The Night Flier was the only made-for-TV movie on show during the Vampire Weekend, and not only that, but the only one based on a Stephen King story! Starring the inimitable Miguel Ferrer (who I know and love for playing the lovable asshole Albert Rosenfield on Twin Peaks) as the scuzzy cutthroat tabloid reporter Richard Dees, this 1997 adaptation tells the story of a series of mysterious, and incredibly gory, murders at a series of local airports perpetrated by a serial killer wannabe vampire... who is also a pilot! The titular night flier, flying a plane registered to a one "Dwight Renfield" (yoooooo Dracula reference) (played by Michael H. Moss), is a genuinely very effective vampiric villain, albeit one we don't really get to see for most of the movie! This film does a really good job of implying more than it literally shows, with the vampire's shadow and the aftermath of his visits doing most of the lifting up until the end sequence. Dwight Renfield's murders become the subject of exploitative tabloid journalism, with the case first being assigned to an up-and-coming reporter named Katherine Blair (Julie Entwisle) when Dees refuses the assignment because he thinks it beneath him. Eventually, however, Dees takes it over after his interest is piqued, using his pilot license and personal plane to follow the killer's path, and leaving Blair in the dust... until she also gets back on the case and the two team up. This investigation really changes hands kinda a lot.
Left, Miguel Ferrer; above, Julie Entwisle
The dynamic between Dees and Blair works well enough, with Dees as the cynical asshole superior and Blair just wanting the opportunity to get her investigative reporting chops. Dees is totally amoral and selfish, staging sensationalist photos to exploit the murders and, toward the end of the movie (spoilers, if you're interested in watching! But, then, I did just describe most of the plot up above) trapping Blair in their hotel room so he can get all the glory of finally catching the night flier Dwight Renfield. The themes are pretty cut and dry: exploitative tabloid journalists (or any other sort of person who profits off of exposing the pain and suffering of others) is themselves like a vampire, sucking the blood of the weak. In the climactic scene, where Dees confronts Renfield in a larger airport after he's killed dozens of people there, the vampire more or less says this directly. In the end, Dees is even basically framed for Renfield's murders, something which Blair exploits with a piece of sensationalism herself, taking a photo of Dees' dead body for her own article about the reporter-turned-killer. It's a simple message, but it is a pretty welcome one, and the way they tell is effective!
Visually, The Night Flier ends up looking like an X-Files episode or something similar, which to be clear is not a bad thing! I honestly love the vibe of this kind of '90s television. It isn't quite cinematic, but where they use their movie-sized budget, it is used effectively. Dwight Renfield's plane, a pitch black aircraft with velvet curtains (how does he even see out of them??) and worm-riddled dirt in the cockpit, is such a fun image, perfectly combining goofy gothic tropes and real dread. In a lot of ways, the eyewitness statements throughout (which are reenacted in flashback scenes, almost like something out of Unsolved Mysteries) end up feeling like vampire-themed versions of UFO witness statements! During the climactic scene, there is one part shot in black and white with fog drifting everywhere, like something out of the Twilight Zone, a delightful change of style. And, finally, the vampire design is SICK!!! With one central fang, Dwight Renfield's monstrous form is one of the grossest vampires I've honestly ever seen (and he behaves gross too, urinating blood in one of the airport urinals (a simultaneously goofy and unnerving visual) and slicing his own wrist for a penultimate blood sucking scene). His design really shows that they used their budget well!! However, the film does suffer from some pacing issues, ending up making it feel rushed at times, which is probably my biggest complaint. Definitely not the best movie we watched at Vampire Weekend, and I know most of my friends thought it fell flat, but I liked it and I think it's worth seeing!
Doesn't he just look cool?
I give Mark Pavia's The Night Flier...
3 Bats out of 5!
Click the image for a really good video about The Night Flier!
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