Night Vision (1987) – A Movie A Day 2021 #54
Night Vision (1987) – A Movie A Day 2021 #54
I thought I’d take a short break from my kung fu marathon to finish a movie I started watching the other night but fell asleep about halfway through. That’s not a good sign, is it? I did start the movie pretty late at night so falling asleep isn’t a great predictor about how I feel about the movie, but falling asleep during a movie I’ve never seen before isn’t a resounding endorsement either. The movie in question in Night Vision, a 1987 psychological thriller labelled as “horror” on Tubi and IMDB. I don not consider Night Vision a horror movie, and I don’t consider it a very good movie either. Even though the ideas are pretty good, the execution feels like it’s stretched out with not much happening for long periods of time.
Night Vision is about Andy, a naïve young man from Kansas who travels to the big city of Denver, Colorado to try to gain some life experience to help inspire his fledgling writing career. Andy meets a cast of colorful characters including a thief/street hustler named Vinnie and a video store clerk named Jill who is fed up with big city life. Vinnie and Andy become fast friends, and Vinnie gifts Andy a TV and VCR that he stole and is attracting unwanted attention from dangerous guys in black robes. There was a tape in the VCR that mostly shows static to begin with, but eventually begins to show Andy frightening images of violence and satanic rituals that may or may not be real. Meanwhile, Andy is forming a relationship with Jill, but Andy’s mental state is degenerating and causes problems between the two of them. Is the big city wearing Andy down like its worn down Jill, or is there something more sinister going on?
I enjoy the idea of a horror movie based on some sort of mystical/psychological influence of TV and videos, but it’s not like the idea was original even in 1987. The first movie that springs to mind like this is the great Videodrome from 1983, but as I’ve said before, I don’t mind a good rip-off. The issue I have with Night Vision is that it just drags too much for my taste.
There is a whole lot of character building in Night Vision which is fine, but at some point I’d like to have something happen to begin to ramp up the tension. Over an hour into the movie I still felt like the movie was just building Andy’s character, and the images on his TV barely seemed to play a part in the story. That changes in the final 40 minutes (the movie is 1 hour 40 minutes long), but nothing really happens until the final fifteen minutes or so. By that point I was kind of checked out, even watching it in two pieces since I fell asleep on the first try.
Maybe if I hadn’t expected a horror movie I would feel differently, but I couldn’t really get into Night Vision. If kind of just made me want to watch Videodrome.
I couldn’t find an official trailer, so here’s a poor copy of the full movie on YouTube.