Le visiteur de la nuit

I saw this for the first time recently after reading Coventry's review. If not for Coventry's review, i wudnt have stumbled upon this atmospheric n fascinating film.

Salem (Max von Sydow), a mental asylum inmate escapes from the asylum in the dead of winter n reaches his family farm, now run by his younger sisters n the husband of the elder sis. Salem kills all the people he believes responsible for his unfair conviction and subsequent confinement. The film has oodles of atmosphere, the frozen locations, the sparsely populated area n the freezing n gushing wind. Salem's escape plan is meticulously shown and viewers will root for his character.

I think Law Abiding Citizen (one of my fav revenge thriller) borrowed from this film.





Some may wonder why Salem killed Brit Torrens. Salem's alibi in the case was Brit Torens, a young lover he was with when the farmhand was killed. Unfortunately, Brit did not speak up in court to clear Salem, instead protecting her own virginal reputation at the cost of his freedom.

A man is running away from a large brick building surrounded by a high wall. He's running across rocks and snow in his underwear and boots. He sneaks into a farmhouse and steals some odd items, and sneaks into another house where he kills a woman. It's not the last person he'll kill either; he's trying to frame someone, but why - and how is he getting away from the place that establishes his alibi?

This is a very good movie. As a horror movie, it doesn't have a very high body count, or much gore, and there's no on screen violence - it cuts away from that. Some horror movies benefit from that, some don't; this one doesn't need it. The locations: isolated locations surrounded by snowy fields are very nice to look at. Acting is very good, as is the musical score by Mancini.

Definitely deserves to be better-known. I'm surprised some critics didn't like it. Some didn't like that the movie gives some things away early on that could have been withheld. I don't agree; not every movie that has secrets needs to save them for a big reveal at the end. Others felt that the characters' motivations weren't established. I can only suppose they weren't listening to the dialog, because that was fully discussed.

I guess that if Ingmar Bergman had ever made an out-and-out horror film, THE NIGHT VISITOR is what it would have looked like. This obscure USA/Sweden co-production brings together two of Bergman's favourite actors (Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullman) in a tale of madness, desperation, revenge, and sinister murder. It's quite a vicious film even though the on-screen violence is limited and the viewer never sees much of what's actually taking place.

The film's chilly, snowbound northern setting (Jutland) is as much a character as the cast themselves, and the story certainly has a unique feel to it: slow, stately, very much like an art-house film, but with dark revenge/thriller plotting. I liked it; there's style to spare, and some ingenious situations as we see Von Sydow's character putting the impossible into action.

The film is also notable for an exemplary cast. Aside from the Swedish luminaries, we get a real old timer as the detective (Trevor Howard) alongside popular Swedish actor Per Oscarsson, and supporting roles for two Hammer star Brits, Rupert Davies and Andrew Keir. THE NIGHT VISITOR certainly isn't for all tastes, but it's an odd film indeed: quiet and yet spellbinding at the same time.

Salem (Max von Sydow) was found guilty of murder two years ago and was sentenced to an asylum for the criminally insane. However, Salem was innocent...and now he's very angry. How angry? Angry enough to figure a complicated way to escape, pay back those who have wronged him and then return unnoticed to his cell.

The pacing of this one is slow and an editing might have helped. On the other hand, the story idea is great. The escape is very complex and believable....and you get to see it from start to finish. And, finally, it ends very well. Overall, a great little thriller well worth your time simply because it was written so very well.

Atmospherically set in freezing Jutland, this clever revenge drama starts slowly but will grab your interest as Salem's plan unfolds. The acting is good and the film is well-handled by director Laslo Benedek. Worth a viewing.