La secte du crépuscule

Given horror author Dean R. Koontz's incredible success, I'm baffled at just how few of his many novels have been adapted for the screen (especially considering the popularity of the horror/thriller genre as a whole). Servants of Twilight proves that, in the right hands, Koontz's work can be almost as compelling to watch as it is to read.

Bruce Greenwood stars as Charlie Harrison, a tough private eye hired by single mother Christine Scavello (Belinda Bauer) to protect her son Joey (Jarrett Lennon) from a fanatical religious cult who believe the boy to be the AntiChrist. A game of cat and mouse ensues, with Charlie, Christine and Joey unable to trust anyone, danger lurking around every corner.

Even though his budgetary limitations are obvious in the picture and sound quality, and the lack of any real stars, director Jeffery Obrow manages to wring quite a lot of tension out of Koontz's economical tale. The film might be a simple series of fight or flight encounters with the cultists, saddled with a predictable ending, but there is no shortage of excitement to be had along the way. A more appealing child actor (Lennon bears a striking resemblance to Dobby the house elf) and some gore (decapitated dog?) would have been welcome, but even as it stands Servants of Twilight is a more than serviceable chiller.

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.

That summary alone isn't really saying much at all, especially for those unlucky bastards who forced themselves to sit through the particularly dreadful "Phantoms", "Hideaway", or ANY of the "Watchers" movies. That being said, this film about a devoutly religious cult headed by a pre-Twin Peaks Grace Zabriskie, who are hellbent (pun intended) on killing a six year old boy (young Andrew dice clay himself, Jerrot Lennon) whom they believe to be the current incarnation of the anti-Christ and willing to kill anyone who get in their way is passable entertainment if you can get past the overtly melodramatic beginning. Belinda Bauer as the mother of Joey is a big letdown, primarily because she's one-dimensional, well more so than the other cardboard cutout characters populating the movie, but also because she didn't follow up her terrific nudity in "Winter Kills" (only bring that up because one scene promises nudity, but then the director choose to pussy out). The ending is groan-inducing and silly. But there are still some unintentional laughs to be had here. Oh and I felt the need to call it the best THEATRICAL film only because I actually found the made for TV flick "Intensity" to be quite good and the best Koontz adaption put out thus far.

My grade: C-

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

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.