Twilight

I remember when this movie came out and the video stores really tried to hype this film. Of course, the film went into obscurity for a while and I hadn't seen it for years. I had actually forgotten the name and that it was based off of a Dean Koontz story. With a little bit of searching I was able to watch this movie again and it was just as OK as the first time I had viewed it.

The story is nothing new, just told from a slightly different angle. A six year old boy by the name of Joey is being terrorized by a cult known as "Twilight". This cult believes the end is coming and believes that Joey is the start of it. They believe he is the anti-Christ. Joey's mother hires a detective named Charlie to help them. Charlie soon realizes that this cult means business as they seem to have cultist everywhere and they just can't escape them, no matter where they run to. This all leads to a climax giving you the question whether Joey is or is not the anti-Christ.

Sure, the storyline is nothing new, but, you can still have fun with it. The acting is really not that bad as we have a decent cast with a few familiar faces which include Belinda Bauer (Robocop 2), Grace Zabriskie, Carel Struycken (The Addams Family) and Bruce Greenwood. Also, the movie is directed by a classic B movie director of the 80's, Jeffrey Obrow, who gave us such fine films as The Kindred and The Power.

Well, I think the movie is worth checking out. You won't waste your time. 7/10

This movie was not scary, but it was good. It was sometimes suspenseful, and it surprised you along the way. It looked like a cheap knock off of 'The Omen," but it was different. The ending was surprising, and this movie gets a 7 out of 10.

A woman and her son are attacked by strange people, and they hire a private detective agency to protect them and learn why. Somehow, they can afford having the entire agency on their case, even having as many as three of them staying with them around the clock at times. The detectives aren't particularly good at anything except for being killed, which takes care of the problem of affording them all, I suppose.

Every once in a while, the movie remembers that there was a poorly-defined framing device at the beginning that made everything that followed a reminiscence rather than a current event. So, very occasionally, the lead actor will say something in voice-over ("that's when I first talked to you"), which is silly and totally unnecessary.

The acting in the movie is absolutely dreadful. Some of the actors are capable of acting; they've displayed some skill in other movies, but none of that is evident here. The little boy who is the center of the story is unappealing; as with many kids in 1970s Italian horror movies, to look at him is to want him to die. Thus, one's sympathies are with the cultists who want to kill him, even though they're scarcely appealing at all either.

The video box says the movie is rated R. How that could be possible, I can't imagine. A number of people are killed, but the violence is hardly even the equal of a television cop show, and not that of a horror movie. There is no nudity. There is little, if any bad language.

Read the book; watched the movie. The changed ending moved the category from psychological drama to horror by changing the character of the boy, but that was probably intentional. Production values were poor, sound and music likewise below par. This could have been another Indiana Jones with some more effort and money. Strongly suggest a remake; the story is good enough. I give it a 5/10 for entertainment value.

A fair movie that adapts the novel by Dean R. Koontz, "Servants of Twilight" stars Bruce Greenwood ("Star Trek" '09) as Charlie, a private detective. He's hired by desperate hottie mother Christine (Belinda Bauer, "RoboCop 2"). Her young son Joey (Jarrett Lennon, 'Freaks and Geeks') has been targeted by religious fundamentalist Mother Grace (Grace Zabriskie, 'Twin Peaks') and her flock, who genuinely believe Joey to be the Antichrist. They will stop at NOTHING to wipe Joey off the face of the Earth, and turn up every single place that Charlie tries to take him and his mother.

Generally, Koontz hasn't been served all that well on film, although there are exceptions (like "Demon Seed" from 1977). This is an okay horror flick, but never rises above the quality level of an average TV treatment of such material. Overall, it's not that satisfying, despite its best efforts to make the viewer doubt: how could such an adorable little kid (Lennon goes all out trying to be "cutesy") possibly be an embodiment of Evil? (Shades of "The Omen".) Eventually, all is revealed, although some viewers may be glad that the film is finally over rather than happy that their curiosity has been sated. The narrative hook of jumping back and forth in time (with a slightly crazed Charlie relating his story to his good friend, played by top character actor Jack Kehoe ("Melvin and Howard")) is really no big deal.

It's an effective supporting cast of familiar faces that keeps this as watchable as it is. Bauer is simply terrible, with some of the worst line delivery that this viewer has ever heard. Greenwood is fine as the hero. Zabriskie, who seems at least partly inspired by Piper Laurie in "Carrie", is amusing as the zealot who sets the story in motion. Richard Bradford ("The Untouchables"), Dale Dye (the veteran military advisor for the movies), Kelli Maroney ("Night of the Comet"), Al White ("Airplane!"), Carel Struycken (the "Addams Family" movies of the 1990s), Bruce Locke ("RoboCop 3"), and Jillian McWhirter ("Progeny") co-star.

Familiar names behind the scenes include executive producers Andrew Lane & Wayne Crawford (writers of "Valley Girl"), producer Venetia Stevenson (a former actress whose credits include "The City of the Dead"), co-producer William Sachs (who directed "Galaxina" and "The Incredible Melting Man"), and director / co-writer Jeffrey Obrow, who, with his writing partner Stephen Carpenter, made 80s genre favourites such as "The Kindred" and "The Dorm That Dripped Blood".

Genre and Koontz completists may want to give it a look, but it's nothing special overall. It's the cast that raises this viewers' rating by a star.

Six out of 10.