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.

I'm going to agree with most of the written reviews here, and go against the overall score this movie got. I am usually very critical of TV movies, but this one was as good, or better, than most feature films.

I thought the acting was first-rate, and the direction was excellent, too. The movie had an aura of danger and suspense about it that most thrillers do not. Of course, that was aided by the foreboding music that lay beneath many of the scenes. But that's OK.

It also helped that the hero, if you want to call her that, was nearly as damaged as the bad guy. She had her own demons, and acted out in ways harmful to herself as a result of them. You don't often see that in these movies; usually the good guy is, well, good, and not nearly defined in depth as the one here was.

This was a good psychological thriller, with both main characters exhibiting deep flaws that are examined nicely.

I know the basic story of the Night Stalker was accurate; I don't know if the plot of the movie was, though. But still, it is very good.

My only complaint is regarding the credits, and has nothing to do with the movie itself. Here on IMDB Annalisa Cochrane as "Mary" gets top billing. That makes no sense; she is only in the movie for one brief scene. She isn't even close to being a main character. So why put her at the top of the cast credit?

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.

Lou Diamond Phillips is Chilling and Brilliant in this account of the serial killer, Richard Ramirez aka The Night Stalker. Bellamy Young was miscast in her role opposite him. She is a very good actress but paled in comparison to her costar. She just seemed flat in their interactions which was a shame. If she had even tried to muster some intensity or strength, it would have made all the difference. Her character who was supposed to be a smart but slightly damaged lawyer, just came off as weak. The supporting cast was brilliant especially the young boy and man who played younger Richard. They not only looked exactly right but were fabulous in the part. The only thing that was troubling was the script which I felt was too sympathetic towards Ramirez.

It's 2013. Kit (Bellamy Young) needs to get a confession from imprisoned killer Richard Ramirez (Lou Diamond Phillips) in San Quentin to exonerate her client scheduled to be executed in Texas in four days. Ramirez is a Satanist with fans, one of them being his adoring wife. There are flashbacks to teen Kit during the Night Stalker paranoia in the 1985 Los Angeles area as well as Ramirez's troubled life.

LDP has a good scraggly serial killer vibe but the interviews lack the scary horror intensity. The flashback structure doesn't allow for greater tension. Kit's journey does have a nice reveal but it may work better if the journey starts with a closer relationship to her client. The movie is simply missing something.