If you missed The Night Stalker when it screened last week at the 42nd Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), you’ll have a second chance to see it on television, this Sunday, June 12 at 8pm on LMN. Don’t let the “Lifetime Movie Network” association turn you off; this smart, brooding psychological thriller isn’t your typical made-for-TV fluff.
The Night Stalker was written and directed by Seattle local Megan Griffiths (Lucky Them, streaming on Netflix now) and stars Lou Diamond Phillips as serial killer Richard Ramirez, AKA “The Night Stalker.” The film doesn’t merely rehash Ramirez’s grisly murders from the 1980s, but instead takes a much more cerebral approach into the mind of the killer and the people his crimes affected. Bellamy Young plays a lawyer named Kit, who’s tasked with visiting Ramirez on death row in San Quentin to solicit a confession that would save an innocent man from execution. Ramirez wasn’t stupid, and the fictional character Kit isn’t easily manipulated. They are well-matched opponents in a battle of wits where yet another life is at stake. Much of the film takes place in conversation between Young and Phillips over a few tense days, and their interplays of dialogue were among the best that I saw at this year’s festival.
Lou Diamond Phillips has always been a talented actor. (My favorite performance of his comes from the mostly forgotten 1996 film Courage Under Fire, where he plays a frustrated soldier to great effect.) For those who have not given him due credit, his turn here as Ramirez is nothing short of a revelation. It’s the kind of performance that’s so effortless, raw and provocative that you want to put it in a museum and study it later. Fans of crime drama and high intrigue won’t want to miss it.
