The director John Llewellyn Moxey had a knack for quirky horror fare (shepherding Christopher Lee through 1960’s moody witchcraft shocker The City of the Dead and the Edgar Wallace-inspired Circus of Fear) and he’s aided considerably by Bob Cobert’s red-blooded score, an unpredictable mix of brass, synth-funk and electronic whirs which just about defines the soundtracks of the 70’s. The vampire Janos Skorzeny (a perpetually snarling performance from Barry Atwater) typically preys on strippers and prostitutes and Kolchak’s erstwhile girlfriend (a laconic Carol Lynley) appears to be one or both – odds are she may be Skorzeny’s next victim.Ĭhivalry demands that the irascible newshound speed up his investigation and his lamp-lit showdown with Skorzeny (holed up in an improbably gothic Nevada mansion) packs an unexpectedly grisly punch (the bloodsucker keeps one victim attached to a transfusion bag for quick refills). The first of those movies was The Night Stalker, a nocturnal thriller animated by the lurid neon of the Vegas strip where a string of showgirl murders has stymied the police – Kolchak remains oblivious until he learns the victims have all been carefully drained of their blood.īased on an unpublished manuscript by Jeff Rice, producer Dan Curtis corralled Richard Matheson to write a screenplay so simple that it feels padded even in its thrifty 74 minute time slot yet Matheson, a wizard of pulp plot lines, manages to contrive thrills more sensational than typical television fare and remain unscathed by the censors. The man and the monster had one thing in common – by the 70’s they were both anachronisms, adrift in an era of hot pants and roller disco.Ĭarl Kolchak, the overbearing reporter played by crusty TV vet Darren McGavin, was not simply immune to current fashions – his steadfast belief in the supernatural ensured his outsider status throughout two films and 20 hour-long episodes broadcast between 19. In January of 1972 ABC broadcast the story of a middle-aged newsman hot on the trail of a vampire seemingly escaped from a 50’s horror comic. Hauserĭirected by John Llewellyn Moxey, Dan Curtis Street Date October 2, 2018Ĭinematography by Michel Hugo, Robert B.
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