For Richard
Dees facts are always stranger than fiction. Every headline is a dead-line.
Serial killers, UFO abductions, tales of molestation, mayhem and murder.
To some the tales are unbelievable -- but his faithful readers believe.
And now there's a new story. The Night Flier. What is it that flies by
night in a dark-winged Cessna, lands at secluded airports and brutally
murders local residents? Dees begins to follow the unknown killer in a
Cessna of his own, uncovering clues that reveal a pilot more terrifying
than he could ever have imagined.
"Never believe what you publish, and never publish what you believe."
- Richard Dees |
I'm not really a
great fan of vampire movies, in fact there are very few that I could actually
name that I like, nonetheless I bought The Night Flier because the
DVD cover looked rather interesting but I still didn't expect much from
this movie.
Richard Dees
is a journalist for a sleazy and morbid weekly publication named ‘Inside
View' and is assigned to cover the story of a mysterious pilot who flies
into rural airports and kills whoever is there, draining the victim of
all their blood. At first Richard doesn't want the story but after seeing
how big a story it could be and also wanting to put ambitious young journalist
Katherine firmly in her place he accepts the assignment and goes in search
of information on the killer he later nicknames The Night Flier.
I was very surprised
by the quality of this movie. Currently I am moderately wary of vampire
movies so my hopes were not particularly high. The first ten minutes or
so of The Night Flier are fairly slow moving and rather tedious
but that soon changes as The Night Flier becomes a quite adept thriller.
It's not a typical vampire movie and that is probably why I enjoyed it.
Instead, The Night Flier is more of a crime drama as the movie is
directed towards uncovering the killer rather than stopping the killer.
This makes it an interesting thriller in a way and despite some noticeably
gory scenes stays away from the obvious idea of concentrating solely on
the killer's activities. Tension is built up exceptionally by not concentrating
too much on The Night Flier. The way the movie plays out gives it
a strong purpose as it leads to a blistering finale. What we are left with
is a story about a man on the edge who will do anything to get his story.
The character of Richard is a bitter man, possibly socially maladjusted
and one has to question whether he is in some way disturbed by all that
he has witnessed in his life? He shows mental strength in his pursuit of
success and seemingly fears nothing, showing no compassion or sympathy
for the feelings of others yet there are still moments when he comes across
as a much `softer' human being. Miguel Ferrer does an excellent job of
portraying Richard and his performance in the last ten minutes of the movie
is almost profound. The ending is brutal, in some ways shocking and definitely
not what I expected. By the end it becomes obvious that there were two
levels of horror working in this movie that came together well to leave
us with The Night Flier.
There were flaws
with the movie though, a couple of plot holes and many unanswered questions,
though perhaps that the intent was to leave an air of mystery over the
movie. Apart from Ferrer I don't think the movie was well cast as most
of the other actors didn't really seem to fit the tone of the film. Furthermore,
despite many great make-up effects there were also a few (one in particular)
that looked awful and seemed to be totally out of place with the rest of
the film. The movie was also a little slow in places and does not really
get very good until about a third of the way through. These few faults
though aren't really enough to harm the enjoyment and whilst this may not
be to everyone's liking I personally believe it to be a well made and appealing
movie.
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- In the scene where Katherine is looking at all of Richard's bylines,
the framed copies of "Inside View" contain many references to other stories
by Steven King: Springhill Jack Strikes Again! - "Strawberry Spring"
- Headless Lamaze Leads To Succesful Birth! - "The Breathing Method"
- Kiddie Cultists in Kansas Worship Creepy Voodoo God! - "Children
of the Corn"
- Satanic Shopkeeper Sells Gory Goodies! - "Needful
Things" - Naked Demons Levelled My Lawn! - The Lawnmower Man The
Ultimate Killer Diet! Gypsy Curse Flays Fat Lawyer's Flesh - "Thinner."
- Grossed $125,397 in the USA.
- Richard Dees, the main character, was also the reporter who tried to get
an interview with John Smith in the Stephen King novel The Dead Zone.
- Released February 6, 1998.
- Many of the murder photos in the press office are real, including
the one of the horribly mutilated prostitute. They were taken from the
photo album of a homicide detective who worked in LA from the 1930s to
the 1950s, which would later be published under the title "Death Scenes".
- Aaron Michael Lacey screen-tested for the role of the vampiric Cessna
pilot.
     
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