Ahhhh, serial killers! Now there’s a subject I never tire of. Whether it be serial killers in films, novels or true crime retellings- I just can’t get enough. Perhaps it’s something in the meticulous nature of some of the greats that draws me in or perhaps it’s a fascination with the inner workings of the sociopath and their ability to both blend with AND hunt in society. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not condoning the act of hunting humans...at least on most days. Though I do have to admit Hannibal Lector (while fiction) makes some great points about eating the rude. The truth is I don’t seem to be alone in my fascination. On any given day I can fire up the old boob tube and catch a series special on one serial killer or another. Needless to say, when our Head Vampire sent me Empire Pictures release of The Night Stalker, I was eager to put years of accumulated serial killer knowledge to work. In this case, however, my fascination with the topic turned The Night Stalker into a huge disappointment.

There are quite a few problems with this movie when it comes to billing it as a film “inspired” by the Richard Ramirez California murder spree. It has always seemed to me that whenever writers and producers decide to use the term “inspired by” it’s usually so far from the nature of the original tale that it’s a little obscene. It is a selling ploy that I never really appreciated. It falls into the same category as a cheese food product. Nowhere in your average cheese food product are you likely to find an ingredient that even closely resembles real cheese but marketing reps find that it’s a wonderful selling ploy. The Night Stalker is no different, I’m sad to say. There’s a guy and he is killing women in California but that’s where the similarities end when it comes to the facts in the Robert Ramirez case. This movie is also quoted to be in the tradition of Seven and Silence Of The Lambs and that quote couldn’t be farther from the truth either. It’s obvious to me that if a person involved with this film says he saw these three movies, he’s either a liar or a bit of an idiot. This movie is your typical 'Buddy Cop' movie that found quite a bit of popularity in the 80’s. The central focus is not a serial killer but our dysfunctional hero, his angst, vices and weak points in his character. It’s as formulaic as you can get and might as well be several other movies that came out at the same time period. Just like all the rest, his partner dies (and our detective feels guilty), the woman he loves is in danger as is the girl he helped raise and all these things lead the detective to embrace his inner hero and save the day. It’s fodder, predictable and there isn’t a hint of originality in it.

That’s only the first problem I had with this movie though. When I first did a quick scan of the synopsis on the back of the box, I thought I was about to see a movie about the Green River Killer Gary Leon Ridgeway. Ridgeway went on a two-year murder spree killing at least 48 prostitutes in the Seattle Washington area. The reason I thought this is actually quite clear, especially if you know your serial killers. The back of the box describes a diabolical fiend stalking prostitutes in the night. This is exactly what Ridgeway did and because his chosen victims were prostitutes, no one had any idea that these women were disappearing until their bodies started to turn up along the river. His victims were killed by strangulation. Towards the end of the investigation, law enforcement enlisted the help of convicted serial killer Ted Bundy to help sort out some of the clues and build a profile on the killer they were trying to catch. I thought it could make a great movie myself. When I saw the ever misleading “inspired by” quote on the front of the box, I though that maybe someone didn’t do their research properly and confused their serial killers. Richard Leyva Ramirez would also make a fascinating movie. He killed his first victim at age 24 and he was suspected of dabbling in satanic practices as the investigators found victims wearing satanic pentagrams drawn in their own blood. Ramirez was a particularly violent killer and also had the tendency to rape his victims while they were living and on occasion post mortem. The media labeled Ramirez 'The Valley Intruder' as he broke into and stole from many of his victim’s homes.

The killer in our movie doesn’t really match Ramirez’s profile at all. In The Night Stalker, the killer would hire prostitutes, break their necks, and then paint their faces to complete an ancient Oriental spell that would allow the killer to live forever. Now, I understand that it was probably important at the time to tone down the nature of Ramirez’s crimes in order to release this movie and I also understand the need to make characters that the general public can relate to. They would have found no problem in the sympathy department where Ramirez’s victims are concerned. He attacked both men and women without regard to age or nationality and on occasion the victims had families and children who were also subject to attack as well. In this case we’re supposed to be relating to a fall down drunk of a cop and a whole batch of hookers with hearts of gold. Excuse me if my little black heart doesn’t weep. The simple fact is that this movie has absolutely nothing in common with Richard Ramirez. It’s even an extremely poor stab at a 'Buddy Cop' movie. My guess is that it came out at a time when the world was pretty sick of this type of film so they tried (and failed miserably) to bill it as something else to get folks in the door.

On the technical side of things, the movie looked like you would expect an 80’s movie to look and it included your typical cityscape sets. There was plenty of cops chasing people and more than a fair share of scenes where our hero gets drunk, sings a bit, and passes out. The one thing I can say is that the scenes where you actually see our killer at work painting faces and mumbling incantations looked pretty sharp and actually had a way of holding my attention. The only problem was that it felt very disjointed and didn’t really seem to fit with the rest of the movie I was watching. I should mention, though, that while I made it far enough into the movie to see these scenes, the friend I was watching the movie with had already started to snore. Thankfully, there were no special features to sit through. The main event was quite enough to give me a raging case of restless energy. I was glad to be able to turn off the video and walk away.

On a whole I don’t really like 'Buddy Cop' movies. There are always exceptions to the rule but this is not one of them. I’m again reminded that in a lot of cases what you read on the box is not always what you get when you sit down to watch your movie. It’s always a mistake to mislead the public when selling a movie. There have been occasions where a movie I picked up turned out to be nothing I was expecting and I was glad for it. On a whole, I’m a simple girl. I get the movies I’m in the mood for when I’m in the mood for them and I’m usually not a happy camper when I get a drama that was billed as horror and vice versa. Now, I’m going to write to our head Vampire and tell him he owes me a real serial killer movie!