Details

Release year: 1973

Storyline

A reporter hunts down a 144-year old alchemist who is killing women for their blood.

Top credits

Directors

Dan Curtis

Writers

Cast

Darren McGavin — Carl Kolchak
Jo Ann Pflug — Louise Harper
Simon Oakland — Tony Vincenzo
Scott Brady — Capt. Roscoe Schubert

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Did you know

• Beyond the 90-minute version, there was additional footage filmed featuring George Tobias as Jimmy "Stacks" Stackhaus, a reporter who had reported on the previous series of "Strangler" murders in the 1930s. In that footage, Kolchak tracks down the veteran reporter and speaks with him about the murders.

• At the end of the film, Kolchak is telling Vincenzo and Louise Harper (now both also out of work thanks to him) that he's going to drive them to New York City and that they'll love New York. Director Dan Curtis and screenwriter Richard Matheson had actually planned to do a third Kolchak movie set in NYC. In New York, Kolchak was going to discover that Janos Skorzeny - the vampire from the first film - was not only not dead, but active again! This film was going to complete a planned trilogy of Kolchak movies, entitled The Trilogy of Terror.

• A planned third installment in the franchise, 'The Night Killers' was scripted, but ABC opted to develop the TV series instead of continuing the films. The plot had Tony Vincenzo hiring Kolchak to work for him in Honolulu. Whilst there, Kolchak discovers a cover-up involving UFOs, a nuclear power plant and important people being murdered and replaced by androids.