Night Angel
A legendary she-demon, in the updated guise of a beautiful model, infiltrates the offices of a successful fashion magazine with the aim of corrupting the world via mass media.
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- Cast:
- Isa Jank , Linden Ashby , Debra Feuer , Helen Martin , Karen Black , Doug Jones , Gary Hudson
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Reviews
You won't be disappointed!
Really Surprised!
Best movie ever!
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
Lovely and lethal succubus Lilith (a spot-on smoldering portrayal by gorgeous brunette knockout Isa Jank) poses as the cover girl for a popular fashion magazine as means of seducing and destroying men. It's up to nice guy art director Craig (a solid and likeable performance by Linden Ashby) to stop her. Director Dominique Othenin-Girard relates the original and absorbing story at a brisk pace, ably crafts a strong sensual'n'spooky ooga-booga atmosphere (a descent into a deliriously lust-crazed hell in which a wild anything-goes orgy occurs rates as a definite trippy highlight), and delivers several startling moments of nasty gore. The clever and inspired script by Joe Augustyn and Walter Josten makes nice use of the fiercely competitive world of fashion modeling. The bang-up cast keeps this movie humming: Debra Feuer adds plenty of winning spark as the sassy Kirstie, Helen Martin contributes a spirited turn as feisty voodoo lady Sadie, Karen Black does her usual fine work as agency head Rita, Doug Jones amuses as geeky horndog Ken, and Gary Hudson jerks it up well as the smarmy Rod. The glossy cinematography by David Lewis provides a striking stylish look. Kudos are also in order for Steve Johnson's marvelously grotesque make-up f/x. An unjustly neglected sleeper.
"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"!
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.
Night Angel is a reasonably well made horror movie. A lot of it is rather dumb, but it's all pretty entertaining.Isa Andersen looks great as Lilith, but she can't really act. Director Dominique Othenin-Girard does a lot better here than he did with Halloween 5, which is just as well. The script is a bit silly, but the movie is saved by some excellent setpieces and surrealistic photography.It's no classic, but I reckon it's worth a look on a slow evening.