Night Trap

It's just slow. There was so little to the plot that the director had to stretch out each scene until even the action seemed slow motion. The camera work as noticeably stiff and fixed in many scenes. The acting by the main protagonists was uninspired, but consistent.

The concept of whether Michael Ironside's character is the devil, or merely one of his overconfident myrmidons, is vague at best; as are his motives. But then one seems not to actually require motives in a horror film. It isn't something I fret about.

Still, Night Trap has some qualities to recommend it. Robert Davi, stone-faced, and purposeful, is interesting to watch as a cop who is just not quite the classic loner/rebel. John Amos is there too, but his performance is much too understated. I kept watching for him to fall asleep. Michael Ironside is more or less wasted in his part. He just struts around most of the time, and occasionally makes some threat or pejorative pronouncement in a stentorian and rather flat basso voice. The supporting cast did a good job though; and their characters were engaging. Everyone comes together to work out the meagre plot in a way that makes the film at least good escapism; and weak but reasonable horror. I'll often watch it if I see it come on cable. It's one of those "guy" films for when you just want to lean back in the recliner and escape for a while; and perhaps take a nap or two. If only it moved a little faster.

Night Trap is so old, obscure and out of print that I had to order an Amazon copy just to make sure it was even real, and not some dream I had as a kid. It's real enough, and a glorious helping of low budget supernatural tomfoolery at that, with two charismatic character actors headlining. Robert Davi, in a rare lead role, plays a headstrong New Orleans cop who is hunting down a serial killer (Michael Ironside) that appears to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for invincibility and a host of freaky deaky evil superpowers. Davi's father was also a cop who pursued Ironside, and the monster likes to taunt both of them, leaving a trail of bodies in the hectic celebration of Mardi Gras. There's a million of these type of movies, and they're all across the board in terms of quality. It comes down to script and actors, really, as there's never enough money to make any real visual magic. This one has a mile wide mean streak though, Ironside's villain is a full on moustache twirling, nightmarish fiend and the veteran tough guy plays him as such. Matched against Davi, another notorious badass, it's a B movie royal rumble that hits high notes of intensity, schlock and pulpy, violent delirium in all the right cues. Fun stuff if you're a fan of these actors, and can actually locate a copy.

When running Action International Pictures, filmmaker David A. Prior made a bunch of ultra cheap and tacky B movies. When A.I.P. transformed into West Side Pictures, things improved - but not by much. For this West Side production, Prior was able to afford a decent cast with talented actors Michael Ironside and Robert Davi. And the movie looks somewhat slicker than Prior's past productions. But apart from those things, not much else in this movie succeeds. Ironside and Davi give decent performances, but you don't see them acting to their full potential. Maybe it was because of the low budget, which constantly films in run-down and anonymous locations. It might also be because of the script, which is sorely lacking a decent explanation for Ironside's villain character. But the biggest problem is that the movie unfolds very slowly and with little excitement. Oh, there are a few unintentional laughs along the way (a car manages to overturn and explode while going five miles an hour, and Davi keeps on all his clothes during a sex scene), but there are not enough to even recommend this movie as camp. One final word of warning: the DVD release just copied an ex-rental VHS tape, which makes the movie look even more tacky.

With interesting ideas that were unfortunately not fully developed, and interesting character actors, Robert Davi, Michael Ironside, and Mike Starr, "Night Trap" could have been so much more than what it is. Not only is the script seriously muddled, there are several nonsensical conversations that go on way too long without moving the story forward. What you have is Ironside representing a resurrected Devil, with Davi and Starr in pursuit. What you don't have is the necessary background information to explain the "why". Things just sort of happen, leaving the audience in the dark regarding character motivation. I did think that the inter cut sex scenes with Ironside doing away with a prostitute, while Davi romances his girlfriend (fully clothed), gave new meaning to the phrase "giving tongue". - MERK

"Night Trap" is a slow, plodding thriller from AIP regular David A. Prior.

New Orleans Detective Mike Turner (Davi) is trying to catch a devious criminal named Bishop (Ironside). Bishop has magical powers that include flying, and having a cool but pasted on beard. No one believes Turner that Bishop is evil, especially his captain who thinks he is "on the sauce" again. Turner is then partnered with Williams (Starr) to find suspects who have seen Bishop....as usual in other cop flicks, Williams and Turner bicker and eventually become buddies during their pursuit. Can they find and destroy Bishop before he strikes again? The main problem with "Night Trap" is that it really wants to be good, but possibly out of guilt, it sabotages itself at every turn.

Every time Night Trap gets a good rhythm going, it pulls back for a ridiculous action scene and it loses focus. There is one scene where Bishop jumps over a car and the driver inside covers his eyes and then he slowly crashes into another car. 30 seconds later, the car blows up.

Davi puts in a good performance. Ironside has been in better work and he looks like he wants to take a nap. Starr tries his hardest to breathe life into his character, but the script fails him.

Every scene feels like it is in slow motion to stretch out the running time. There are a bunch of scenes with Davi just standing around doing absolutely nothing.

Overall, if you are a fan of Robert Davi, watch it. Anybody else should stay away.

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