Night Angel

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.

A demon assumes the guise of a woman and becomes an editor at a fashion magazine. She lures men into her spell and then kills them. Not much of a premise and with rather poor acting, but the director makes this work. The effects have style and look rather good, the sets are creative, and the photography is inventive. The lead looks her part very well, but just can't act to save her life.

Rated R; Violence, Nudity, and Sexual Situations.

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???!

This movie has pretty much all the best stuff that comes with a good 80's horror movie. The execution of the plot is what usually tells 80's horror movie apart from all other decades in my opinion. There always has to be some extravagant action sequences involving some sort of sexualized pain infliction, lots of heavy gasping and strip dancing sex scenes with some guts on a spring styled gore to top it all off. Check, check and check!

So this movie introduces us to Lilith, a cool demon for an eighties styled horror to center around. Here in this movie they have decided to depicted her as the incarnation of lust and embodiment of evil with a tiny call out to Pazuzu (see if you can find it). Her powers are mostly psychic enabling her to send images into people dreams and thoughts and also move objects around telekinesis like. Lilith was very well portrayed by German actress Isa Jank in this movie whom I've never seen before in any horror and I thought she did an amazing job on this role while being very sexy.

Acting wise we also get some familiar faces from horror which should be a welcome sight to many. I was surprised to see B. J Turner here as well as I am a fan of the movie Scarecrows (1988) too and now this movie. I barely recognized Doug Jones, the man is a true chameleon much like Jenette Goldstein both of whom are always worth seeing, Jenette not being in this movie though but they are worth comparing.

Phil Fondacaro's appearance is unfortunately barely even cameo its so short but good never the less as is Roscoe as the narrator. Karen Black on the other hand was great also but seen plenty of times through out the movie, very enjoyable performances all round and truely leaves you wondering what people were thinking rating this movies so low and easily places this movie in the top 5 most under rated horrors of the 80's both due to how few people who have actually seen it and how poorly it has been rated by those who have seen it.

As I wrote earlier, there is a plethora of 80's horror elements in this movie and it would require a very long review to cover them all. Eitherway I will say that it was refreshing to watch a horror and not at all feel the need to fast forward at any point. Also being a fan of weird horror I should point out that this movie does come with a few flash in the pan weird body horror moments mostly towards the end, nothing quite as extreme as Society (1989) though but still welcome.

If you like under-rated horrors like this I would recommend the following: Impulse (1984), Xtro (1982), Nightwish (1989), Spookies (1986), Subspecies (1991), Dead and Buried (1981), The Dark Side of the Moon (1990), and Silent Madness (1984). All worth the watch if you can find them.

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.