THE NIGHT FLIER

The Night Flier Movie Review

Veteran tabloid reporter Dees (Miguel Ferrer, Robocop, Tales From The Crypt) and rookie reporter Blair (Julie Entwisle) compete to see who can best capture the story of "The Night Flier", a vampire-like killer travelling via airplane. This is a 1997 film adaptation of a Stephen King story and, as is the case with many such films, is a case of something loaded with potential but ultimately languishes in mediocrity, combining the magnificent with the terribly awful to get there. Lets start with the cast--you know what to expect from Ferrer, as he plays virtually every character he is given in the same exact way, and my goodness does he ever have a talent for annoying me. On the other hand, Entwisle delivers a memorable debut performance, one that would certainly lead to many great roles, ultimately resulting in her becoming a shining star in Hollywood--only that never happened. To date she has only appeared in one other film, the star-studded 1997 comedy In & Out, where she played the role of..."Student".

Pondering her career choices?

We also get a fantastic performance from legendary actor (and fellow Ohio University alum) Dan Monahan, best known for playing this guy...

  

See anything interesting?

I personally was amazed that in the fifteen years between when Porky's came out and when the The Night Flier (eventually) hit theaters, the guy barely aged.

His vision got worse...

Beyond the performances, we have death scenes here and there, primarily taking place off camera. We get plenty of blood and guts (and a severed head here and there) to keep our attention, which this film easily loses with it's plodding story, horrendous dialogue, and uninteresting "hero". Once you make it through the first 75 minutes of the film though, you are treated to a very good (and violent, and bloody, and partially black and white) ending that not even a vampire peeing blood or the "acting" of Miguel Ferrer can ruin--the final fifteen minutes save this film from being a complete waste of time.

  

On A....wait, what? Oh, you want to see what The Night Flier looks like? Okay...

One extra point for this

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 5

The Night Flier Movie Trailer