Review of The Night Strangler

As you can probably derive from the title, the movie poster and the brief plot synopsis, "The Night Strangler" is almost identical to its predecessor "The Night Stalker". Is that bothersome? Perhaps a little… But can you blame writer Richard Matheson and producer/director Dan Curtis for copying themselves? No, of course not, because the original was such an unexpected but prompt and tremendous success that a sequel had to come and it had to come fast! And besides, the plot and atmosphere of the first film were so terrific that watching a rehash of the same story isn't irritating at all. Quite the contrary, "The Night Strangler" is once again a very entertaining and reasonably fast-paced combo between horror and detective, with cool humor and delightful characters. One year after he was unjustly chased out of Las Vegas, sewer journalist Carl Kolchak is wandering around in Seattle. He bumps into his old editor Vincenzo in a sleazy bar and – out of pity – gets offered a job. His first assignment is to report the bizarre murder of a showgirl, but the obsessive Kolchak quickly discovers that several Seattle unsolved murders are related and that the same type of crimes plagues the city of Seattle every 21 years. Once again Kolchak digs up classified police information, once again he doesn't stick to reporting the facts and one again every authority figure in town aims to shut him up! The best (and only innovative) thing about Matheson's script here is the wonderful usage of its filming locations. The culprit – an alchemist that keeps himself alive through murdering young women – has his hideout underneath the ground, in the old Seattle that was destroyed by a tremendous fire. A few years ago, I visited Seattle as a tourist and also took the underground tour, so I can confirm that it forms a unique and authentically creepy filming location for a monster like this! If you're still not convinced yet, the sequel features the awesome John Carradine as a furious and loud-shouting newspaper owner! The end sequences pave the road for a third movie entry that never got made, although apparently Matheson had the script ready, and instead the legendary TV-series were unleashed.