The Night Stalker

My review was written in April 1987 after a Manhattan screening.

"The Night Stalker" is a 1985 cop picture that is executed in satisfactory fashion but telegraphs each incident and plot twist with depressing regularity. Only thing here apart from standard chases and shootouts to keep the fans awake is a succession of familiar faces to identify in the supporting cast. Pic has gone through innumerable title changes, including "Painted Dolls", "Striker", "The Slayman and "The Man Who Could Not Be Killed" before final release using the moniker from Darren McGavin's well-remembered supernatural tv series of 15 years ago.

Rugged Charles Napier is well cast as J. J. Striker, a world weary-L. A. cop, gone over to the bottle, who is working on the case of a serial murderer who kills prostitutes and then paints their bodies with Chinese characters. Since Striker's girlfriend is a prostitute (Michelle Reese) and the two of them have been caring for a young woman (Katherine Kelly Lang) who was raised in the prosties' milieu, he has a vested interest in flushing out the killer.

Script by John Goff and Don Edmonds is so routine one easily can pick out each victim of the killer and when it will happen, plus all the haples misadventures of the cops. The killer, played by oversized Robert Zdar, turns out to be impervious to bullets, a supernatural subplot not adequately justified by a quickie exposition scene involving a psychiatrist inserted in the final reel. Napier destroys him anyway with an exploding shell pistol in a slambang finale.

Director Max Kleven, better known as a top second unit director responsible for the excellent second unit action of Andrei Konchalovksy's "Runaway Train"), delivers solid action and stunt work, but allows some very hammy performance, particularly by Robrt Viharo as Napierl's partner and James Louis Watkins as a laughably stereotyped pimp.

Main fun here is spotting so many super starlets in supporting roles as hooker/victims: Ola (Michael Jackson's "Thriller") Ray; beautiful Chuck Vincent discovery Tally Chanel (of "Warrior Queen" and "Sex Appeal", and Chinese star Joan Chen (lead of "Tai-Pan and Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor"). Gary Crosby is on hand in the embarrassing role of a cop nobody likes, who has an assignation with a transvestite hooker.

Many of the filmmakers hail from a softcore sexploitation background, where Napier got his start as the square-jawed lead in several Russ Meyer epics before becoming a Jonathan Demme regular and co-starring in "Rambo: First Blood Part II". Producer-co-writer Don Edmonds helmed sexpo epics such as "Wild Honey" and the first two "Ilsa" pics before an ill-fated tenure as production exec at PSO in 1985.

This movie is junk, it isn't scary or even entertaining to watch.

i actually paid seven dollars for this tape, in the hopes it would be a cool slasher flick, boy, was I wrong. In case your interested, this movie is about a serial killer who preys on woman, killing them so he can gain some sort of supernatural strength from their deaths, with each kill he grows stronger. Charles napier fresh off of RAMBO FIRST BLOOD 2, is the detective(JJ Striker) who is assigned the case to unravel the night stalker's identity, played by John Goff (THE BUDDY HOLLY STORY). This movie is noteworthy for the appearance of Ola Ray the girl who played Michael Jackson's girlfriend in the THRILLER music video, one of only 5 0r 6 movies that she has appeared in.

Just finished this film recently, and I'll have to say I was quite impressed with the quality of this film. Knowing this had a lower rating on IMDB, I expected something within "so bad it's good" territory, but instead I got a fairly decent crime thriller / slasher that embodies the cheese of the mid 80s.

To put the plot simply, recognizable actor Charles Napier (from First Blood, Hard Justice) plays a grizzled, alcoholic detective who pursues the mad killer Chuck Sommers (played by the man, Robert Z'Dar), who preys on prostitutes. Following this are iconic scenes of dialogue, and some decent action scenes as well. To add, asian actors George Cheung and Eric Lee make apprearances in this as well.

Overall I rate this a 6/10 for a flimsy but decently fleshed out story, Z'Dar, and that good old 80s cheese.

this movie was made in 1985. but the quality especially the DVD that i got from netflix is pretty bad. other than that charles napier character is really ever likable at all. Except maybe a little bit at the end. also the DVD still gallery is pathetic LOL.

the true reason i got this movie is for Robert Z'dar this is I believe his first starring role in a movie. He plays the serial killer and you never see his face until the end just like maniac cop. he breaks peoples neck like maniac cop. and throws people really far like maniac cop. in the interview in the spec edition of maniac cop DVD z'dar states that he instantly got the role for maniac cop because of this movie. Now I'm pretty sure why from the reasons I stated above.

the best part is the ending far superior than any other part of the film. also i enjoy the part when Z'dar says SAY OODA when he kills all the black pimps in the warehouse. there is lightning when he says it.

also there is a great part when z'dar is killing animals.

overall, if you like Z'dar or maniac cop you might want to watch and fast forward as well. this movie isn't really that entertaining at all except for that Z'dar is in it.

First, to set things straight, the film's copyright date is 1986, year of release, but video release is 1987. If you are lucky enough to find a VHS copy, there was only one release, and not on DVD yet, and you can find it for just a few dollars, and you're a genre fan, get it. This was given the go ahead right after the Richard Ramirez murder spree as the Night Stalker in Los Angeles in the summer of 1985, to capitalize on that wave of fear that ran through the city, well-fed by a hysterical news media. It actually has a seemingly unstoppable serial killer preying on mostly street-walkers late at night, whereas Ramirez slipped into homes and killed those in their sleep, a much more frightening premise. The similarity with Ramirez is in name, location, satanic style influences, and that's about it. Otherwise, the film plays very much like an episode of the TV series, Kolchak, the Night Stalker, with it's supernatural elements, invincible killer, and TV-movie style of production, plus some cheesy lines, some over-acting, and several good character actors, but without the great Kolchak himself. Charles Napier is an adequate lead, and Robert Z'Dar is a spooky serial killer, check out his photo here on IMDb and you'll see why. For genre fans who are a little forgiving of the silly moments, it won't be a waste of time.