Visitors of the Night

1/2 out of ****

Former TV star Candace Cameron plays a rebellious teen who's being abducted by aliens. Markie Post is her mother, who as a child, also experienced extraterrestrial encounters and fears her daughter will suffer the same fear and torment.

For ninety minutes, this made-for-TV drama passes by with little sci-fi or horror elements. Most of the focus is on the mother-daughter relationship between Cameron and Post, both of whom are veterans to this kind of manipulative schlock. Being veterans, however, doesn't necessarily mean it'll elicit good performances. Cameron is as terrible as ever and while Post is believable enough as a concerned mother, any quality in her performance is consistently mired by the writing.

In-between the alien abductions and mother-daughter stuff, we mostly see Cameron interacting with her friends, none of whom I can even remember in the slightest bit. Funny, instead of this material acting as filler, it feels as if all the sci-fi aspects are filler for the saccharine drama.

When the movie finally decides to introduce us to the aliens, the revelation and reasons behind the abductions are disappointingly baffling in its simplicity, not that I was waiting anxiously to be blown away, but a more elaborate conclusion would have made the film a more bearable watch. The final scenes suggest that the power of love can take on any challenge, or something like that. It all ends so abruptly, I couldn't help but chuckle at such an idiotically ambiguous ending. I need a barf bag.

When her daughter mysteriously disappears for a few hours, Judith English(Post) decides to confront her greatest fears and investigate what is happening. She realizes that her daughter is experiencing the same thing that she experienced as a little girl, abduction by aliens.

While watching Visitors of the Night, I found myself thinking how the film was like an extension of another film, Intruders. Both films take a serious look at the topic of alien abductions and both films concern a main character who believes she may or may not have been impregnated with an alien/human hybrid.

Although, unlike Intruders, the film takes a detour into the implausible near the end when Post's character begins to suspect that her daughter might not be what she seems. Without giving anything away, the ending doesn't tend to ruin the whole film.

Director, Jorge Montesi offers up another creepy outing that ufo enthusiasts will appreciate. Trivia buffs will note that Montesi would follow up this film with another ufo-related film a year later, Night Visitors.

90's sci fi TV movies always make me apprehensive of exposure to formulaic story lines. However, Visitors of the Night contains sufficient originality and intrigue even by 2016 standards, to have kept me watching through to the end. This was partly because the characters were easy to relate while the acting kept things interesting by making the most of the writing. One good thing about the writing is that it never loses its way or goes off on a different tangent to attempt to capture more interest.By focusing on the primary story line the writer manages to generate a very focused plot.

Provided you are not expecting to be kept riveted to your seat, and simply want something easy that will not challenge you, Visitors of the Night is better than many rival TV movies and worth watching.

**SPOILERS** Experiencing nightmares walking in her sleep and missing time since she was 4 years old Judith English's, Markie Post, teenage daughter Katie,Candace Cmeron, is now going through the same things! Is it genetic or is it something else something with no earthly explanation?

The made for TV movie "Visitors of the Night" explores the modern day phenomena of alien abductions that has, since the first reported case back in 1961 involving Betty and Barney Hill, gone from dime store novel material to being taken seriously by millions of Americans as well as tens of millions of people all over he world.

Time just seems to stand still for young Katie as she loses touch with her surroundings and finds herself miles from the places that she was last at. One evening walking out of a friends home during a party when she came back in,in what seemed to be a fleeting moment,Katie finds that the party was over and that three hours had mysteriously passed by! Katie for some strange reason fears the night and covers the window in her bedroom to keep the night-lights, and whatever comes with them, out. One evening she again disappears minus her eyeglasses, which Katie can't see a thing without,and is found a day later miles away in a deserted wheat-field unhurt and with 20/20 vision. Katie also got very bright during her sleep-walking disappearances knowing more about politics in getting her dad Bryan ,Stephen McHattie, who's running for city councilman elected then his entire election staff put together.

Judith having recurring nightmares goes to psychiatrist Dr. Matt, Susan Hogan, for help only to find out that what she's having are not nightmares at all but suppressed memories from her past. She also finds that their somehow connected to what her daughter, Katie, is having now. Fairly good film about alien abductions that not only convinces Judith and her daughter Katie that there not figments of their imagination but the real deal.

At the conclusion of the movie we get an explanation from Judith on a spaceship with her alien captors, what the real reason for this strange enigma really is: It has to do with genetic engineering on the aliens part. The aliens are trying to create a race of alien/human hybrids and the the one thing the aliens need that millions of years of advanced science, over the human race, hasn't given them: human emotions.

Without a newborn baby being loved and cared for by his, or her, mother it loses it's ability and will to survive. That's the reason that women all over the earth, like Judith and Katie,who were abducted and impregnated by the aliens, are needed by the spacemen to nurture these hybrid babies and give them a reason for living. It's those human emotions that the aliens, no matter how advanced that they are, can never duplicate or instill in themselves.

Hard to follow at first with a lot of sub-plots that it really could do without but when "Visitors of the Night" gets to the core or "Heart and Soul" of it's story it's very hard not to keep your tear-ducts from filling up and then spilling over.

If you like drama, there's not enough of it in this movie to intrigue you. If you like suspense, you'll certainly not suspend your nap as this movie "progresses." If you appreciate science fiction, there's precious little science and even less imaginative fiction to warrant watching this mess. In other words: this movie has nothing for everyone.

Spunky Candace Cameron Bure (she played the oldest daughter in the TV series, "Full House.") plays Katie English, a somewhat rebellious child (she can't even act rebellious), is repeatedly abducted by aliens, draws some pictures of it, and yells at her mother (the lovely Markie Post). But Mother, after being hypnotized, recognizes these tell-tale signs in her daughter, including puncture marks that looked like they were inflicted by a tri-fanged vampire, that remind her of her own alien abductions. There's a lot of crying, arguing, yelling, etc., and the movie deftly meanders, whining forth for over 2 hours.

Our little "Rebel" also prances atop a figurative soapbox a couple of times, spouting environmental doomsday pap. This has absolutely nothing to do with the plot of the movie, but was apparently put there for the viewers "benefit" and "education." This 1995 script has Katie telling her classmates how "civilization as we know it" will collapse by the year 2000 (The same drivel that teachers back in 1980 told children would happen before 1990; the same claptrap that's vomited in classrooms across America today).

Finally the viewer gets to see the aliens. These entities are the quintessential mouthless, big-eyed, naked, mind-communicating creatures we've come to expect. But that's okay, they're a welcome relief in the movie. Yes, they're a welcome relief, but they are, however, rather incompetent scientists: they can't get their experiments right. But nonetheless I couldn't help but feel sorry for them for having repeatedly abducted such crybabies as specimens. In fact, I kept hoping they'd abduct me so that I wouldn't have to finish watching this horrible movie.

I strongly recommend that you neither rent the video release, nor watch this movie should it again rear it's boring head on TV.