The Night Stalker

Charles Napier gives a good performance as boozing detective J.J.Stryker, pursuing a call girl killer. If you demand realism as part of your movie experience, then I suggest skipping "The Night Stalker", because the killer is practically immortal, and bullets do not even phase him. It is this killer that cannot die angle which requires complete suspension of disbelief by the viewer. What you wind up with is yet another "Dirty Harry" clone, with a psycho villain and a cop who finds trouble wherever he goes. Stryker stops for breakfast and gets hassled into a fistfight. Stryker stops for a beer and interrupts a robbery in progress. You get the picture. - MERK

"The Night Stalker", not to be confused with the far superior occult made-for-television thriller and subsequent series, is one of those ideal mid-80s horror/action movies that you can watch with a bunch of friends and play a game of cliché-bingo to! Do you know the rules?

Each participant writes down 10-12 genre clichés on a piece of paper prior to starting the film. Then, while watching, you tick off the clichés when they appear on screen, and the first participant who sees all his/her clichés featuring in the film, wins. This largely (and righteously) forgotten 80s flick is a nearly inexhaustible source of clichés! The invincible serial killer; check. Practicing some sort of voodoo ritual; check. Preying on big city prostitutes because they are "disposable" victims; check. The heavily drinking, chain-smoking, unorthodox, and practically always suspended homicide officer; check. The mandatory liquor store robbery and overlong chasing of the culprits over rooftops; check. The good-hearted prostitute and her love-hate relationship with the homicide inspector; check. The constantly joking but loyal partner who dies halfway through the film; check. The arrogant police inspector nobody likes gets caught with a prostitute who turns out to be a transvestite; check. And, of course, there's plenty of more...

Undoubtedly the most interesting aspect about "The Night Stalker" is the cast. Charles Napier isn't known for playing the lead hero, and he's visibly uncomfortable. He usually stars in the supportive cast, as a sleazy corps detective or a corrupt authority figure, so he can't handle the responsibility of carrying a film. I wouldn't be surprised if Napier requested himself to turn his character into an alcoholic who's passed out half of the time. The stunningly beautiful Lydie Denier depicts the first victim, and the first person to discover that the maniac cannot be killed easily with bullets. Speaking of which, the prowler is none other than Robert Z'Dar! He would become somewhat of an 80s horror movie icon two years later, as Matt Cordell in William Lustig's "Maniac Cop". Z'Dar already does here what he would repeat throughout his entire further career, namely talk as little as possible and look menacing thanks to his impressive posture and unnaturally large jawbone.

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.

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.

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.