hrkepler Item: supernatural murder mystery. Item: vicious and creepy villain. Item: cool and occasionally eerie soundtrack. Item: tension and scares. Item: sly and witty humor. Item: charismatic and relentless journalist.'The Night Strangler' is sequel to 'The Night Stalker' where, again reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin reprising his role without discount) is on the tails of mysterious killer who leaves behind victims drained from blood and with their neck crushed. This time the playground is Seattle. Kolchak relentlessly tries to convince authorities about his fact based theories while, again, he is left without help, as no one takes him seriously.Maybe not as dark as its predecessor, but equally enjoyable.

Spikeopath After the success the previous year of The Night Stalker, Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) returns for another feature film. The intrepid reporter with a quip on the lips and a disdain for the unbelievers in the suit wearing echelons, is now in Seattle and quickly realises that the current spate of killings are more than just the work of a serial killer. But can he convince the authorities of this?The formula is exactly the same here, Kolchak simultaneously locks horns with his editor and all the law enforcement people in his arc. He does a voice over for us, proves to be clearly better than the law officers in charge of the case, drops sarcasm as pearls of wisdom, and of course has charisma in abundance. The difference here is that the villain, elegantly played by Richard Anderson, has a voice, a sort of Count Dracula for the modern setting, a Eugene Tooms in embryonic form, he's a great villain and this in turn gives Kolchack more to get his teeth into. Of course the ending is never in doubt, but there's a whole bunch of fun and 70s style scares to enjoy during the ride. Joining the ever enjoyable McGavin are Jo Ann Pflug, Simon Oakland (again great foil for McGavin), Scott Brady, Wally Cox, Margaret Hamilton and John Carradine. A TV series would follow, such was the popularity of the character and its monster of the week formula, and it would influence none other than The X-Files some years down the line. Kolchack, legacy earned and warranted. 7.5/10

MartinHafer While I really didn't think there was enough of a formula for an entire series, producer/director Dan Curtis shopped around three different TV movies hoping to be able to eventually get the go ahead for a series. First, Darren McGavin starred in "The Night Stalker". Second, he returned with Kolchak and brought McGavin back for "The Night Strangler". Oddly, instead of giving a chance for the networks to accept or reject this series, Curtis also made "The Norliss Tapes" and it was shown on TV only a few weeks after the second Kolchak film--even though the basic story was pretty much the same. Regardless, ABC soon okayed the series "Kolchak: The Night Stalker". I loved it as a kid, but see why the show only lasted a season. After all, how many monsters could the reporter uncover until the idea got repetitious? My watching "The Night Strangler" was actually a wonderful coincidence. In a few weeks, I am traveling to Seattle and the film is set in Seattle. The reason this is so exciting is that a major part of the show is the mysterious abandoned underground city--which I assumed was fictitious. However, I did a bit of research and there really IS an underground city--and they do tours!! As I have a couple free days, you can guess what I'll be going to see. I'll try to update this review afterwords.In the first film, the reporter Carl Kolchak (McGavin) was working in Las Vegas when he discovered a vampire--yes, a vampire. Instead of being applauded for his efforts, he was fired from the paper. Now, he's in Seattle--and so is his incredibly grouchy old boss (played wonderfully by Simon Oakland). Against his better judgment, he hires Kolchak--who then begins investigating a weird string of murders. Thanks to some help from a researcher at the paper (Wally Cox), he soon learns that the same pattern occurs every 21 years since just after the Civil War--6 young women are murdered and the modus operandi is identical. Eventually, he comes to realize that it's the work of a fiend who has learned the secret to keeping himself alive for almost 150 years--by draining the blood from these women and using it to make some elixir! Despite an ending that is reminiscent to "Dr. No" (where there was a conveniently located self-destruct button for James Bond to push!), this is a very good film--better than the first one. The biggest reason is the spooky setting--particularly the underground. You really felt creeped out by this--which is great for such a film. Additionally, the sense of humor of the film is quite nice--with the repartee between Kolchak and his poor boss providing a lot of laughs--particularly just as the credits are about to roll. Fun and well worth seeing.

Scarecrow-88 Carl Kolchak(Darren McGavin) is a reporter-for-hire relocated to Seattle, getting a new job and his first story is to follow the leads in regards to a series of night stranglings(victims are go-go girls, belly dancers, you know, the "night entertainers"). As you'd expect, he turns up some extraordinary evidence of the supernatural..the killer, believe it or not, could be a dead man! Not jostling you, dead flesh was found around the throats of the dead! Digging deeper(as Wally Cox later points out.."Research..that's where the real meat is"), Kolchak discovers that the current stranglings are eerily similar to those in 1952..could they actually be related? Or, better yet, could the strangulations be committed by the same killer? Pioneer Square seems to be the killer's favorite hunting ground, and if young women find themselves walking in that area all alone..And, it doesn't stop there, there's a peculiar pattern..the women seem drained of blood, and, thanks to research, Kolchak discovers that the strangulations even go back further, to 1887! Thanks to an eyewitness, who can put a face to the killer, we get a chance to see what he looks like..let's just say, he's a little worse for wear. And, interesting enough, underground Seattle(or as Kolchak calls it "the tomb of old Seattle")could very well be where the killer lives and moves about.I love the Kolchak character if just because the dogged reporter annoys the hell out of everybody. He's passionate, determined, always prying and vocal about what he uncovers, irksome for the police who might wish to keep certain facts from the public, especially if the murders are of an unusual quality. He drives his poor editor bananas because most of the news stories he encounters wind up being "far fetched" and unprintable for the paper..how could their readers accept such tabloid type headlines? Such as the one scene where Kolchak informs him of the "elixir of life", a type of brewed cocktail whose ingredients include human blood among other things(such as meat, sweat, and hair), whose power derives from alchemy. Kolchak pops up, recorder and camera, in-your-face with rapid-fire questions, demanding answers from those in authority, flabbergasted that his employers won't print what he comes up(despite how ludicrous such details might sound, Kolchak always stands his ground and barks loudly at why they will not print the news as he delivers it). In this second television film, Jo Ann Plug is Louise, a belly dancer who agrees, against her better judgment, to help Kolchak find the killer. And, of course, Simon Oakland portrays long-suffering Tony Vincenzo, Kolchak's editor who must endure every possible hardship and embarrassment contending with his irritating reporter who expects him to jump through numerous hoops to print preposterous stories most of the reading public wouldn't take seriously. Scott Brady is Captain Schubert of the Seattle Police Department, who locks horns with Kolchak often. John Carradine(as the Seattle Chronicle's head honcho), Margarette Hamilton(as an eccentric professor with knowledge of the occult)and Al Lewis(as a bum who lives in Old Seattle)all guest star. The ending features a really cool set where the killer, an actual surgeon in the Union Army, lives in an old west city, in ruins(with lots of cob webs, rats, not to mention the skeletal remains of the killer's family)underneath the clinic named after him.