Night Stalker

Network: ABC; Genre: Remake, Horror; Content Rating: TV-14 (horror violence, blood and gore); Available: DVD; Perspective: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4);

Season Reviewed: Series (1 season)

I've got to admit right off the bat that I'm not familiar with the original Jeff Rice series "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" starring Darren McGavin. I can't compare the two. I don't know how derivative this remake is or how blasphemous it may be, but it isn't hard to imagine. For those not familiar with the story, it follow Carl Kolchak, a newspaper crime reporter who obsessively hunts down all things supernatural after the brutal murder of his wife by a beast that left a mysterious mark on her (and other victims) after she died.

"Night Stalker" is a disaster from head to toe. Starting withe casting of Kolchak. As a man who should be obsessed, in turmoil, maybe a little unhinged, Stewart Townsend plays Kolchak blank-faced, without any passion, emotion or depth. Instead of a hardboiled crime reporter he looks like a soft WB TV star sleepwalking through a slasher movie.

While I may not know "The Night Stalker", I do know "The X-Files" where "Stalker" developer Frank Spotnitz hails from. And while the original "Stalker" may have been an inspiration for Chris Carter's supernatural thriller, for Spotnitz to dig up the ghosts of the past reeks of a creatively bankrupt effort to recapture the magic of both shows. Kolchak is the open-minded one, quick to believe the average crime is motivated by a something otherworldly. The Fox Mulder. His crime-beat partner Harry (gorgeous Gabrielle Union) is the reluctant one who butts up against Kolchak with a belief in science and facts. The Dana Scully. They are helped in there endeavors by young intern photographer Jain (Eric Jungmann). The Jimmy Olsen. Guess what else? The two leads have a purely professional relationship with only the tiniest hint of sexual tension.

There is a slight hypnotic quality to "Stalker". The final (unaired) episode, "What's My Answer Mr. Kolchak" is the best of the series because it tapes into a surreal idea that the rest of this procedural show should have had. It keeps you guessing in a way the others don't. But for the most part "Stalker" is aggravatingly straight forward. Many of the stories feel lifted heavily from other Sci-Fi/Horror shows and the show really suffers from brutally stupid written dialog. The opening and closing narrations make pretty much no sense.

Is it scary? Even creepy? Well that standard is just another tool the show used to dig the show deeper. Spotnitz's lame attempt to build suspense cure-all is to show ominous walking feet into frame. Who is it? We don't know yet. He does this over and over. Feet. The violence and use of (quote/unquote) creature effects is chopped to hell in the editing - an obvious attempt to hide a low budget rather than to meet the network standards.

"Night Stalker" is one of several network potholes on the long, boring road between the time when the masterful "The X-Files" held nerds in suspense over alien conspiracies and now, when the unbridled funhouse ride "Supernatural" has brought the TV horror genre back from the dead. A perfect cure for insomnia.

* / 4