Night Shadow (1989)

Don't Believe the Hype

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Alex Jung(Brenda Vance)is a promising and attractive young TV journalist on her move up. But Alex needs a break; a short vacation back to her hometown. She isn't in town 24 hours before her boss wants her to cover the grisly story of multiple mutilation murders there in her usually quiet little community. The townspeople are plunged into panic when news leaks that the murders may be the work of a savage beast instead of a mortal man. Alex and her karate-stud brother Tai(Dane Chan)team with the town sheriff(Tom Boylan),under pressure, to find the bloodthirsty murderer. Definitely low-budget; but no major scenes of the killer or his deeds. Also in the cast: Rick Scott, Jeanette Lewis, Orien Richman, Alta LaFlame, Aldo Ray and Kato Kaelin(yes...that Kato Kaelin).

Night Shadow starts in Los Angeles were hot shot TV news-reporter Alexander Jung (Brenda Vance) finishes for the day & begins her vacation, she intends to drive to a small town called Danford where she grew up & still has family & friends there. While driving there Alex notices a strange shabby looking man on the side of the road just outside the town, once there proper Alex meets up with her brother Tia (Stuart Quan) & old acquaintance's including the local Sheriff named Adam (Tom Boylan) who suddenly becomes a very busy man as a series of gruesome murders take place. The county coroner quickly realises that the horrible mutilation suffered by the victims is the work of a large fanged animal of some description, Alex covers the story for her news station while the Sheriff has to track down a vicious killer...Directed by Randolph Cohlan I thought Night Shadow was not particularly great in any capacity. The script starts off reasonably well, the basic story & premise is quickly set up in a decent enough fashion but then it goes absolutely nowhere until a predictable & throughly standard 'the Sheriff & reporter saves the day' type climax. Night Shadow is supposedly a Werewolf film, however the word Werewolf is never mentioned & it's involvement in the plot is negligible. For all it matters it could have been just about any other sort of cinematic creature/alien/monster/zombie. There is no attempt to utilise any of the traditional Werewolf ideas & themes found in films, the full moon has nothing to do with it's transformations & is never mentioned, there are no silver bullets & there is absolutely no background to the Werewolf or it's human alter-ego whatsoever, he isn't given a single word of dialogue throughout the entire film. How did he become a Werewolf? Whats his plan? Why, in the first half of the film, does he seem to follow Alex around & intimidate her yet by the end of the film he stops & this plot angle comes to nothing? When Tia tries to unblock a sink blood seems to pump from the plug hole, why? It's never explained, also didn't Tia think blood pouring from a sink was a little bit odd? I mean there had been at least a couple of murders in the area so didn't he think it might be relevant to tell the police? There is one scene where a newspaper headline is clearly visible which talks about animal attacks but is never expanded upon, why? What's the point of laying this narrative down & then doing absolutely nothing with it? It just wastes everyones time including mine because I have to sit through it for no good reason! Add to that the middle of Night Shadow is extremely slow & it all makes for a less than impressive 90 odd minutes.Director Cohlan makes a competent but unspectacular film, there's no real style or visual flair to it. Think cheap made-for-TV film & your there. There's little in the way of scares or horror, things just abruptly happen with no build up at all which means there's no atmosphere or tension. There are a couple of OK action scenes but their OK in a low budget sort of way. There's not much in the way of gore either, there's a trunk full of body parts, there's a bit where someone eats the flesh from a maggot covered severed hand & an almost cool scene where someone has a long pipe stuck through their back & it emerges through their stomach in a decent special effect. The Werewolf effects towards the end of the film are less than impressive, the thing looks like it's wrapped in a shaggy carpet rather than have a coat of fur.Technically the film is fine but utterly forgettable, totally flat & really bland, I think I'd have completely forgotten it by the end of the week. The acting is OK but I doubt many of the actors here got much work because of their performance's in Night Shadow.Night Shadow is an average 80's horror film, to be fair to it it isn't the worst film I've ever seen but it just feels so generic, flat, unoriginal, patched together without much thought & lacking ambition. I can't really say I'd be ale to recommend it to anyone, overall I'd say this is probably one best avoided.

I had the opportunity to work in this film that was originally titled "Lycanthrope" which means werewolf in Greek. I was the Stunt Coordinator, stunt double, stunt driver and played a biker. We had a couple of good fight scenes, chases, high fall, a crash and car explosion. The acting was surprisingly good without any big names or budget. It was fun to work on. Kato Kaelin was natural in his acting and should have been made known from this instead of the OJ trial. Cohlan and Temple also made a film with Bruce Cooke before this in 1987 called "Line Of Fire", which I also worked on. I don't know if the film is available. Thanks guys for a great start in the beginning of my career. Keep it up!

The entertainment value on this priceless and timeless movie is beyond words! The actors and actresses do a great job portraying the fear that gets lodged into the people's hearts and minds is fantastic!That actress that plays Beth could go on to do some superb work, if only someone gave her a chance. She has the look of stardom, and could easily pull off any hard rolls thrown her way. Just because this movie didn't get any awards, doesn't mean that it isn't a great film. The music, the acting, and that werewolf!!! are amazing! Hats off to everyone involved in this movie. I hope all of them go on to great careers in the movie business. Good luck to everyone who worked on this movie, you made a movie that is scary, fun, and exciting for everyone to enjoy. The night we rented this movie was something our family will remember forever, we had so much fun, and for days we repeated scenes to relive the great time we had while watching this movie together. I will always remember this amazing movie and the great time my family had with it! Thanks so much Night Shadow!!