Night Vision

A VCR is used by a satanic sect to record a ritual sacrifice. Said VCR gets stolen an sold to our protagonist. At night, it glows and all of a sudden, people get murdered in very low-budget ways or off-screen. Who can the killer be?

"Night Vision" is a no-budget horror flick with nothing much to commend it. Poor acting, virtually non-existent script, and also makes the mistake of taking itself seriously. No even fun for bad movie fans, as there just isn't anything happening.

I was one of the unpaid extras in this film. It was a great night in Denver I must say. Being a student of photography at CU Denver, I was downtown capturing the night skyline for a class with friends. As we were walking we saw a small crowd of people and decided to crash the event. One of my friends swore they saw Demi Moore in one of the outdoor scenes shot against one of the buildings. We hung out a while and then we were asked to be extras in one of the scenes. I had no idea what this movie was about nor did we really care at that moment. I have never seen the movie itself and wouldn't even know where to begin the search for a copy but I am real interested in how it turned out. I recall our scene walking passed the car where the action was happening. Honestly, I'm just not sure we even made the "cut". It was later we were told the plot of the movie. Had I known the plot before hand, I'm not sure I would have signed the waiver. Just the same, Campy is fun! Sorry to hear the director passed.

Stumbled upon this on On Demand, and was intrigued: NIGHT VISION is an '80s horror I'd never even heard of (which means it's REAL obscure) and it was shot and set in Colorado, where I've lived all my life. So, obviously, I watched it, and was slightly impressed and more-than-slightly dumbfounded.

It's about a shy, whiny writer from Kansas that moves to the seedy underbelly of Denver to get story ideas. He makes friends with a criminal-type named Vinny, who soon gifts him a VCR that once belonged to a scary cult. The VCR leaves Mr. Kansas able to write scary, violent short stories that end up coming true. Oh, and he works at a video store for some reason.

So, to clarify, many of you looking at '80s C-horror movies on IMDb may be looking for so-bad-it's-funny material, and NIGHT VISION really won't be your cup of tea. There's sporadic laughs, but it's actually very slow-moving, nothing much really happens, it completely shies away from gore and nudity, and it's not really even a horror movie. Perhaps the funniest thing about the film is its portrayal of Denver as the seediest, most crime-ridden city in the world, one that is seemingly physically impossible NOT to get robbed, stalked or killed while walking its streets. Even as a current resident that knows this is far from the truth, NIGHT VISION made me want to get the hell out of this black hole of a city.

But no, this is not Bad Movie Night material. Instead, it's a slow-burn oddity that aims more to be a Cronenberg or Lynch-style psychological thriller than a gory cheesefest. It never completely hits the mark, but it does manage to sustain a weird, slightly unsettling atmosphere (mostly due to its home-movie qualities) and is compulsively watchable. Almost nothing happened in its 100-minute running time, but I still found myself intrigued by NIGHT VISION from start to finish.

I'm not sure whether to call the main actor horrible or great; he's whiny and annoying the entire time, but you do get an air of sociopathy about him. One reviewer here compares him in looks to David Byrne, but I got more of an Ian Curtis vibe. He's really not good at all, but he adds to the odd atmosphere of the film. But the ending is really effective, muddling the plot-line even more than it previously was and leaving the film completely without answers. It worked surprisingly well.

I can't really recommend NIGHT VISION to most people and it's certainly not an unjustly forgotten classic, but viewers in the mood for something off the beaten path and zero-budget might find something to like here.

My review was written in July 1988 after watching the feature on Prism video cassette.

The made-for-video feature film has its merits as a modest rites-of-passage tale of a young man trying to make it in the big city, but its attempted horror concept is purely shaggy dog.

Stacy Carson gives an engaging performance as Andy, a budding writer from Kansas who heads to the big metropolis (actually Denver) to make his fame and fortune. Pic details his frequent butting up against reality, as people mistreat him and he finds it hard to make ends meet.

He eventually gets a job in a video store and develops a crush on a girl (Shirley Ross) who works there, but the horror plot device intrudes in the form of a stolen VCR containing a tape made by a satanic cult. The tape apparently causes Andy to become a killer at night and to write stories during his sleep; also, events are mystically taped sans camera. Special effects and violent scenes are handled in chintzy fashion.

Besides Carfson, there is an effective, against-the-cliche performance by diminutive Tony Carpenter as an Italianate street hood who drags Andy into his criminal activities.

I gave it a 10 'cause I edited this...plus the director, Michael Krueger, (now deceased) was truly a wonderful guy and this was his 2nd film. And yes, it sucked...but it was supposed to. The previous reviewer had it right...there was NO budget. Mike was at the beginning of his career and wanted to make a campy, "bad" film. And it was "direct to tape". It WAS like a class project because almost no one got paid...it was a labor of love and an attempt to start a career that all to quickly ended before he could move on. I had fun because Mike sent me the tapes from Denver (where it was shot and Mike lived) to an edit bay in LA where I put this together in a few short weeks. (And, yes, it looks like it...I was also at the start of my career too, and this opportunity was too good to pass up. My moment of glory came when I had the genius idea one night that the possessed VCR would turn on and light up to 666...the only problem in the field was that VCR's don't like to be forced to display numbers that don't relate to time...and 666 does not...so I had to roll the tape backwards to make this work. Yeah...it was awful and hokey but it was a hoot too.