Review by
Eric Hillis
Eureka Entertainment's latest blu-ray double feature gives us a pair of
horror flicks with Native American themes - Arthur Hiller's 1979
creature feature Nightwing and George McCowan's 1976
supernatural chase thriller Shadow of the Hawk. Both films are making their UK blu-ray debuts.
Nightwing
Directed by: Arthur Hiller
Starring: Nick Mancuso, David Warner, Kathryn
Harrold, Stephen Macht, George Clutesi
This 1979 Arthur Hiller directed adaptation of
Martin Cruz Smith's novel of the same name bridges the gap
between the Animal Attacks thrillers that were rushed out in the
aftermath of Jaws and the later eco-horror thrillers
spearheaded by the John Sayles' scripted Piranha and
Alligator. It's a serviceable enough Jaws knockoff, but it bites
off more than it can chew when it attempts to add a political subtext
to proceedings.
In classic liberal Hollywood fashion, the movie purports to care
about Native American issues yet casts a Caucasian,
Nick Mancuso, in the lead role of deputy Duran, a young lawman
overseeing a Meskwaki reservation. When a local farmer's livestock are
butchered by a mysterious killer, Duran finds himself at odds with the
social climbing Chee (Stephen Macht), a fellow Native who is in
bed with Big Oil and wants the trouble hushed up so as not to dissuade
potential investors from buying up the land.
Arriving on the scene is Philip Payne (David Warner), a blunt
Brit who has devoted his life to hunting down colonies of vampire
bats, which he has tracked to the immediate vicinity. After initially
rubbing Duran up the wrong way by desecrating the corpse of
witch-doctor Abner (George Clutesi), Payne convinces the deputy
to help him locate the cave housing the colony before they spread out
to the nearby cities. Before you can say "To the bat-cave!", Payne,
Duran and the latter's doctor girlfriend Anne (Kathryn Harrold)
are off on a quest to kill some fanged flying rodents.
Nightwing works best when it sticks closely to the
well-worn Jaws template. Duran is essentially Chief
Brody, the local cop trying to do what's best for his community, while
Chee is the movie's Mayor figure, more concerned with losing out on a
business deal than the threat posed to his people. In Warner's
straight-talking Payne we get Quint and Hooper rolled into one, a man
of science who also happens to be a badass with a line in monologues
about how much he hates vampire bats. Payne speaks about the creatures
the way Donald Pleasence talks about Michael Myers in
Halloween, even going so far as to describe them as the manifestation of
evil.
It's when the script – which sees Smith adapting his book with the
aid of Steve Shagan and Bud Shrake – tries to add a line
of environmentalism that the movie falls apart. In most eco-horror
movies, particularly the aforementioned Sayles scripted thrillers, the
rampaging animals are a direct result of man's mistreatment of the
environment. That's not the case here, as for all of the talk of Chee
teaming up with Big Oil, no tampering with nature has actually taken
place on their part. It's never quite established what brings the bats
to this corner of New Mexico, but the climax implies it was the
supernatural powers of Abner, who before his death invoked a spell
intent on ending the world. After the movie playing its drama with
such a straight face, this revelation comes out of left field.
That straight faced approach is Nightwing's ultimate downfall. Hiller and his writers take a silly premise and
turn it into a rather dull drama occasionally enlivened by the odd
schlocky set-piece and Warner's hammy monologuing. Sorry to keep
harping on about Sayles, but with Piranha and especially
Alligator, he showed that you can deliver an environmental message while also
having fun with what is essentially a monster movie. Hiller is best
known for his work in the comedy genre, so it's a shame he couldn't
inject some much needed humour into this project.
Shadow of the Hawk
Directed by: George McCowan
Starring: Jan-Michael Vincent, Marilyn Hassett, Chief Dan
George, Pia Shandel, Marianne Jones
Part wilderness adventure, part horror movie, part chase thriller,
director George McCowan's
Shadow of the Hawk plays a lot like an American riff
on Hammer's The Devil Rides Out. The Celtic mysticism has been swapped out for its Native American
cousin, but the template remains in place, right down to a climax
involving a circle drawn to protect our hero from the forces of
evil.
Chief Dan George, owner of one of the most endearing faces
in cinema history, plays Old Man Hawk, a medicine man who travels to
the big city hoping to convince his yuppie grandson Mike (Jan-Michael Vincent) to return home to their village and help him defeat said forces
of evil, which manifest in the form of a black Pontiac, a possessed
grizzly and various angry warrior types.
Mike initially gives the old man the brushoff, dropping him off at
the bus terminal, but he has a change of heart when he realises he
might have a chance of bedding Maureen (Marilyn Hassett), a
reporter who stumbled across Old Man Hawk earlier and much like
Jamie Lee Curtis in The Fog, has decided to hang around for no particular reason but to inject
a little bit of sex appeal to the story.
What follows is a muddled chase thriller that never quite sets out
its stall. Old Man Hawk isn't the most talkative, and so neither
Mike nor the audience are entirely sure why or what is chasing them.
But George, Vincent and Hassett make for such a likeable trio that
it's easy to just go with the flow and join them on their ambiguous
adventure.
That adventure delivers set-pieces that vary from unintentionally
laughable (Mike fighting a man in an unconvincing bear suit) to the
technically awe-inspiring (a scene in which a car crashes into an
invisible wall is a classic "how did they do that in 1976?"
moment).
It's all very silly in that '70s way that suggests the script may
have been written in a haze of marijuana smoke. But with three
engaging actors making the most of their paper thin characters, a
glorious wilderness backdrop and the odd impressive set-piece,
Shadow of the Hawk is worthy of rediscovery by fans of
this unprecedented era of schlock.
Extras:
A new audio commentary on Nightwing by film
historians Lee Gambin and Amanda Reyes; a new
Shadow of the Hawk audio commentary with film writer
Mike McPadden and Ben Reiser; trailers; and an audio essay by John
Edgar Browning. The first 2000 copies come with a limited edition
slipcase and collector’s booklet featuring essays by film historian
Lee Gambin and film scholar and author Craig Ian Mann.
Nightwing / Shadow of the Hawk is on blu-ray from Eureka Entertainment on March 15th.