Samhain Project '24: The Night Flier

 This year I seem to be doing quite a few Stephen King films on the project, including a documentary. Thus I decided to track down a lesser known film based on his work, called The Night Flier. 

The Night Flier is based on a short story called Popsy which appears in his collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes, which is a fantastic gathering of stories, really. This one stars Miguel Ferrer, one of my all-time favorite character actors, and he has the lead and does not waste the opportunity. His character is a journalist of sorts; he cuts corners, he lies, he cheats to get his information, and yet somehow he’s really good at what he does.

The only problem in my thinking is that the publication he works for is one of those true life, dark crime, ghastly murder, conspiracy theory, UFO mags that really, most people in their right mind don’t read. 

The story is that someone is landing in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, in rural airports in his dark black Cessna. Someone dies when this happens and then he gets out without being found. Ferrer wants to track this guy down before the authorities catch on, and he ends up competing with a brand new reporter that has just been hired by Pee-wee from Porkys at the newspaper.  The pursuit portions of the film are interesting and  Ferrer is absolutely fantastic in this movie as the tension builds. He gives this very odd vampire story a performance that is above and beyond what films of this nature normally get from their leads. 

In one particular scene, Ferrer's character has seen a bit too much and spends some time emptying himself into a sink.  He knows something is going on behind him, but as he looks up in the mirrors in front of him, he sees nothing, but oh, there's plenty going on.  The scene is tense, scary, and Ferrer plays it beautifully.  Only an actor of his caliber can make you sympathize with a person that is almost completely an asshole.

As he gets further and further involved and obsessed, he pulls himself further and further into the advice that he gives the young reporter at the beginning of the film: “Never publish the truth”, and  that may be his downfall. 

KNB FX  does terrific work, as does director Dan Pavia, a chap whom I don’t really think I’ve ever seen his work before.  The Night flyer is again one of Stephen Kings Lesser known adaptations, which is why I sought it out.  However, it doesn’t show out as beneath the other Stephen King films. 

This is actually a pretty good piece of Work.