Night Creature (1978)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Don't listen to the negative reviews

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The adult children of a reclusive and eccentric former game hunter, travel to his island fortress for a surprise visit. What they didn't count on was the 200 lbs jaguar he imported to hunt, now on the loose and turning the tables on the hunter. Set against the backdrop of a tropical southeast Asian island paradise, adorned by ancient temples and ruins, it's a picturesque vista that provides some interesting visual diversions both during the attacks, and in the more frivolous activities undertaken by the characters. But a scenic stage can't compensate for poor cinematic qualities and a laboured momentum that revolves around Pleasance's guilt-ridden redemption and vein attempt to re-connect with his distant daughter and the grandchild for whom he now feels responsible.Pleasance is so-so as the mysterious tortured soul, withdrawn from mainstream society to a tranquil oasis, unable to properly adjust to life without perilous pursuit and risk. To satisfy this deficit, he imports a formidable quarry, but the script goes awry when his daughters make their unexpected visit and bad timing turns to tragedy. Kwan as the down to earth daughter is realistic if clichéd, harbouring deep resentment toward her father's absence as a child. To her credit, Kwan shows herself to be a consummate professional, and playing well below her weight in this drawn-out pot boiler.As far as a catch-and-kill storyline goes, "Night Creature" is a basic rendition, with limited add-ons and a rather one-dimensional treatment – accordingly, the picture isn't too demanding, and nor is there much sub-text to reveal. The only skill required is to try and determine who's pursuing who, such is the propensity to film almost every action sequence against a backdrop of darkness or dense shadows, which doesn't assist the viewer when the title creature's posture is it's expression, and it's as black as the ace of spades.

The information I gathered together beforehand, from reading reviews and listening to people's opinions, unmistakably taught me to keep my expectations towards "Night Creature" very minimal. Everybody agrees that this is a non-worthwhile late 70's killer animal movie with incredibly poor production values and a whole lot of preposterously unnecessary padding footage. Still I was stubborn enough to continue tracking down a copy of this movie. The concept of a macho hunter obsessed with the combat-to-the-death against an invincible animal predator, taking place on a remote and inescapable island, is undeniably intriguing and potentially very suspenseful. Particularly because the legendary Donald Pleasance ("Halloween", "The Flesh and the Fiends") plays the obsessive hunter, and because the guy in the director's seat is Lee Madden ("The Night God Screamed", "Unchained Angels"), I literally ignored all the negative warning signs and nevertheless hoped to have stumbled upon a genuine hidden. Well, I was wrong … again! "Night Creature" truly is a failure of a film, and neither Donald Pleasance nor the bloodthirsty looking black leopard could do anything to avoid that. The film is irredeemably boring and repetitive sub plots are endlessly prolonged in order to reach the 80 minutes of playtime. Perhaps the formula could have worked as a short film, or an episode in some type of TV-show, but it's too confined for a long feature film and all of Madden's attempts to broaden the concept (like adding a dumb love story or insinuating a psychological ordeal) look just plain ridiculous. Millionaire Axel MacGregor is a self-made man who already achieved many things in widely versatile areas of expertise. Now he decided for himself that he would be the one slaughtering the ferocious Black Panther that already killed several people in a remote Thai area. When the animal nearly kills him instead of vice versa, MacGregor feels like a loser and offended in his manhood. He orders to capture the animal alive and ship it to his own private island, where he intends to continue the showdown. Unfortunately, however, MaGregor's estranged family just planned a surprise visit to the island at the exact same time. I still firmly believe the above could form a fantastic starting point for an exhilarating and suspenseful Man Vs. Animal thriller, but far too many things went wrong here. For some incomprehensible reason, Lee Madden loves to shoot all the action sequences in slow-motion. This annoying little gimmick does not only interrupt the pacing and tension; it's also very pointless because the wildlife footage is unclear & fuzzy anyway. The fake love story between Pleasance's geeky daughter and a chauvinist tour guide is uninteresting and the film is full of illogical twists. The often repeated simulations where Pleasance stoic face transforms in the muzzle of the leopard are completely retarded. Judging by his uninspired performance, Donald Pleasance wasn't the least bit interested in putting energy into this film, so why should we.

The major problem with Night Creature is that the 'creature' is actually a very cuddly looking black panther who clearly was quite well-behaved throughout production. Though he's supposed to be a powerful and deadly force of nature, he actually comes across as a rather dopey circus creature who wouldn't hurt a fly. Axel MacGregor (twitchy Donald Pleasance) is a big game hunter who brings the animal to his private island, where it proceeds to terrorize Socrates, the family Scotty Dog, distaff daughters Georgia and Leslie (Jennifer Rhodes and Nancy Kwan), granddaughter Peggy (Lesly Fine),and macho tour guide Ross (Ross Hagen). The film lacks suspense or chills, and an over reliance on slow motion, point of view shots, and narrative voice-over results in a technically inept final product. To date, this is the penultimate feature from director Lee Madden, whose next film, Ghost Fever, was even worse.

A voiceover accompanies and describes celebrated writer and hunter Alex MacGregor (Donald Pleasence) while he and his attendants plod through a Thai jungle during this film's opening scene, as they search for a deadly rogue black leopard that has killed numerous local villagers. Alex is attacked and savaged by the animal, and made permanently lame as a consequence, and his offer of a ten thousand dollar reward for the beast if captured unharmed is soon claimed by successful Siamese beaters, following which the hunter keeps the caged mankiller at his remote palatial home while preparing for a rematch. The purpose of this revived hunt will be for MacGregor to expunge a newly found emotion within him: fear (although his high-powered scoped rifle should be of no little assistance in that regard), and after giving his servants two weeks off with pay, loads his weapon with nine rounds (for the fabled number of lives), frees the creature and limps off alone in pursuit of it. This is an interesting notion for what promises to be a stirring tale of adventure, but then the plot shifts to Bangkok, where are found the two daughters of Alex, Leslie (Nancy Kwan) and Georgia (Jennifer Rhodes with the work's best performance), along with the latter's child, all about to embark upon a journey to pay their father a surprise call. The three females are escorted by a transplanted Texan, a tour guide in the Thai capital and a former lover of Georgia, and he becomes romantically embroiled with her sister immediately after the group's arrival at the vacated MacGregor estate, while the title character is only seen as he threatens the visitors, the big game hunter seemingly having been swallowed by the encroaching flora as he seeks his hardly elusive prey. The matter of Axel's struggle with fear becomes subordinate to his offspring's emotional entanglements, although there are many slow motion closeups of the brute to enliven the action in a film that is bedevilled with serious flaws of continuity.