There’s times in your life when you want to OWN a movie and the only chance to do that is to buy the only release available, which is Vipco. I’ve done it with Slayer, the fun 80’s supernatural slasher - and now I’ve done it again: Nightkill. So what the hell is this you say? My answer is a shamefully forgotten thriller who deserves some recognition! Maybe we who love it, fans of 80’s and 90’s thrillers (not action, not horror - just a good old thriller), sees it with blind eyes, we close ‘em for the weaknesses and open them for the brilliance. Or maybe not. We’re just have such a fucking good taste in movies.
Jaclyn Smith is Katherine Atwell, the unhappy wife to the incredibly rude, racist, republican sexist Wendell Atwell (Mike Connors). He’s written so you never, never will like him. She really want a divorce, but he ignores her and they stay together anyway. Well, at least to the day his assistant Steve (James Franciscus) - and lover to Katherine - kills him with poison and then suggests to her that they will take the money Wendell have hidden at the airport, get themselves new identities and disappear forever. Katherine is NOT happy Steve killed her husband, but agrees to follow his suggestion. They will dispose of the body the next morning and they fly away to a new life… but something goes terribly wrong when snoopy nosey cop Donner (Robert Mitchum) suddenly shows up suspecting something is not right…
...and then I won’t tell you anything more. Yes, it’s one of those films, with twists and turns and surprises everywhere! Not that different than the Umberto Lenzi’s So Sweet... So Perverse, A Quiet Place to Kill and Oasis of Fear (and several similar Italian thrillers between ‘69 to ‘71. It’s not a horror film, which both the title and poster might lead you to believe (or maybe more slasher than horror), but that doesn’t change a thing: it’s still an excellent film of which I can’t tell you that much without spoiling it. I like that kind of movies. What I’ve heard Nightkill got an extremely limited cinema release and disappeared faster than fast, it was then sucked up as a TV-movie and then into the land of forgotten thriller shown at 1 AM in the morning.
I can agree it’s quite TV-esque, especially after being violated into a fullscreen version, but the presence of Jaclyn Smith and the few locations make it a perfect film for that medium. But remember that some of the best thrillers ever made was made for TV. At the time you couldn’t show anything violent, no harsh language or too controversial subjects at that stupid fucking machine we worship every evening when we come home. That made the filmmakers more creative, focusing harder on coming up with clever scripts. Nightkill is a perfect example of economical filmmaking, where the budget probably was invested in the cast and crew instead of making the movie look bigger and bolder. It’s violent and people die, but it’s never really graphic - even if that last scene actually feels quite painful and sports some fine make-up effects.
I, for one, couldn’t say how it would end, which is a fine rating if I might say it myself. There’s one single little scene I don’t like, at the very end, which I felt took away from the power of it, but Nightkill is still one pretty dark and - most of all - cynical thriller. Humans ARE shitty, we all know that and here it becomes even more visible. Anyway, I don’t want to write too much. Try to find it and watch it, especially you who dig these slick, mainstream-esque thrillers of the past.
"Maybe we who love it, fans of 80’s and 90’s thrillers (not action, not horror - just a good old thriller), sees it with blind eyes, we close ‘em for the weaknesses and open them for the brilliance."
Yeah, it can be fun to watch thrillers from 80´s,90´s.....I missed so much.
"it was then sucked up as a TV-movie and then into the land of forgotten thriller shown at 1 AM in the morning."
I´ve visited that land many times.
"But remember that some of the best thrillers ever made was made for TV. At the time you couldn’t show anything violent, no harsh language or too controversial subjects at that stupid fucking machine we worship every evening when we come home. That made the filmmakers more creative, focusing harder on coming up with clever scripts. Nightkill is a perfect example of economical filmmaking, where the budget probably was invested in the cast and crew instead of making the movie look bigger and bolder."
Yeah, a lot of great stuff was made for TV.
"Try to find it and watch it, especially you who dig these slick, mainstream-esque thrillers of the past."
I will, good review and thanks Fred, never seen this one.
Posted by: Megatron | November 12, 2014 at 23:08