So is the tongue-in-cheek of Darren McGavin in this Sensational 1970's TV Thriller that spawned a sequel and a brief TV series. I remember watching the series as a kid, and remember being disappointed that it only lasted a short time. However, in seeing the TV movies years later, I can understand why McGavin decided to call it a day when the TV series became simply too camp to be taken seriously. It was if "Dark Shadows" had taken over the streets of the modern big city, with every kind of creature of the night possible. Like "Dark Shadows", this focuses on a fearsome vampire, and like that classic daytime soap opera, even the same composer (Robert Cobert).A string of bloody murders are befuddling the Las Vegas police department, giving indication of something evil, possibly supernatural and maybe even undead. The killings themselves are truly gruesome, and once you see the culprit, you might wonder too if vampires still roam the earth. McGavin is delightfully subtle in the tongue in cheek way he delivers his dialog, surrounded by such familiar faces as Simon Oakland, Claude Akins and Carol Lynley. The Vegas officials don't want the rumors of possible vampirism spreading around and scaring the tourist trade away. But when a victim is unable to prevent her horrid death with the protection of a fierce doberman, the truth is going to get out. This never lets up, flying by in just 75 minutes. I can see why it was the most popular TV movie up to that time because it's simply no nonsense good fun that more than 40 years later still holds up.

Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) is a cynical and brusk Los Angeles newspaper reporter who comes to believe the activities of a serial killer are in fact - those of a modern day vampire!It spawned a sequel and a TV series, such was the impact of this better than average TV horror movie. It's a film of many delights, full of rich and quirky characters, who come to life as the screenplay enjoys toying with audience expectations. Nicely photographed as well, there's a lot of love gone into bringing this to the screen. The great Richard Matheson adapts from a Jeffrey Rice story, while a roll call of excellent character actors of the 40s and 50s give stoic support to the magnetic and witty McGavin.Not as scary these days as it would have been to impressionable viewers back in 72, it's none the less a horror antique to cherish. 7/10

"The Night Stalker" is perhaps not the greatest made-for-TV movie that the wonderful '70s decade brought forward – or at least not according to yours truly – but it's definitely one of the most popular, influential and legendary TV-movies in history! On the 11th of January 1972, when the movie first got aired, it immediately became the most watched TV-movie and even by today's standards, when the horror genre is all about digital computer effects and teenage starlets, "The Night Stalker" still has a huge cult following. You might even state that without "The Night Stalker" (and the subsequent TV-series entitled "Kolchak"), there never would have been other tremendously successful like for example "The X-Files". That's a lot of honor and credit, but it's true and definitely not exaggerated. The film also unites the finest and most prominent names of the contemporary horror/thriller industry. We have the immeasurably talented writer Richard Matheson ("I Am Legend" and other classics…) delivering a solid screenplay, based on a novel by Jeffrey Rice, genre specialist Dan Curtis ("Dark Shadows", "Trilogy of Terror") as a producer and the skillful John Llewellyn Moxey ("Where have all the People Gone?", "Horror Hotel") in the director's seat. But naturally the one and only true star of "The Night Stalker" is the lead character Carl Kolchak and the fantastic actor Darren McGavin who single-handedly turned him into simultaneously the most sympathetic and most irritating protagonist that ever appeared on the TV-screen. Carl Kolchak is an unorthodox but very persistent journalist in Las Vegas. When the dead bodies of several young women are found in the streets, without a single drop of blood left in them, Kolchak gets mixed up in the police investigation and quickly comes up with more clues and evidence than the regular coppers. They just want to keep the murders out of the papers, but all that Kolchak wants to do is spreading the word that a vampire is loose in Las Vegas. He obsessively wants to solve the murder series, so that his career gets a boost and he can return to New York, but his intense private research doesn't get much appreciation from the local police authorities or his editor Tony Vincenzo. The very best thing about Matheson's script is that "The Night Stalker" is as much a horror film as it is a detective story. The vampire elements aren't subordinate to Kolchak's investigations, or vice versa, and on top of that the film also contains a lot of subtle and effective black humor. The sequences with the fearsome vampire are atmospheric, and even though it's a TV-movie without any blood or cruelty, "The Night Stalker" is often far more unsettling and creepy than most other contemporary horror movies. There are two climaxes, in fact, and they are both very fascinating. Admittedly the pacing occasionally feels somewhat slow and the action sequences are undeniably tame, but this doesn't prevent "The Night Stalker" from being one of the genre highlights of the seventies. Darrin McGavin made Carl Kolchak immortal, but here he also receive stupendous support from a handful of great and shamefully underrated actors, like Claude Akins (as the loathsome Sheriff), Simon Oakland, Ralph Meeker, Charles McGraw and – last but not least - Barry Atwater as one of the spookiest vampires ever depicted.

"This nut thinks he's a vampire! He has killed four, maybe five women. He has drained every drop of blood from every one of them. Now that is news Vincenzo, news!"- Carl Kolchak, newspaper reporter, to his editor in THE NIGHT STALKER. Produced in just eighteen days by television horrormeister Dan Curtis (DARK SHADOWS) as shoestring-budget program fodder for a network TV movie-of-the-week show, THE NIGHT STALKER became a ratings champion due to its unexpectedly lively mixture of amusing cynicism in the face of unnerving circumstance. Richard Matheson's detailed yet economical teleplay grabs you immediately with a plot of rapidly growing terror. And when director John Llewellyn Moxey unleashes stunt coordinator Dick Ziker and his team of incredible stuntmen you may find your jaw dropping (watch for the melee at the hospital and the swimming pool sequence). The movie's success is also due in no small measure to Barry Atwater's hair-raising appearance as the bloodthirsty fiend, Janos Skorzeny. Atwater doesn't have a single word of dialogue but his image leaves a lasting, unsettling impression.But without question this is Darren McGavin's movie and his relaxed, reactive performance infuses many of the scenes with a sustained and welcome humor. As the chillingly staged murders multiply and the disbelief of the jaded civil servants and one hard luck, bandy-legged journalist begins to crumble, the viewer is borne away into the nightmarish reality of the tale with genuine, chilling fear rising out of the threadbare production. Once again, a whole lot less provides a whole lot more. The follow-up movie, THE NIGHT STRANGLER has its moments but never quite matches the creeping dread of STALKER.