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Has anyone seen the 1973 Kolchak TV movie? The Night Strangler?

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Guest ___ L@the_of_Heaven___
Posted
LOL, that kind of reminds me of myself as a young kid with a show called "Night Gallery". I wasn't so much scared by the content of the show, as I never had the guts to watch it, but just the idea of it, and what I had heard about it, somehow scared the crap out of me. I remember attempting to watch it with one of my friends one night during a party when the adults were down stairs, but I got so spooked that I took off and ran down stairs. As mentioned, at that age, Night Gallery was before my time, and I still don't think I have ever watched it, but I doubt that there was ever anything scary enough on the show to warrant the fear it stirred in me. I also remember at just about the same time, a friend of mine had a Halloween record that was supposed to be soooo scary. He let me listen to it, but it scared him so much that he only let me listen after he left the room. It wasn't too long before the sound effects had me running down the stairs frantically and swinging around the railing at the bottom of the stairs and landing in the living room. I remember my friends Mom looking at me in total bewilderment, like I was nuts. LOL, compare that to the kind of stuff kids must be seeing now a days, and it's laughable by comparison. In fact, I can remember being totally freaked out and haunted the first time I got a glimpse of the Elephant Man in the Anthony Hopkins film. It seems so ridiculous now looking back on it, but I was a pretty sheltered kid.

Yep, Night Gallery is pretty neat; I have the 13 of the 15 Columbia House VHS volumes and the newly released remastered Pilot film (which was AWESOME!!!! TALK ABOUT SCARY!!! :yes:) and the First Season. It got really campy at times, but some of the episodes were pretty good; the Pilot Film is one of the all time best Trilogy of stories done (a little know Steven Spielberg directed the episode with Joan Crawford, and the first one with Roddy McDowell and the last one about the Nazi war criminal wanting to hide in the painting of the fisherman were absolutely CHILLING!!!)

I have the complete Outer Limits (50 episodes) and original Twilight Zone (150 episodes) which were both good series (I think TZ was comented on nicely by Mr. Psycho in another thread recently)

Coincidentally my Dad and I were talking about the original Alfred Hitchcock series today, he had just seen one where a man running away from the Mob caught a ride with a Prince or something who was on his way to get an inheritance, so he killed him and took his place... My Dad really liked the twists in that one. I told him about one I had seen when I was about 10 that is still VERY vivid in my memory about a man who was gonna kill a woman for some strong reason and she was like totally apathetic and didn't care. So, he didn't kill her and fell in love with her and eventually married her; on their wedding night she was saying how she ws SO happy and everything. I'll never forget the look of hatred and violence on his face right after she said that and he says, "NOW, I'm gonna kill you when you are so happy and you feel you have everything to live for..." And of course she starts screaming and such... Scared the living daylights outta me.

Guest MillenniumIsBliss
Posted
Hey Archer! YES, I have "The Night Strangler" but it's been a LONG time since I have seen it. Isn't it the one that takes place in the subterranian city below the actual city? Personally (IF I remember correctly) "The Night Stalker" was more of a straight forward Vampire film, and thus more classic in nature; but I remember "The Night Strangler" being pretty darn creepy in those below ground places and I found the story line and execution a bit more imaginative, but more progressive in nature and less classic like the first film. That's my wretched little take on it... :yes:

L@the, you have come a long way sense you have been here, and acknowledging your wretchedness is yet another step in the right direction. You simply seemed to be in denial previously. :oneeyedwinK LOL, on a serious note, I have not seen any of this stuff. I have seen Kolchak: The Night Stalker on shelves at stores lately, but I can't help but wonder if it will seem dated after all this time, and now that we have seen X-files and its high tech and realistic special effects. As I mentioned a few months back, I saw Millennium S1 on DVD at Sams Club for $17, so maybe Kolchak can be found at a similar bargain basement price before long and I can check it out.

Posted
Hey Archer! YES, I have "The Night Strangler" but it's been a LONG time since I have seen it. Isn't it the one that takes place in the subterranian city below the actual city? Personally (IF I remember correctly) "The Night Stalker" was more of a straight forward Vampire film, and thus more classic in nature; but I remember "The Night Strangler" being pretty darn creepy in those below ground places and I found the story line and execution a bit more imaginative, but more progressive in nature and less classic like the first film. That's my wretched little take on it... :yes:

Finally someone admits it!!! L@the_of_Heaven___you hit it right on the nail. I could not sleep for days after seeing the city underneath the city. I had nightmares for a long time after seeing that show.

My kid says I'm a wussy!

What a blast to see this all over again and still get the creeps walking my dog at night! I guess I'm a wusssy! :smokin:

Posted
Finally someone admits it!!! L@the_of_Heaven___you hit it right on the nail. I could not sleep for days after seeing the city underneath the city. I had nightmares for a long time after seeing that show.

My kid says I'm a wussy!

What a blast to see this all over again and still get the creeps walking my dog at night! I guess I'm a wusssy! :smokin:

LOH....yes i as well have the Outer LImits collection...as well as the Night Gallery and the hard to find "One Step Beyond" collections as well...I agree with you on your assessment of the episodes of NG...that pilot epi with the painting is riveting...the epi of the painting in the library is also a wonderful one as well...then you had the silly ones,,,the Cthulu one where the teacher turned into a seakelp monster before his class...

OSB is a bit different, predating Twilight Zone a bit, but adhering to a similar story line...some of them are downright creep...all based on ACTUAL, FACTUAL cases, so that makes them even more eerie....

The Twlight Zone Marathon was on over the 4th of July weekend, so i did a bit of recording and wound up with some of the better ones that i can remember....the Agnes Moorehead episode where she never talks but has to fight the little invaders who turn out to be American astronauts, the one about the old man who caught the devil and kept him behind a door barred with the staff of truth, then some numbskull comes along and lets him out....oh, and another one of my favorites with Burgess Meredith as a bank employee and avid reader who goes into the bank vault to read and lives thru a nuclear blast, only to break his only pair of reading glasses on the library steps...

Those episodes and the many more i was able to record has made it necessary for me to plan on buying the TZ collection at some time in the future.....but only after i watch the Alien Quadrilogy collection i have had around the house for two years and have yet to watch all but the first directors cut...

4th Horseman...

Guest ___ L@the_of_Heaven___
Posted
LOH....yes i as well have the Outer LImits collection...as well as the Night Gallery and the hard to find "One Step Beyond" collections as well...I agree with you on your assessment of the episodes of NG...that pilot epi with the painting is riveting...the epi of the painting in the library is also a wonderful one as well...then you had the silly ones,,,the Cthulu one where the teacher turned into a seakelp monster before his class...

OSB is a bit different, predating Twilight Zone a bit, but adhering to a similar story line...some of them are downright creep...all based on ACTUAL, FACTUAL cases, so that makes them even more eerie....

The Twlight Zone Marathon was on over the 4th of July weekend, so i did a bit of recording and wound up with some of the better ones that i can remember....the Agnes Moorehead episode where she never talks but has to fight the little invaders who turn out to be American astronauts, the one about the old man who caught the devil and kept him behind a door barred with the staff of truth, then some numbskull comes along and lets him out....oh, and another one of my favorites with Burgess Meredith as a bank employee and avid reader who goes into the bank vault to read and lives thru a nuclear blast, only to break his only pair of reading glasses on the library steps...

Those episodes and the many more i was able to record has made it necessary for me to plan on buying the TZ collection at some time in the future.....but only after i watch the Alien Quadrilogy collection i have had around the house for two years and have yet to watch all but the first directors cut...

4th Horseman...

Thank you kindly 4H! You thoughts on my comments are like enjoying a rare wine when one has the opportunity to do so...

The episode with Burgess Mereith (as I had commented earlier) "Time Enough at Last" knocked the ever lovin' beJesus outta me when I first saw it at about 10 years of age. I have NEVER forgotten it! :nope: Only Rod Serling could create that exact brand of ironic horror...

Guest ___ L@the_of_Heaven___
Posted
Finally someone admits it!!! L@the_of_Heaven___you hit it right on the nail. I could not sleep for days after seeing the city underneath the city. I had nightmares for a long time after seeing that show.

My kid says I'm a wussy!

What a blast to see this all over again and still get the creeps walking my dog at night! I guess I'm a wusssy! :smokin:

Thanks Archer! I have always strongly favoured MOOD & ATMOSPHERE over everything else; to me, all this kind of stuff, MillenniuM included all boils down to ART. And, that's the way I like my art. Just sorta like 'Blade', the first film, although containing some really sharp sequences, it pretty much left me cold because it was trying to be so 'hip' and modern. However, I LOVED 'Blade II' because it was a TOTAL different animal; they discarded all the 'glossy' crap and created a complete GOTHIC and DARK mood which was FAR more interesting to me. Coincidentally, most of that film takes place undergroud too :wink:

  • 4 years later...
Posted

I only remember seeing "The Sentry" on television.....but I was 5 then! I have them all on disc now and find them enjoyable.

I actually lean a bit towards the Night Strangler as my favorite of the two. I liked the use of the Seattle underground city. I can see where some ideas for "squeeze/Tooms" came from too! Darren did a good job of putting in a comedic flavoring. My biggest negative for the show would be the wooden and stereotypical nature of the police, although some of that is necessary to make the show work.

For their time, both TV movies were good. I found the the show tended to show a bit bit more visuals than maybe they needed to, which I found a little peculiar given the TV standards and practices 35 years ago. It seems to me that the X-FIles showed less visuals in an era when they could have used more, and it was a great show as a result. Maybe they thought that if they didn't show enough that people would change the channel....but then again, that was an era of no cable, no video tape or DVDs, and only about 7 or 8 TV channels max, depending on how big a metropolitan area you lived in. They didn't know how good they could have had it!

:rock2:

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