Nightstalker - 2002
Written & directed by:
Chris Fisher

Starring:
Roselyn Sanchez - Gabriella Martinez
Danny Trejo - Officer Frank Luis
Bret Roberts - Richard Ramirez
Evan Dexter Parke - Lt. Mayberry

In 1984-85, Richard Ramirez, who it was later learned was a drug addict and self-professed "Satanist," terrorized Los Angeles. A heatwave was baking southern California, and people in middle- to upper-class neighborhoods, thinking themselve to be "safe," began leaving their doors and windows open at night. Ramirez took advantage of this. He would enter a house late at night while the residents were asleep, shoot or stab the husband/father, rape and sodomize the wife/mother, and sometimes the children. On occasion, he would kidnap a child, only to release it somewhere unfamiliar to wander the streets, afraid and looking for help. Once, he cut out an elderly woman's eyes and kept them as souvenirs. He drew pentagrams and "Satanic" slogans on the walls of the houses he entered.

Sgt. Frank Salerno, who was involved in the apprehension of the Hillside Stranglers, was brought in to help catch the killer dubbed by the press "The Nightstalker." The big break in the case was almost dismissed as useless — someone told police he knew the Stalker and that his name was Rick. Then a fingerprint was lifted from one of the stolen cars used by the Stalker and it belonged to petty crook Richard Ramirez. The police released a photo of the killer. One day in August of 1985, a young man was spotted trying to get into locked cars in an affluent Los Angeles suburb. Then he tried to pull a woman from her car so he could steal it. Neighbors recognized the young man as Richard Ramirez, the Nightstalker, and attacked him. They beat and kicked him mercilessly until the police arrived. Today, he awaits execution on Death Row.

If you like serial killer stories, the story of the Nightstalker is a good one. But don't expect to find much of it in Chris Fisher's puzzling Z-grade straight-to-video shocker, Nightstalker. It's puzzling because, rather than tell the story as it happened — which would be pretty interesting, I think — Fisher decides to scrap it all and come up with a completely fictional and utterly ridiculous story of his own.

The film's opening is intriguing and led me to believe that Nightstalker might be a cut above the usual straight-to-video serial-killer movies. Fisher does a good job, at first, of capturing Ramirez's drug-warped state of mind with some jittery, flickery visual effects. Unfortunately, he overuses this and it gets old pretty fast. In other words, the movie's opening is quite deceptive. But he gets a bloodshot eyeball for the effort.

Fisher's screenplay cuts back and forth between Ramirez's drug-crazed killing spree and a fictional rookie detective named Gabriella Martinez. Absolutely nothing about her story rings true, and it just gets worse and worse with each passing minute.

Along with the movie's awful script, there's the problem of sound. It's almost as if they could only afford one microphone, and doggonnit, it just couldn't pick up everybody. I had to keep turning the volume way up to hear the dialogue, then down again whenever the comparatively deafening score came up.

I can't fault the actors — I can't imagine anyone doing a good job with this material. Meryl Streep and Robert DeNiro would come off stilted and flat if they tried to deliver this script's terrible dialogue.

But most offensive of all is the film's lack of purpose. Why make up a boring and unbelievable story when the real story is far more gripping? No attempt is made to understand Richard Ramirez or give him any depth at all. It's possible to attempt to understand a serial killer without excusing or glorifying his crimes, but it seldom happens. Fisher, like the directors of most of these abysmal movies, is more interested in the killings themselves, and in his incredibly bad fiction involving the police.

Nightstalker has nothing to offer and deserves to be passed up at your local video store. If you're interested in the Richard Ramirez story, look into the real thing and don't bother with this trash. For starters, go to www.thecrimeweb.com ("The Serial Killer Website") to read up on him. You might also watch for a 1989 TV movie called Manhunt: Search For the Nightstalker — I haven't seen it, but surely it can't be any worse than Nightstalker. And I'd bet money it's much better.

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