The Norliss Tapes
Duplicating the highly successful formula of THE NIGHT STALKER TV movie, Dan Curtis returns to the made for TV horror film with 1973's THE NORLISS TAPES. With a screenplay by William F. Nolan (TRILOGY OF TERROR), THE NORLISS TAPES is the story of David Norliss(Roy Thinnes), an investigative writer attempting to expose the occult world as a sham. Norliss goes missing but leaves a pile of cassette tapes that tell of his frightening journey into the supernatural. During his investigations, Norliss comes across the story of Ellen Cort(Angie Dickinson) who believes her late husband has returned from the grave. Turns out she's right. On top of that, there have been some corpses turning up drained of blood. For whatever reason, THE NORLISS TAPES never gets nearly the praise of THE NIGHT STALKER but it is quite good. Thinnes is great as Norliss, portraying a cool, Bay area 70's journalist who's jaded and skeptical yet increasingly unnerved as things progress. Ironman Claude Akins almost exactly reprises his THE NIGHT STALKER role as a sheriff who clearly ain't buying any of this "voodoo bullshit".Norliss runs into the usual Kolchakian levels of conspiracy as he tries to solve the mystery whether it's from cops or occultists. There are scenes that are nearly identical to THE NIGHT STALKER but the violence is surprising for a TV movie. In particular, a great sequence involving a shot gun blast and the not so dead James Cort. Nolan's script is just perfectly timed for a TV film with the appropriate commercial break stingers. The basic storyline is very much similar to the Boris Karloff film THE GHOUL with a big shot of H.P. Lovecraft. Curtis' own DARK SHADOWS soap opera also seems to be a big influence, especially the big ring on Cort's finger in the crypt, which is very Barnabus Collins. You get to see a lot of Cort the walking corpse and he's quite a threat, not just a slow, shuffling zombie but more of a Janos Skorzeny type monster. The missing blood plot point really pays off in the end with a great reveal, instead of the usual vampire activity. And whoever sculpted that clay statue did some good work. Now that I think of it, a Kolchak-Norliss crossover movie would've been special. The conclusion doesn't answer everything, no doubt leaving it open for a possible follow up. It's definitely a good looking TV movie,stills from it would've made a great 70's scotch ad. The disc I watched from Anchor Bay has a great transfer, as good as it gets for this type of thing. This scared the crap out of me as a kid and I have a feeling it has many fans who are thankful for the release.If you want something fast paced and with some 70's nostalgia, check it out.