“An egotistical tabloid reporter attempts to track down a vampire/amateur pilot who’s been feasting on the unlucky inhabitants of several rural airfields.”
This premise shouldn’t have worked. It too closely resembles something thrown out during a high school creative writing class that’s gone off the rails. But Stephen King, who has done some of his best work within the margins of the absurd, turned this silly sounding idea into one of his most memorable short stories. First appearing in the horror anthology Prime Evil and later included in King’s short fiction collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes, “The Night Flier” manages to be both a ripper of a vampire tale and an entertaining examination of polite society’s hidden appetite for violence.
The film adaptation of the story, which graced theaters 25 years ago this May, is equally surprising in terms of its overall effectiveness. In fact, The Night Flier might be one of the best recreations of Stephen King’s work on the silver screen, both in how it nails the tone and themes of its source material and in the gnarliness of its visuals. While it might not have the artistry of The Shining, the prestige of The Shawshank Redemption, or the blockbuster scale of the most recent iteration of IT, The Night Flier is a sleeper of a King classic.
Shock-journalist Richard Dees (Miguel Ferrer) has a problem. The senior scribe for tabloid rag Inside View hasn’t had a hit in quite some time and is in danger of being left in the dust by the paper’s newest writer, Katherine Blair (Julie Entwisle). Then one day his editor tips him off to a strange story brewing in New England. Someone has been murdering the staff of several small airstrips throughout the region. Decked out like Bela Lugosi in Dracula and going by the name Dwight Renfield, the madman’s modus operandi involves flying in under cover of night and draining the blood of whoever he comes across after touching down in his black Cessna Skymaster.
Dees initially brushes the lead off, deeming it unworthy of his investigative/exploitative talents, but has his interest piqued later as more gory details begin to surface. Smelling the possibility of a book deal and attempting to get the scoop on his young competition, the reporter soon finds himself hot on the trail of the serial killer he’s deemed “The Night Flier.” But as his obsession begins to spiral out of control, Dees learns two unsettling truths: that there’s more to this monster than meets the eye, and that he and it have more in common than he could ever imagine.
The Night Flier succeeds thanks to its willingness to embrace the inherent silliness of its logline (“the corniest creature featured in The Weekly World News turns out to be real”) while finding the horror that lurks at its core. Director/co-writer Mark Pavia (Fender Bender) plants the audience squarely within the grimy little mind of Richard Dees, understanding that what’s creepiest about King’s story isn’t just its grotesque title villain but how our attraction to real world monsters can lead to an obliviousness to the pain that they cause. Dees has built his career from the commodification of tragedy, and because of that he has become blind to the shattered lives strewn throughout the stories he reports (if he ever really saw them at all). To him, these victims are stepping stones to more fame and success within his career, and his detachment from the bloodshed he sees feels uncomfortably prescient today in the age of social media.
Speaking of Richard Dees, the film’s seedy protagonist is hands down one of its biggest highlights. The late Miguel Ferrer, who made a career out of playing men who straddled the line between prickly (Agent Rosenfield in Twin Peaks) and downright sleazy (Morton in RoboCop), was inspired casting, perfectly embodying the character seen in the source material. There’s a weird sort of joy in the way Ferrer portrays Dees, reveling in his callous nature while also lending him a cold shrewdness that’s unsettling. Throughout the film we get glimpses of what might be humanity in Dees, only to reach the sobering realization that those moments were only masks donned by the man in order to further his own agenda. Like the vampire he’s in pursuit of, Dees is a parasite who has nothing behind his eyes but bitterness, disdain, and an overwhelming thirst for blood.
Another aspect of The Night Flier that soars is its use of Dwight Renfield. As is the case with the short story, glimpses of the vampire are doled out sparingly. Since what Dees hears about him is pieced together from hazy eyewitness accounts, most of the peeks we get at the bloodsucker are either obscured or of his silhouette. Then in the film’s closing moments the journalist finally comes face-to-face with Renfield, and he truly is a sight to behold. His gruesome visage (which is arguably one of the most underrated creature designs of its decade) hits so hard largely because of the suspense that is built around its reveal. It’s almost reminiscent of the philosophy Spielberg had with the shark in Jaws: first create an aura of fear surrounding the beast then, once you’ve built that sense of dread within your audience, drop the veil.
Contrasting the conservative deployment of Renfield’s horrifying appearance is the movie’s use of gore. When the moment calls for it, The Night Flier serves up the blood and guts in generous amounts, injecting a startling nastiness into the picture. What’s more, thanks to the efforts of its special effects superteam of Greg Nicotero (The Walking Dead), Robert Kurtzman (Doctor Sleep), and Howard Berger (Kill Bill), the violence looks pretty damn good. Fans of face-slashings, eyeball-poppings, and throat-gougings will all find something to cheer about in this film.
The movie’s not without its warts, though most of them are nitpicky in nature. Its repetitive score sounds dated, a short bit of backstory that’s given to Renfield feels shoehorned in, and the introduction of a psychic bond between Dees and the villain falls flat. The Night Flier’s biggest deviation from the source material comes in an addition to its ending that changes the fate of Dees after his meeting (interview?) with the vampire. Its an ambitious swing on Mark Pavia’s part (one that this reviewer personally enjoyed) but it can be hit-or-miss depending on the viewer.
Over the past few years, The Night Flier has collected a bit of a cult following. Part of that might be due to a certain mystique that surrounds the film as its still fairly difficult to find a copy of (if ever there was a movie deserving of a snazzy boutique re-release, this would be it). However, horror fans are bloodhounds when it comes to finding hidden gems that have fallen through the cracks, so it was only a matter of time before we picked up the scent on this lost King classic. It’s wonderful mixture of biting commentary, compelling character study, and stomach-churning visuals was just too damn good to fly under the radar forever.
