Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey
Written by Richard Matheson; story by Jeff Rice
1972/US
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube
One of 1000 great horror movies on They Shoot Zombies Don’t They.com
Carl Kolchak: Don’t look now, baby, but Kolchak’s coming back in style.
I’ve come to expect anything associated with writer Richard Matheson to be at least decent. This 1972 ABC Movie of the Week is no exception.
Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) is a perpetually cranky and abrasive newspaper reporter who has been fired from many previous jobs. His beat is now Las Vegas. He is assigned by his equally cranky editor (Simon Oakland) to cover a series of murders of young women whose bodies are all found drained of blood. Kolchak has an open enough mind to see one obvious possible solution to the mystery. With a sterling supporting cast including Ralph Meeker, Claude Akins, Charles McGraw, Kent Smith and Elisha Cook Jr. Carol Lynley plays Kolchak’s girlfriend.
I had fun watching this. It’s always nice to see Vegas in the old days and what a cast of character actors! Darren McGavin was perfect for his part. There are at least a couple of effective jump scares but the horror is pretty tame.
Music with photo montage from film
It is quite tame, and could have used another 20 minutes to build up some more tension. It spawned a sequel (The Night Strangler) as well as a one-season television show that was in many ways the precursor to The X-Files.
It really need a couple of additional scenes, and at least one additional really good confrontation between Kolchak and the vampire before the conclusion.
I do like how dark the ending is, though.
Yes, I thought it was entertaining but it could have been much more. I like the dark ending too.