Night Angel

"Night Angel" for most part follows the typical staples of 80s supernatural horror with lukewarm results. It wants to be an erotic thriller with supernatural touches, but the uncanny aspect cheapens it. Considerably silly and weakly acted (with the exception of an always amusing Karen Black), and while uninspired, it's never boring due to competence in its polished direction and outrageous old-school latex make-up effects (thanks to some outlandish hallucinating nightmare sequences). Director Dominique Othenin-Girard was at the helm, who previously directed "Halloween 5" the year before and some of the visual and atmospheric aspects collide here. He sure does like the blue filter when staging the lighting. It's violent, sensual and brooding, but done in a rather tacky manner. Just look at the lust-filled orgy sequences. While serious in tone, some elements are tawdry then say shocking in what it aims to achieve and the dialogues at times can make you groan. The story centres on the fashion magazine industry where glamour and vanity attracts evil in the shape of an ancient evil demon in woman form. Nothing surprises in the writing with the usual raving character suddenly appearing and they know how to vanish this succubus. A mysteriously infatuating Isa Andersen might look the part, but acting-wise was less desirable and some of her delivery raised a chuckle. While across from her is a wooden hero in the shape of Liden Ashby and Debra Feuer fairs much better as his romance interest.

"She's Satan's whore wife"!

Night Angel (1990)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Above average horror film has an evil spirit taking over the body of a beautiful woman (Isa Andersen) who then goes out and uses her sexuality to seduce men and kill them.

NIGHT ANGEL doesn't have a very detailed story but it really doesn't have to because it pretty much delivers in every way that you'd expect it to. If you were renting this movie back in the day or seeing it late at night on Cinemax, you'd expect nudity, sex, gore and violence and that's pretty much what the film delivers. Fans of this type of thing will certainly find a lot to enjoy here.

I think a lot of the credit has to go towards director Dominique Othenin-Girard who made this right after the somewhat disasterous HALLOWEEN 5. This film here allowed him to experient with his European feel and I thought this added a lot of good style to the picture. The sexuality is certainly a tad bit more erotic than you'd typically see in a horror film like this and there's no question that the director wanted to push this aspect.

I also thought the cast was quite good and especially Andersen who plays the sex object. She does a very good job with the performance and she certainly knows how to milk that sexuality to where all of these men would fall for her. Linden Ashby, Debra Feuer, Gary Hudson and Karen Black are all good in their roles as well.

Horror fans will be happy with the blood level here as the demon rips out the hearts of her lovers and this leads to some great red stuff. The violence is pretty much what you'd expect from a film like this so all is good on that level. NIGHT ANGEL certainly isn't a masterpiece and it is flawed but at the same time it's a good entertainment.

Bloody hell, this was bad!! My review should be short and sweet: this was trash. Absolute garbage!

I mean, seriously, could it have been any worse? From the opening scene I realized I was in for something utterly pathetic, and I couldn't have been more spot on! 'Night Angel' is seriously bad in every way - from the acting to the premise to the execution.

Isa Jank stars as an ancient demon, Lilith, who - as the synopsis indicates - seduces and kill men. Ok, but why? What does she has to gain from doing that? Is it just for fun? She doesn't gain any power, and it doesn't enhance her as a demon or being in any way, so what's the purpose?

This one-dimensional film has bland characters with no back story whatsoever, and no character development. It's just a bunch of ideas thrown together trying to depict all men as one track minded horny idiots. There's hardly a mentionable inciting incident, and nothing propelling the film from the second act into the third. And then there's the boring climax.

'Night Angel' doesn't explain anything and there's no character motivation. Just nothing! Please, please, please let me for get this!!!

Would I watch it again? Are you kidding me???!

An ancient evil entity named Lilith is reborn and assumes the shape of an incredibly sexy young woman (German-born Isa Jank, "The Wrong Guys"). Lilith proceeds to aggressively contrive her way towards being the cover girl for a fashion magazine called "Siren"; meanwhile, she goes about seducing and destroying various horny and mindless men. A virtuous employee named Craig (Linden Ashby, 'Melrose Place') doesn't like what she does to the office, so he teams up with a savvy old woman (Helen Martin, '227') to vanquish the demon. He also takes the time to romance Kirstie (Debra Feuer, "To Live and Die in L.A."), the sister of his boss Rita (Karen Black, "House of 1000 Corpses").

"Night Angel" is acceptable cheese ball fare, no more and no less, yet it does still hit the spot fairly well for anybody who's got a soft spot for this kind of thing. It's got plenty of lovely ladies and sex scenes to keep the audience satisfied, as well as some wonderfully garish makeup FX by Steve Johnson ("Night of the Demons"). It does improve as it goes along, leading to a major set piece of atmosphere and effects; the most memorable bit of business takes place around the 56 minute mark. Dominique Othenin-Girard ("Halloween 5") directs adequately, giving us enough "good" stuff to prevent our minds from wandering too much.

The delectable Ms. Jank, most of whose acting credits consist of TV appearances in her native country, does seem to be enjoying this moment in the spotlight. The rest of the cast is passable, if not inspired, although it's nice to see veteran character actress Martin in an actual heroic role. (At first, you think she's just some sort of pest.) Notable creature performer Doug Jones ("The Shape of Water") has his second credited acting role as shameless horndog Ken. Also appearing are Gary Hudson ("Road House"), Sam Hennings ("Seedpeople"), Twink Caplan ("Clueless"), and Phil Fondacaro ("Troll"). Roscoe Lee Browne ("The Cowboys") does the opening narration. Hennings bares enough of a resemblance to Klaus Kinski to be good for some chuckles.

All in all, an agreeable watch. It's worth sticking with just to hear that end credits song belted out by none other than Screaming Jay Hawkins!

Six out of 10.

Mythical creature, Lilith, returns from some strange swamp and decides to become a fashion model because it will allow her to influence more people over to the darkside.

Night Angel isn't a movie with lofty storytelling goals. It seems to just want to entertain with a little nudity, sex, and gore and it does that just fine. Isa Andersen is appropriately alluring and sexy as the lead and it's always nice to see Karen Black even when it's in a somewhat tiny supporting role. The creature and gore effects are the real reason to see this and they don't disappoint.