Night Visitor

Very uneven thriller, but the results are still enjoyable. The film is about a constent liar (Derek Rydall) who witnesses his teacher (Allen Garfield) murder his sexy neighbor (Shannon Tweed). Film blends teen comedy, horror, and police detective films together. While it isn't very well directed or scripted for that matter, it is well cast right down the line and the actors turn in good performances, especially Garfield and Tweed in an appealing turn. The finale is especially amusing and the film has a good pace and is never boring.

Rated R; Nudity, Extreme Violence, Sexual Situations, and Profanity.

Even at age 13, when I first saw this film under its much cooler aka title "Never Cry Devil", I thought it was exaggeratedly foolish and implausible. Neat history teachers that turn out serial killers and Satanists? Beautiful call-girls practicing their profession next door? Seventeen (!) prostitutes picked up and killed in a conspicuous black car without the police having any leads? Yeah, sure... The only credible element in the whole plot was that nobody believed teenage Billy Colton when he claims to have witnessed a ritual Satanic killing, but that part then again was very clichéd.

30 years (and far too many bad horror movies) later, I have become a lot more tolerant towards silliness and clichés. "Never Cry Devil" - this time seen as "Night Visitor" - is a below average late 80s slasher/satanic horror flick, but at least it has a few enjoyable moments. There's gratuitous nudity and a couple of brutally gore killings, and for some strange reason I felt sympathy for the teenage protagonists Billy (Derek Rydall) and Kelly (Teresa Van der Woude).

"Night Visitor" seemingly also has a splendid B-movie cast, but you must take that with a pinch of salt. Elliot Gould receives top billing, but he only appears after 45 minutes, and his acting & body language clearly betray that he didn't want to be part of the film. Sexy Shannon Tweed's character doesn't last very long, and the roles of Richard Roundtree and Henry Gibson are mere cameos. In fact, the only two who are having a blast of a time are Allen Garfield (as the Satanist without a cause) and Michael J. Pollard (as his dimwit brother).

Basically the boy who cried satanist. High schooler Billy Colton (Derek Rydall) thinks his dreams have come true when "working girl" Lisa (Shannon Tweed) moves in next door. He gets more than an eyeful one night when he sees her murdered by a Satanic serial killer who just happens to be Billy's history teacher Zachary Willard (Allen Garfield). Of course no one will believe him since Billy and Willard have a history. So he enlists the help of girlfriend Kelly (Teresa Van der Woude) to try and convince his deceased dad's former cop partner (Elliot Gould) to help him prove it. This is pretty standard stuff and director Rupert Hitzig and screenwriter Randal Viscovich seem to be taking quite a bit from the earlier FRIGHT NIGHT (1985). If I had to recommend it for anything, it would be the loopy performance by Michael J. Pollard as Zachary's brother and co-killer. He really has some funny bits, which I'm sure were improvised, in that always amusing Pollard delivery style. Richard Roundtree is the unconvinced cop and Henry Gibson has one scene as a satanic expert. Surprisingly, Tweed stays clothed the entire time she is on screen (even during her sex scenes).

A pair of satanists drive around in an old black Cadillac, picking up hookers to sacrifice. A high school student who's always telling tall tales (I was late to school because my mother burned her hair when her hairdryer exploded!) tries to get closer to a female friend, and meets a sexy older woman who moves in next door.

The high schooler witnesses a murder, and even though when the police show up the body is there as described, murdered when and how he described, they don't believe him when he says who the killer is. I found that a bit hard to believe, even given his penchant for making up stories.

A bit randomly, his best friend is a smartass named Sam Loomis, like Donald Pleasance's character in Halloween.

The satanists (of which there are only two) kill some women in their car, and some in their house. They don't seem to actually have any satanic powers.

There's a few recognizable faces in the movie. Michael J. Pollard plays a sort of character he's played before, a man with the mind of a child. Henry Gibson shows up briefly as a police consultant on satanic crimes. Richard Roundtree plays a cop, as he has a thousand times. Elliot Gould is a family friend who the student tries to enlist.

The movie never really takes off at any point. The ending concludes things, and then follows with a musical montage and a freeze-frame which struck me as silly.

This is a classic two week shoot genre flick that is fun all the way around. For the genre, the directing by Hitzig is great, and the show is stolen by a small part done by Jovanni Brascia as a john. Everyone studying film, should watch this to see how the basics work, when you have no or little budget. It is done remarkably well and the cast is stellar. Based on what is in this film, Rupert Hitzig is a man we will hear a lot about.