Night Visions
Chameleon Blue

USA 1990
produced by
Thomas Baum, Marianne Maddalena, Rick Nathanson, Wes Craven (executive) for MGM/NBC
directed by Wes Craven
starring James Remar, Loryn Locklin, Penny Johnson, Francis X.McCarthy, Mitch Pileggi, Jon Tenney, Mruce MacVittie, Angela Alvarado, Daniel Beer, Kristen Corbett, Jesscia Craven, Ron Howard George, Timothy Leary, John Benjamin Martin, Roxanna Michaels, Eric Rosser, Michele Roth, Dendrie Taylor, Bruce Wagner
written by Wes Craven, Thomas Baum, music by Brad Fiedel

review by
Mike Haberfelner

If tough, alcoholic and divorced cop Mackey (James Remar) wants to remain on the case of the Spread Eagle Killer, he has to team up with Sally Powers (Loryn Locklin), a college graduate without experience. However, it soon becomes apparent that there's more to Sally than just a college degree - and the memory of her parents slaughtered by a serialkiller: She also seems to be a schizophrenic, who frequently slips into other identities (including an aerobic instructor and a biker babe) and inexplicably always pops up at the crime scenes ... so much so that Mackey temporarily suspects her, actually.

Eventually, Mackey is taken off the case after all, while his superior (Mitch Pileggi) plans to use Sally's abilities to track down the killer and thus figures it would be a good idea to use her as bait ... however, what nobody (but the audience) has suspected thus far is that the killer actually is within the police force, none other than young and handsome photographer Martin (Jon Tenney), who has been dating Sally for a while now, and who is now able to snatch her from underneath her watchdogs' eyes.

Why?

Because he wants to create the perfect patchwork body out of photographs of his victims ...

Fortunately, Mackey, despite being off the case, has not forgotten his partner and comes to her rescue just in time, and in the finale, Martin is allowed to fall from a rooftop to his death.

During his long career, director Wes Craven has directed several genre classics ... and a lot of duds. And while the made-for-television Night Visions (which was probably intended as a pilot) is at least competently made, it definitely belongs into the latter category: The script is horribly far-fetched and over-constructed, so much so that several plot elements just refuse to make sense any which way you look at them. Also, the solution of the whodunnit-aspects of the story is totally predictable while the finale with both Sally and the killer hanging from a rooftop is way too clichéd to be exciting. And then there are the flashbacks to Sally running from the killer who has slaughtered her family which are almost comical. Add to this a totally unimpressive deer-in-headlight performance by Loryn Locklin and James Remar trying way too hard to come off as the tough guy with a heart of gold, and you are left with - maybe not a total failure compared to other US-American TV-movies, but not a film Wes Craven can be proud of either ...

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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