In the 1980s, serial killer Richard Ramirez rampaged through Los Angeles. When he was finally caught, he was charged with 13 murders and 14 sexual assaults. His heavy metal image and sinister appearance made him a media sensation and earned "fans" ... and this was before social media! He met his maker in 2003 while still awaiting his fate on death row, but the memory of his terror looms large in popular culture.
That's why we have this creepy movie, "The Night Stalker" (NOT to be confused with the awesome "Kolchak: The Night Stalker Series"). This film takes a look at the fascination with Ramirez, which I really don't get, and takes viewers on a psychological ride to hell and back.
Lou Diamond Phillips plays the killer while he was still alive. Sitting on death row, he's visited by lawyer Kit (the gorgeous Bellamy Young). She's been sent to get some information from him as a client in Texas in on death row for murder but may be innocent. If she can determine that Ramirez was indeed the actual killer (as he was in the same area at the same time), then she'll help an innocent man. Not as easy as it sounds.
You see, Kit has some issues of her own. The audience figures that out when she casually undresses with the curtains open in her hotel while some leering dude watches on. Ramirez is on to her. During their prison interviews, he calls her out and tries to get her to reveal herself to him.
Prison interview scenes with Ramirez and Kit are interspersed with flashbacks to their childhoods. Ramirez was exposed to drugs, violence (EXTREME violence), crime and sex at a very young age. Kit grew up in a very broken home. She was a teenager when Ramirez began his killing spree and was obsessed with every article and TV story on him.
Many people are comparing this movie to "Silence of the Lambs," but it watches more like "Dear Mr. Gacy" (a much darker film), a true story about a guy who meets and interviews real serial killer John Wayne Gacy. While the content is definitely disturbing (given that's semi-based on real events), there are some camp moments in "The Night Stalker." As a heavy metal fan, I was pleased to see that the teenage Kit (Chelle Sherrill) roams 1980s L.A. in a Pentagram T-shirt ... although the band was fairly obscure at the time. The teenage Ramirez (Andrew Ruiz) wears a fictional band shirt, "Death Kiss."
Phillips is pretty convincing as Ramirez though and even resembles him with his long hair and gaunt features. Young also delivers the goods as a conflicted lawyer trying to avoid revealing too much of herself to the killer ... while definitely harboring some pain from her youth. And although I poke fun at the depiction of 1980s metal garb, the flashback scenes were effective and featured talented young actors in Sherill, Ruiz and others.
It's not the typical Lifetime movie, but if you like horror flicks or thrillers, you'll enjoy "The Night Stalker," which returns to the airwaves at 7 p.m., June 24 on the Lifetime Movie Network.
"The Night Stalker": Directed by Megan Griffiths; Starring Lou Diamond Phillips as Richard Ramirez, Bellamy Young as Kit, Alice Rietveld as Inez, Louis Hertham as Jed, Chelle Sherill as young Kit, Andrew Ruiz as young Richard Ramirez, Kimberly Jurgen as Doreen, and Benjamin Barrett as Ramirez/The Night Stalker
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