The Night Stalker

Lou Diamond Phillips gives a Brilliant and mesmerizing performance as Ramirez "The Night Stalker". It's a wonderfully sustained characterization, and deserves probably more attention that it will get. In truth it's an award winning performance and should be remembered at the time Emmy's are distributed. Unfortunately the female role is nowhere near as interesting. Whether this is a fault of the writer, director or the actress, she just seems so much less interesting than Phillips.

But Phillip's performance is so good, h never stoops to the obvious and makes no effort to ingratiate himself or the part he's playing. I have never been a particular fan of his, but no I will pay more attention.

Writing & Directing sounds fun, but you control too much. You are blind to your own weaknesses without checks. This is why it takes a team to make a film.

Story is definitely dark, & the tone is appropriately dark.

However, much of the film is so dark it's not watchable. Pivotal scenes. I changed the settings on my very good TV to brighten up as much as possible. Didn't help enough. No idea what was happening in a few scenes.

Well told true story with a couple twists & turns. But there's too much dialogue in light scenes, & too much action in dark scenes.

One ominous note underscores nonstop from start to end.

Lou Diamond Phillips delivers as usual. Good performances, just a bit overshadowed by bad production decisions.

Lou Diamond Phillips stellar performance as the serial killer Richard Ramirez was simply wasted playing opposite actress Bellamy Young who plays a fictional lawyer named Kit (Katherine) whose own life was supposedly haunted by the real Richard Ramirez's 1980's killing spree as the infamous Night Stalker as she lived in the California area.

Yes, the majority of incidents described as happening in Richard Ramirez's teens and the film's killings outlined in this fictional biopic actually occurred and are attributed to Richard Ramirez's murderous spree. However, this film focuses on Ramirez's time in captivity and his interactions with the female lawyer Kit, who meets with Ramirez over four (4) consecutive days in an attempt to record a confession for a double murder that another man will be executed for committing if Ramirez will not admit to being the actual perpetrator.

The fictional drama occurs as Kit is reliving her own teen years while the Night Stalker is all over the news during his late evening robbery, rape and vicious murder spree. Kit has her own demons to live with and the interview scenes between Kit and the shackled Richard Ramirez (Lou Diamond Phillips) are worth watching the film if for nothing else.

I hope the now 56 year old Lou Diamond Phillips is provided an opportunity to star in a few dramatic major motion pictures based on this outstanding role as the Night Stalker, because he has certainly paid his dues carrying more than one film on his own broad shoulders and raising the bar on his fellow actors/actresses to follow his lead. "Lead" being the key word.

I rate The Night Stalker a high 7 out of 10 on Lou Diamond Phillip's outstanding performance.

When a killer himself confesses his crimes and he is saying that i did that for fun what do you expect from him?

Can you really commit a murder for fun?

Can you?

Richard ramirez is one of the dastardly human beings I have ever witnessed in life that you can ever encounter in life.

That is really a incarnation of evil and can cause you to tremble with fear and angst.

And he has no regard for right or wrong and how one suffers because of him.

The story conveyed in this movie is deeply intense and how a normal person can turn into a ruthless killer after enduring trauma during childhood that really damages you from the core and unleashes a force of vengeance!!

The guy(s) who play Ramirez, both young and old, are pretty damn good. They don't quite glorify the man. The actor portrays a melodramatic vainglorious narcissist who is full of his own self-importance, intelligent but not the genius he imagines himself to be. That pretty much seems like the real Ramirez you see in interviews. The back-story is pretty accurate in terms of what happened in Ramirez's life. This isn't enough though to save it.

It was the chapter parts with the female lawyer that were kind of irritating. Found myself asking repeatedly "what does this have to do with Ramirez? She is in the park playing on the swing with her boyfriend - why!?!? And, um, she slept all night with her hand restrained in a leather cuff? Really. I get they are trying to give her character complexity and depth, ie "she has a dark side too!" but who cares, the movie is not called "Sexually Confused Female Lawyer", it is called "The Night Stalker".

The interview parts were like an attempt at a poor man's "Clarice vs Hannibal Lecter", not sure the point - the scenes were not as compelling or intelligent or insightful as the script writers or directors intended them to be. Boring stuff. Kept thinking "get on with it already".

I'm getting more convinced with time that there'll never be a better serial killer than (the original) Henry: portrait of a serial killer. They did that on a shoestring budget too.

The "Born to Kill" documentary on Ramirez is far more chilling (and insightful) than this film, but I hope it can serve as a break for Lou Diamond Phillips, he is a talent.