BA_Harrison Given horror author Dean R. Koontz's incredible success, I'm baffled at just how few of his many novels have been adapted for the screen (especially considering the popularity of the horror/thriller genre as a whole). Servants of Twilight proves that, in the right hands, Koontz's work can be almost as compelling to watch as it is to read.Bruce Greenwood stars as Charlie Harrison, a tough private eye hired by single mother Christine Scavello (Belinda Bauer) to protect her son Joey (Jarrett Lennon) from a fanatical religious cult who believe the boy to be the AntiChrist. A game of cat and mouse ensues, with Charlie, Christine and Joey unable to trust anyone, danger lurking around every corner.Even though his budgetary limitations are obvious in the picture and sound quality, and the lack of any real stars, director Jeffery Obrow manages to wring quite a lot of tension out of Koontz's economical tale. The film might be a simple series of fight or flight encounters with the cultists, saddled with a predictable ending, but there is no shortage of excitement to be had along the way. A more appealing child actor (Lennon bears a striking resemblance to Dobby the house elf) and some gore (decapitated dog?) would have been welcome, but even as it stands Servants of Twilight is a more than serviceable chiller.

movieman_kev That summary alone isn't really saying much at all, especially for those unlucky bastards who forced themselves to sit through the particularly dreadful "Phantoms", "Hideaway", or ANY of the "Watchers" movies. That being said, this film about a devoutly religious cult headed by a pre-Twin Peaks Grace Zabriskie, who are hellbent (pun intended) on killing a six year old boy (young Andrew dice clay himself, Jerrot Lennon) whom they believe to be the current incarnation of the anti-Christ and willing to kill anyone who get in their way is passable entertainment if you can get past the overtly melodramatic beginning. Belinda Bauer as the mother of Joey is a big letdown, primarily because she's one-dimensional, well more so than the other cardboard cutout characters populating the movie, but also because she didn't follow up her terrific nudity in "Winter Kills" (only bring that up because one scene promises nudity, but then the director choose to pussy out). The ending is groan-inducing and silly. But there are still some unintentional laughs to be had here. Oh and I felt the need to call it the best THEATRICAL film only because I actually found the made for TV flick "Intensity" to be quite good and the best Koontz adaption put out thus far.My grade: C-

Coventry I must admit "Servants of Twilight" is a whole lot better than I originally expected! This faithful adaptation of Dean Koontz' religiously occult novel is fairly engaging, reasonably suspenseful and it benefices from good acting performances by underrated B-actors like Bruce Greenwood, Carel Struycken and Grace Zabriskie. My initial thoughts were rather skeptic, as the directors-duo Jeffrey Obrow and Stephen Carpenter were previously responsible for cheesy horror-turkeys like "The Dorm that Dripped Blood" and "The Kindred" and those flicks aren't exactly famous for their unbearable level of tension. "Servants of Twilight" is a world of difference, as the film closely follows Koontz's original story lines and clearly cuts back on the amount of graphic violence. Greenwood stars as a brilliant private detective who's hired by single mother Christine Scavello because some scary old woman threatens to kill her 6-year-old son Joey. The old lady is the leader of a fanatic religious cult, called the Church of Twilight, and she firmly believes little Joey is the illegitimate son of Satan and that he must be stopped before he gains enough powers to bring the world to an end. The religious freaks mean serious business and undertake several attempts to kill the child. Detective Charlie and his assistants flee towards Santa Barbara for safety, but the cult-members easily follow them everywhere they go. He does everything he can to protect Joey, but is he really as innocent as he looks? After all, what's the real story with his unknown father and why does little Joey draws such sinister pictures? Unquestionably the greatest aspect about the story is how Joey and his mother are continuously portrayed as helpless victims, but there's always some doubt whether or not he isn't really the Antichrist. At the same time Grace and her docile church members are depicted as malevolent & relentless child-murderers, but they're beliefs are so convincing and well stated. Especially the first half of the film is tense and exciting, with a handful of solid action scenes and intelligent dialogs. The entire second half, including the rather silly climax, is much weaker. The plot takes some severely implausible twists and quickly becomes very tedious. Still, "Servants of Twilight" is an overall entertaining little thriller, warmly recommended to both fans of Dean Koontz's writing talents and modest B-movies.

FieCrier A woman and her son are attacked by strange people, and they hire a private detective agency to protect them and learn why. Somehow, they can afford having the entire agency on their case, even having as many as three of them staying with them around the clock at times. The detectives aren't particularly good at anything except for being killed, which takes care of the problem of affording them all, I suppose.Every once in a while, the movie remembers that there was a poorly-defined framing device at the beginning that made everything that followed a reminiscence rather than a current event. So, very occasionally, the lead actor will say something in voice-over ("that's when I first talked to you"), which is silly and totally unnecessary.The acting in the movie is absolutely dreadful. Some of the actors are capable of acting; they've displayed some skill in other movies, but none of that is evident here. The little boy who is the center of the story is unappealing; as with many kids in 1970s Italian horror movies, to look at him is to want him to die. Thus, one's sympathies are with the cultists who want to kill him, even though they're scarcely appealing at all either.The video box says the movie is rated R. How that could be possible, I can't imagine. A number of people are killed, but the violence is hardly even the equal of a television cop show, and not that of a horror movie. There is no nudity. There is little, if any bad language.