Night Angel (1990)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Excellent but underrated film

Absolutely Fantastic

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

An ancient evil entity named Lilith is reborn and assumes the shape of an incredibly sexy young woman (German-born Isa Jank, "The Wrong Guys"). Lilith proceeds to aggressively contrive her way towards being the cover girl for a fashion magazine called "Siren"; meanwhile, she goes about seducing and destroying various horny and mindless men. A virtuous employee named Craig (Linden Ashby, 'Melrose Place') doesn't like what she does to the office, so he teams up with a savvy old woman (Helen Martin, '227') to vanquish the demon. He also takes the time to romance Kirstie (Debra Feuer, "To Live and Die in L.A."), the sister of his boss Rita (Karen Black, "House of 1000 Corpses")."Night Angel" is acceptable cheese ball fare, no more and no less, yet it does still hit the spot fairly well for anybody who's got a soft spot for this kind of thing. It's got plenty of lovely ladies and sex scenes to keep the audience satisfied, as well as some wonderfully garish makeup FX by Steve Johnson ("Night of the Demons"). It does improve as it goes along, leading to a major set piece of atmosphere and effects; the most memorable bit of business takes place around the 56 minute mark. Dominique Othenin-Girard ("Halloween 5") directs adequately, giving us enough "good" stuff to prevent our minds from wandering too much.The delectable Ms. Jank, most of whose acting credits consist of TV appearances in her native country, does seem to be enjoying this moment in the spotlight. The rest of the cast is passable, if not inspired, although it's nice to see veteran character actress Martin in an actual heroic role. (At first, you think she's just some sort of pest.) Notable creature performer Doug Jones ("The Shape of Water") has his second credited acting role as shameless horndog Ken. Also appearing are Gary Hudson ("Road House"), Sam Hennings ("Seedpeople"), Twink Caplan ("Clueless"), and Phil Fondacaro ("Troll"). Roscoe Lee Browne ("The Cowboys") does the opening narration. Hennings bares enough of a resemblance to Klaus Kinski to be good for some chuckles.All in all, an agreeable watch. It's worth sticking with just to hear that end credits song belted out by none other than Screaming Jay Hawkins!Six out of 10.

"Night Angel" for most part follows the typical staples of 80s supernatural horror with lukewarm results. It wants to be an erotic thriller with supernatural touches, but the uncanny aspect cheapens it. Considerably silly and weakly acted (with the exception of an always amusing Karen Black), and while uninspired, it's never boring due to competence in its polished direction and outrageous old-school latex make-up effects (thanks to some outlandish hallucinating nightmare sequences). Director Dominique Othenin-Girard was at the helm, who previously directed "Halloween 5" the year before and some of the visual and atmospheric aspects collide here. He sure does like the blue filter when staging the lighting. It's violent, sensual and brooding, but done in a rather tacky manner. Just look at the lust-filled orgy sequences. While serious in tone, some elements are tawdry then say shocking in what it aims to achieve and the dialogues at times can make you groan. The story centres on the fashion magazine industry where glamour and vanity attracts evil in the shape of an ancient evil demon in woman form. Nothing surprises in the writing with the usual raving character suddenly appearing and they know how to vanish this succubus. A mysteriously infatuating Isa Andersen might look the part, but acting-wise was less desirable and some of her delivery raised a chuckle. While across from her is a wooden hero in the shape of Liden Ashby and Debra Feuer fairs much better as his romance interest. "She's Satan's whore wife"!

"Night Angel" is an okay horror film.**SPOILERS**Lilith, (Isa Andersen) an ancient demon, is reborn in the present as a young woman. She starts going on a killing spree, which worries the head of a fashion magazine, Rita, (Karen Black) as all the victims are employees. Craig, (Linden Ashby) the staff photographer, caught between Lilith and Kirstie, (Debra Feuer) Rita's sister, and as the murders of the magazine's staff turn to the various models on staff, he can't help but notice that Lilith is always close to the murders. When she starts dictating staff policies and directions, he fully believes that Lilith is something else and tries to stop her.The Good News: I was actually surprised to find a few things in here that were really good. The film has some gore effects in here, including a nifty slit throat, a heart pulled out, and some glass shards slicing up the leg. There are some other kills in here, but those are the ones that feature the best effects on display. The finale also has some great moments in it, including the final incarnation of Lilith, who looks quite impressive and the design is pretty well-executed. The lead-up is excellent, with an extended series of chases inside a forest. These are the highlights of the movie, as it features some nice deaths, effects, and even a couple moments of mild suspense thrown in as well. One provides a cheap jump, as we focus on one person, running around in the dark, with it being silent as well, until a character jumps out and grabs them. It's quite a nice scene, and the set-up for a pretty entertaining finale. The frequent hallucinations and dreams throughout are pretty inventive and quite creative. The middle one, with a series of freaky images that meld perfectly into the tone of the movie, borders slightly on the comical but is capable of getting some small creeps in. It's a pretty nice sequence.The Bad News: There wasn't a whole lot of convincing elements in here that indicate this would really happen. It doesn't make any real sense as to why a creature of such power as Lilith demonstrates in the film would chose to take the route she takes. It's basically just a series of events strung together to see how much nudity they can get away with before they're required to kill someone off. As usual with these kinds of films, when there's no kills or nudity on screen, it can be taxing to keep interested in what's going on at times, due to the nonsensical happenings on display. A demon with unlimited powers in the universe takes over a glamor magazine to take over the world? It's quite a stretch to believe that, and as such, there's not a large amount done to make it believable. It sort of happens, and the characters have to deal with it when they finally discover what's going on. Aside from the finale and a key sequence in the middle that is pretty nice, there's next to no action in here, and that leaves the film with another strike against it. Add to that the fact that most of the technical merits here are questionable at best and it's a little more than below average.The Final Verdict: It's not a total waste, but most of it's good parts is towards the end, so the beginning can be quite the pain. It's an all right film, but not that special. Worth a look for fans of the genre, but others should exceed with caution.Rated R: Full female and rear male Nudity, Graphic Violence, some language and a couple sex scenes

After brief narration giving a bit of information about Lilith, an ancient demon transforming into seductive woman and killing horny men since the dawn of mankind, the infamous Night Angel crawls out of the hole in the ground in front of viewer's eyes. Viewer's eyes will be pleased by the fact the demon already looks like naked woman. The only thing that gives away Lilith's true identity is a disfigured hand with sharp claws. The devil woman changes the shape of the hand before she goes on her manhunt and chooses a head of well known fashion periodical as the first victim. The boss gives the mysterious beauty a lift, Lilith invites herself into his fancy house, seduces him and then slashes his throat with fingernails while rich man's little son watches in horror. She also removes heart from victim's rib cage. Soon, redaction of the magazine becomes a place of witchcraft when Lilith decides to spread evil in the printed form. Lilith first causes a fight between two men at the discotheque, one of them falls into elevator shaft, the other one is badly injured by broken glass. Lilith introduces herself as the right hand of magazine's new boss played by Karen Black and turns the whole staff into zombie-like creatures. Craig, one of the employees, doesn't like the change of magazine's style and becomes another man on Lilith's death list. He tries to defeat the demon with the help of his girlfriend and elderly black woman who knows Lilith's hideous secret... Night Angel represents a perfect example of 80's supernatural horror, packed with mechanical monster effects and latex gore.