Night Stalker - The Complete Series

 

 

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Remaking a classic movie is hard enough. Remaking a TV series is far worse. So it was with groans of dismay that viewers greeted "Night Stalker," a remake of the classic horror/humor/scifi series.

Fortunately, the resulting series is not actually that bad. But unfortunately it's not that good either -- it has little in common with the original series, but it never establishes a style or identity for itself either. As a result, it comes across as "Mulder and Scully working at the Beacon."

A pregnant housewife is kidnapped and found horribly mutilated in the desert. Perri Reed (Gabrielle Union) is assigned to the task, but soon finds herself working with Carl Kolchak (Stuart Townsend), a strange reporter whose wife died in a manner identical to the murdered housewife. Only when Perri starts to believe in Kolchak are they able to find who did it.

In the weeks that follow, Kolchak and Perri encounter many bizarre crimes -- a killer who can manipulate people's minds, a college hazing becomes ensnared in a ghost's terror, a dead bioterrorist seems to be killing again, demonic possession, and apocalyptic bikers.

Additionally, there are four episodes that had been filmed when ABC yanked the plug on this one. The first wraps up the storyline of a two-parter, and then it's back to the weird and wild: mummified office workers, Kolchak is kidnapped, and an episode based on the "Night Strangler" TV movie.

Don't expect any resemblance to "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" here. Kolchak is no longer an eccentric lone wolf, but a pouty crime expert with a comely sidekick, who is very conventional and skeptical. No humor. No mythic creatures. And apparently a love of truth is not enough to motivate Kolchak -- the creators gave him a rather hackneyed "revenge" motive.

Yeah, it sounds like the "X-Files." Even the FBI persecuting Kolchak seems too X-Filesian, not to mention the presence of The Pretty Skeptic Lady, and the Kindly And Tolerant Superior Who Puts Up With Weird Reports. It was made by the same people who made "X-Files," but couldn't they have varied the formula a little?

Taken on its own, "Night Stalker" is a fairly entertaining series -- there are some wonderfully spooky moments, such as the scene in the werewolf cave. Dialogue is pretty average. And though the shakycam style is a little annoying, the camerawork is quite nice -- eerie lighting and pulsing streets make the city look surreal, nightmarish and almost alive.

Townsend and Union are both pretty good in their roles. Not great, but good. Townsend is at his best in "interview" scenes, where he gets up close and personal with everything from a crazed murderer to a frightened little girl. He's a bit wooden in the more emotional scenes, while Union is steady but never gets a chance to show any more depth.

"The Night Stalker" is a fairly enjoyable series -- though it never comes close to the original -- but it suffers from the "X-Files" formula. Otherwise, it's a fairly amusing way to get your scares.

While close, this latest incarnation of Night Stalker is a worthy successor and its very good though its kinda very X-Fileslike which I think killed the show.

Thought I was getting the origional series with Darin McGavin so I was dissapointed. Not even close to the origional series .

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3.0 out of 5 stars nightstalker complete
the complete nightstalker series had 20 episodes and 2 movies. this dvd does not have all the episodes, isnt this misleading? help me please, im confused.

Published on Dec 18 2009 by A. ellul

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