Different in tone from the TV series that followed, The Night Stalker movie is a little harder edged, darker, and pessimistic. There is little of the comedic interplay between Vincenzo and Kolchak, which, alternatively, would characterize the series. How could it be otherwise, when Kolchack, as a reward for saving Las Vegas from the ravages of a vampire, is thrown out of town at film's end, his job lost and his girlfriend literally stolen away from him by the police? And as the credits begin to role at the end, there is nothing but silence--no music--and just the feeling that government and media have it within their power to completely bend the perception of reality to their own desires.
Made when producer Dan Curtis was at the height of his career, The Night Stalker lifts many touches directly from Curtis' hit TV soap opera, Dark Shadows (and its two feature film spin-offs), which was just ending its run, especially the musical leitmotifs, the Barnabus Collins-like appearance of Skorzeny, the vampire, and chiaroscuro lighting that animated the mansion occupied by Skorzeny.
Made when producer Dan Curtis was at the height of his career, The Night Stalker lifts many touches directly from Curtis' hit TV soap opera, Dark Shadows (and its two feature film spin-offs), which was just ending its run, especially the musical leitmotifs, the Barnabus Collins-like appearance of Skorzeny, the vampire, and chiaroscuro lighting that animated the mansion occupied by Skorzeny.