Carl Kolchak returns in a new series of spine-tingling
adventures. Produced by the X-FILES' Frank Spotnitz and based on
the original '70s suspense drama, NIGHT STALKER updates the
chilling classic in a startling new way. "There's something
stylishly y at work here," says The New York Times. Caught up
in an obsessive hunt for his own wife's murderer, Kolchak (Stuart
Townsend) discovers that his imagination is no match for the evil
that truly lurks in the dark. Paired with skeptic Perri Reed
(Gabrielle Union), television's favorite crime reporter will stop
at nothing to uncover the supernatural side of the night.
Featuring four episodes never seen on TV that complete the series
and a host of exclusive bonus material, this 2-disc DVD set is so
good it's y.
.com
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If Night Stalker had been given a chance to establish its own
identity, this "reimagining" of the popular early '70s TV movies
( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B00026L7OU/%24%7B0%7D ) might have thrived.
Instead, many viewers perceived the short-lived series as a
thinly disguised X-Files spinoff, with former X-Files producer
Frank Spotnitz apparently hired to recycle X-Files plots in a
slightly different format. That's not necessarily a bad thing,
since the series boasts superior production values and dark,
sometimes violent horror plots as effectively creepy as anything
seen on X-Files. But fans of the original (both TV movies and
1974 series) bristled at ABC's obvious youth-market makeover that
turned Darren McGavin's original "Carl Kolchak" from a cynical,
sarcastic middle-aged reporter on the fringes of journalism into
a hip, handsome, Mustang-driving young reporter (played by Irish
actor Stuart Townsend) who's literally marked for death in what
was intended (if the series had survived) to be an epic battle of
good vs. evil. By pairing Kolchak with an equally young,
attractive, and skeptical colleague named Perri Reed (Gabrielle
Union), the series struggled to find its place among such popular
shows as Medium and the CSI juggernaut, and there just wasn't
enough originality to keep viewers interested. Ratings plummeted
after the pilot premiered on September 29, 2005, and of the ten
episodes produced and included here, only six were broadcast
before the show's inevitable cancellation.
As Spotnitz conceived it (with several X-Files veterans serving
as directors or consulting producers), Night Stalker revolved
around an epic "mythology" that would've emerged had the series
continued. Spotnitz outlines these broader details in his smart,
informative DVD commentaries, allowing viewers a greater
appreciation of how the series was being planned. As it stands,
the new Kolchak is striving to solve the violent, monstrous
attack that killed his wife, and his ongoing investigations draw
him deeper into supernatural events, mostly explored in episodes
so similar to X-Files that you could easily exchange Kolchak and
Reed for agents Mulder and Scully and barely notice the
difference. From their high-rise offices at the Los Angeles
Beacon (beautifully filmed in high-def digital video), Kolchak
and Reed solve brutal murders, bizarre deaths, and other
mysteries with the help of photographer Jain McManus (Eric
Jungman) and editor Tony Vincenzo (Cotter Smith), while a cynical
FBI agent (semi-regular cast member John Pyper-Ferguson) suspects
Kolchak of killing his wealthy wife to inherit her estate. As
these 10 episodes demonstrate, the hard-won trust between Kolchak
and Reed would become the series' emotional anchor, with Townsend
and Union establishing an appealing chemistry that served the
series well.
Unfortunately, Night Stalker was doomed from the start. The
series was cancelled in the midst of a two-part episode, leaving
viewers with an unresolved cliffhanger and unanswered questions
about the mysterious "four horsemen of the apocalypse" biker gang
that's been a looming threat throughout these episodes. Thanks to
Spotnitz's detailed commentaries and video interview included on
this two-disc set (along with printable DVD-ROM scripts from
unproduced episodes), these and other mysteries are tantalizingly
explained, and these ten Night Stalker episodes stand as
testament to a high-quality series that never had a chance to
prove its long-term potential. --Jeff Shannon