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      Nightstalker

      R 2009 1h 25m Crime Drama Mystery & Thriller List
      Reviews 11% Audience Score 100+ Ratings Serial killer Richard Ramirez (Adolph Cortez) terrorizes Los Angeles in the 1980s. Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

      View All (5) audience reviews
      Audience Member "Hellish stuff, dark stuff, evil stuff, SATANS' STUFF." A 10 year old could've made a better movie than this. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member This was just silly. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member very low budget. couldn't finish it. can't was my time w/poor quality films such as this. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Audience Member I'm beginning to get a very annoying sense of Deja-Vu.It's like with the Transporter franchise.Am I reviewing the same movie over and over? Expect here,they just all completely suck.Albeit,the movies are more entertaining to review,but can we just tone it down with the "Same script,small changes" thing Ulli? Today's homicidal maniac movie is Nightstalker (Not to be confused with the unsolved serial killer known as "The Original Nightstalker").A killer named Richard Múñoz Ramírez (Thank you copy & paste) who killed,sexually assaulted,and attempted to kill several people.Now I'm not familiar with this killer either,so sorry in advance if I don't know if this movie is or isn't accurate.In fact I don't know at all since I haven't read in this Richard fellow.Now I'm gonna be blunt and just state that this killer pretty much just went on a rampage from 1984 to 1985.It's impressive he did all of this and didn't get caught in the first five damn months.The movie sorta portrays Richard as what you'd expect.A crazy son of a bitch.That's all I can really say for now,so time to leap into Nightstalker.Also know as Ulli Lommel's best movie.In my opinion of course. The entire movie is just a docudrama on the serial killer.It's nothing new or old.Though this one is slightly more straightforward.It's more blunt and sadly doesn't really show anything truly bad for me to wanna break the movies head with a wooden baseball bat.Instead,it goes for actually doing something right.Which amazes me,because all but one other movie (Which I reviewed) actually had the decency to have a decent plot.The beginning of the movie,the second act,then the final act are all decent.If I compare this to a major motion picture,then I'd probably say it's worthy of being boiled in a pot.But I don't do that with direct-to-DVD movies.Well,other than that,it's decent.Of every Ulli Lommel movie I'm going after,it's got the best plot,it's straightforward,and pacing is okay.You can follow it,and eventually it just comes to a close.At which point you get an angry mob and come after me because of the rating I gave this movie.To sum it up,decently done.What the other movies did isn't as praise worthy. The complete polar opposite of the plot would be the dialogue to the movie.It is garbage on top of dick and boob jokes straight out of one of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer's "movies".It's pretty much weeping,screaming,begging for mercy,and a bunch of other shit that makes almost no sense.That is to say the other movies didn't have that,but the writers just went out of there damn way to make me wanna swear my head off to emphasize my anger.Either I pick my movies badly,or writers actually read my reviews to make really bad movies to annoy the living heck out of me (We will ignore this movies year of release).There's nothing to the dialogue,because chatter isn't really around.Padding is screaming,so we can say that it's shattering instead of padding.But onto something different.The movies characters I like,but the character development is crappy.It's nothing new,special,and feels very vague.Much like in the Transporter movies,it's just a bunch of two-dimensional (Some one-dimensional) boneheads.But at least they are "likable".It's pretty much just a mind screw.I accept what I'm given because the characters are subjected to some really stupid shit with what the "Nightstalker" does.Just look at the box art for the answers.Over all,pretty much everything associated with the dialogue sucks.Onto answering questions though! The characters aren't that great,but I could "sympathize" with them,and hate the Nightstalker.Mostly because of the fact the villain is really mean and the characters are acted like they are legitimately innocent humans,and not a bunch of people who I wanna see get slashed up.Now,there are a couple of problems.For starters,they are flat and lack real personality (I can simply name them all after colors and it would not make a difference).Another problem is the fact that a lot of them are just dead meat.Flip a coin,point a finger,and someones dead.Now that's not to say this is a slasher movie,but it nears that category.The characters biggest problem is the fact that the villain is another twirly mustache freak.The good guys are on the railroad tracks.The only difference to that is the fact they ARE run over by the train.But oh well,I've always wanted that ending with characters like this.But to be fair,the characters are decent for the most part.Despite there problems,you can do worse (D.C. Sniper).If you see this,take what you get.Seriously,don't expect Oscar worthy characters or anything like that. Directing wise,Ulli Lommel is at it again.But a bit more tame this time.He's got as much skill as an Elephant Seal with an AK-47,but it's better than his usual crap directing.He uses a bunch of "tricks" to make the movie feel more professional,but I still laughed and laughed at it until he kept repeating it.I'll also note the killings are complete garbage and need to be thrown out the window until they come back at you like a boomerang.Ouch,got a black eye.Along with that is the fact that Lommel feels the need to not focus enough on one thing.The movies got some serious issues with just focusing on the Nightstalker.Characters get random development instead of just focusing on someone's death.Look,we know you are going to die,so just off him/her.Then we can develop our next dead meat character.It's pretty much just shameful "Feel bad for this character" nonsense.Quit it Lommel....I said quit it...are you even trying anymore? Then again,this movie was released in 2009,so I'll say no.To be honest though,it's an improvement over mocking the Son of Sam killer,so woo-flippin'-hoo.The directing fails,but not as badly. If the anything shows in the past reviews of Ulli Lommel's movies,it's the lack of intensity and suspense.This does one well and another atrociously.The movie is intense (sorta),but has atrocious suspense.I'll point the blame-barrel at the director.Every damn time there's an ounce of suspense available,he just wastes it on some form of miniature "jump scare"-like moment.It feels incredibly lazy and just goes to show how much of an amateur director this guy is.Nothing feels right,it just feels all wrong.It's like he knew what he was doing,so he just gave up because he made so many mistakes so far.If you screw up about three thousand times in the first twenty second,just keep going.The intensity works because the production values are so cheap and shoddy,that they manage to fit in with the movies imaginary atmosphere I made up.Yeah,you know how I've bashed the guy so much? I had to just type whatever I could to make it past there so I could actually finish this review today.The intensity works because the movie is cheap.That is a friggin' first,because this bastard can not do squat! Shameful,shameful,shameful.Over all,everything works because of things that should be the worst possible thing(s) to happen in a movie.It's just luck for this guy.But no,this does not pass.The luck of the dice does not count as being able to pass Lommel. First of all,the acting is incredibly bad.Though more than half the time,I found myself giggling and laughing at how awful it was.That's a plus only because of how rare that is throughout the remaining movies.Let alone the entire little "Murder Series" I made up.Lommel must have passed out when it is funny,because it actually does become funny.Now,when the movies acting isn't funny,that's when it becomes very dull and bad.It doesn't get bad to the point I want to punch my TV screen,but it gets bad to the point I wanna fall asleep and just pretend I didn't see an actor do that.The delivery of the dialogue isn't as bad,but trust me when I say that it can get as bad as the intensity and suspense.It can feel like blind luck and it just get's incredible when a line is delivered and sounds believable.If you watch the movie,I swear that it does seem like blind luck.There's no real pattern (I guess) to how the movies actors deliver these awful lines.Aside from that,the movies acting can be laughably bad,and worthy of being seen just for that.As for the delivery,it's once again just blind luck that I can not accept.Mostly because of how wild it is.Just luck of the dice.I'll let part of the acting pass,but the other part can hitch a ride and get lost. A luck driven movie that happens to be good at some points,but atrocious in others,Nightstalker really just has to be seen to be believed.It's Ulli Lommel's best movie,and really doesn't feel like it can be put into words without having me state over and over that you'd have to see it to be believed.There's a lot of trash that just seems to spawn from other trash.And then that trash spawns trash and so on and so forth.You're more than free to see this movie,but a warning to those of you who don't like movies that just seem lucky with what's good and what's not good.If you want a good movie like this,then I just recommend seeing a better slasher movie about a crazy psychopath.Or Rob Zombies The Devils Rejects.Other wise,just don't bother with this movie.For every good moment,Nightstalker has about twelve stupid and/or shitty moments.It's just not worth your time if you want something interesting.I score Nightstalker a 2 out of 10.It is Ulli Lommel's best movie,but that still means it is complete trash. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Audience Member Horrible low budget thriller, badly acted, amateur looking direction and some of the worst cinematography ever. The film jas little structure and lacks atmosphere. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

      Cast & Crew

      Movie Info

      Synopsis Serial killer Richard Ramirez (Adolph Cortez) terrorizes Los Angeles in the 1980s.
      Director
      Ulli Lommel
      Screenwriter
      Ulli Lommel
      Production Co
      Barnholtz Entertainment, Hollywood House of Horror
      Rating
      R (Sexual Content/Nudity|Bloody Violence|Language|Drug Use)
      Genre
      Crime, Drama, Mystery & Thriller
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Jan 28, 2017
      Runtime
      1h 25m