It is an understatement to say Stephen King has been prolific, yet I suspect we will eventually see every single work of his development into a movie or TV show, maybe even more than once. I’m surprised there isn’t a film made of his Danse Macabre, and that is a non-fiction work of his musings on the horror genre.
Anywho, it was inevitable a movie would be made of his short story “The Night Flier”, and so one was made in 1997. The plot concerns a tabloid journalist in pursuit of a vampire who flies his all-black Cessna to various small airports, feeding on the people he finds there and then moving on. I guess it is too difficult for bloodsuckers to go very long distances, even in bat form, so it appears the ageless would adjust to the technologies of the times. Still, this is a deeply stupid premise, which makes it all the more surprising it actually succeeds.
Part of what sells it is Miguel Ferrer as the reporter for Inside View, a tabloid that appears to be more focused on weird, violent deaths more than on celebrities or aliens, likely securing it some territory not largely covered by the National Enquirer or Weekly World News. Not that they’re above that other material, as editor Dan Monahan cheerfully informs new hire Julie Entwisle.
The weary Ferrer reluctantly agrees to take the assignment to pursue the rogue pilot he dubs with the titular moniker. But the dogged Entwisle is determined to get that story and does her own independent investigation, despite Ferrer’s warning to her that the stories they cover can get into their heads. At least, that is what happened to the reporter she’s replacing, who was driven to commit suicide. The cynical Ferrer arrived at the scene of her death with camera ready, dispassionately snapping photos of the colleague’s corpse for an article in the same paper for which she worked.
Ferrer is so misanthropic here that one cannot help but recall his similarly-minded FBI agent from Twin Peaks. It’s almost as if that character retired from the agency, only to take on tabloid journalism as a new career. Similar to that show’s Agent Dale Cooper, Ferrer regularly delivers exposition into a pocket recorder, providing narration which gives this picture the slightest tinge of neo-noir. His jaded investigator of the supernatural also recalls 70’s TV show The Night Stalker, and I wondered if that was a deliberate influence. That our intrepid reporter is a pilot with his own small plane positions him to be well-suited to pursue the flying menace.
As for Entwisle, her performance has some false notes to it, as if the actress herself is too earnest in real-life for even this overly-earnest character. Unfortunately, her only other screen credit is a bit part in the same year’s In & Out, so it is impossible to fairly assess her acting ability. I would love to hear the story of how she came to marry this film’s director, Mark Pavia, so I’m holding out hope this may one day see a blu-ray issue with a commentary track.
This is a film which is more creepy than scary, though I am still astonished this daft concept works as well as it does. The revelation of the vampire occurs through something that scanned as silly in the original story but instead comes across from more unnerving here, as it involves an activity so mundane that I never bothered to wonder if the bloodsuckers were even capable of doing it.
It is a testament to the filmmakers to be able to sell me on the idea this plane could just land at one small rural airport after another when it seems one would have to run out of potential landing sites in just a few years. It is probably best not to scrutinize the plot too carefully, lest one start doing things like looking up the estimated number of such facilities in North America. I also wondered how the vampire might be faring after the significantly increased security following 9/11. I like to imagine somebody forcing him to put his boots in a tray before boarding the Cessna each time.
There are some interesting easter eggs and references scattered through the runtime. A quick scan of the tabloid’s front pages on a wall in the office reference various King properties. The only one I recognized immediately is one about a killer diet courtesy of a gypsy curse, which is the plot of Thinner. A non-King reference is the vampire being named Dwight Renfield, which one would think might make some airport operators suspicious.
The Night Flier is better than its reputation would suggest. Admittedly, it is handicapped with a daft plot, but it still manages to have some scenes of genuine menace. The film wasn’t even given a fair shake in its own time, having a limited theatrical run after it was dumped to HBO. That seems to foretell HBO’s current streaming incarnation MAX, where they keep unceremoniously dumping films in lieu of putting it in cinemas. Alas, nothing in this movie is as scary as that.
Dir: Mark Pavia
Starring Miguel Ferrer, Julie Entwisle, Dan Monahan
Watched on Warner Bros. DVD