-house film, but with dark revenge/thriller plotting. I liked it; there's style to spare, and some ingenious situations as we see Von Sydow's character putting the impossible into action.

The film is also notable for an exemplary cast. Aside from the Swedish luminaries, we get a real old timer as the detective (Trevor Howard) alongside popular Swedish actor Per Oscarsson, and supporting roles for two Hammer star Brits, Rupert Davies and Andrew Keir. THE NIGHT VISITOR certainly isn't for all tastes, but it's an odd film indeed: quiet and yet spellbinding at the same time.

This film opens up with Max von Sydow running across snowy fields in his underpants. Good lord, we wonder, what's he doing out there? Isn't he freezing? Soon he cleverly figures out a way to get into a house via an upstairs window, and it becomes apparent that he knows the three people who are engaged in a disagreement in the kitchen below. We're not sure what he's up to, and as it's best you don't know a lot about the plot before watching this one, I won't say more.

The story is taut and well-told by director László Benedek, who wisely avoids extraneous detail, and there are moments of real tension. It's dark, but Benedek exercises restraint, which I liked, but which may turn off viewers seeking more explicit thrills. Trevor Howard, who you may recognize from Brief Encounter (1945) and The Third Man (1949), is strong as a detective, and the rest of the cast are all good as well. I liked the way we eventually see how von Sydow is able to do what he does, though you'll have to suspend disbelief a bit. Clever ending too.

I saw this for the first time recently after reading Coventry's review. If not for Coventry's review, i wudnt have stumbled upon this atmospheric n fascinating film.

Salem (Max von Sydow), a mental asylum inmate escapes from the asylum in the dead of winter n reaches his family farm, now run by his younger sisters n the husband of the elder sis. Salem kills all the people he believes responsible for his unfair conviction and subsequent confinement. The film has oodles of atmosphere, the frozen locations, the sparsely populated area n the freezing n gushing wind. Salem's escape plan is meticulously shown and viewers will root for his character.

I think Law Abiding Citizen (one of my fav revenge thriller) borrowed from this film.





Some may wonder why Salem killed Brit Torrens. Salem's alibi in the case was Brit Torens, a young lover he was with when the farmhand was killed. Unfortunately, Brit did not speak up in court to clear Salem, instead protecting her own virginal reputation at the cost of his freedom.

It has been thirty years since I first saw this title, at a drive-in movie theater, with my girlfriend. She and I both had eyes glued to the screen. The "feeling" of the setting still lingers and we could almost experience the cold. But what I remember the most is that The Night Visitor gave new meaning to the old line,

"a little birdy told me...".

Superb direction and wonderfully twisting ending!