“Do not follow me anymore or I will swallow you whole. That much I promise.”

Justin’s rating: I don’t think it’s even possible to see and review every single Stephen King adaptation. That particular list goes on and on.

Justin’s review: As might be expected, Stephen King has dabbled in pretty much every area of horror, including aliens, werewolves, zombies, ghosts, plagues, clowns, cars, dogs, Satan, trains, and — at one point — a moving finger. So of course he’s done vampires, most famously with ‘Salem’s Lot. But he didn’t stop there. Did you ever hear the one about the vampire who liked to fly actual planes?

Published in King’s 1993 short story anthology Nightmares & Dreamscapes, The Night Flier took a decidedly different approach to vampire nocturnal habits. It had an unusual path to adaptation: Director Mark Pavia and his team cranked this puppy out in 29 days, only to see the film release first on HBO (in 1997) and then by New Line in theaters in early 1998.

Miguel Ferrer, just a few years off another King adaptation with The Stand, plays sour amoral tabloid reporter Richard Dees (a character who also appears in King’s The Dead Zone). Dees starts to investigate a string of murders by a pilot at small airports around the northeast. This pilot, who’s named Dwight Renfield because a sillier name wasn’t available, has aspirations of vampirism as he drains his victims of their blood.

Dees finds fresh reporter Katherine Blair (Julie Entwisle, the wife of the director) nipping at his heels as they track down this juicy story. He doesn’t really respect Katherine’s aspirational directions — calling her “Jimmy” after Jimmy Olsen — nor wants to be her mentor, but she sticks around to be the remora to his shark in an attempt to prove herself.

Like similar characters in similar flicks, Dees doesn’t believe in the supernatural and scoffs at anyone who warns him that this Renfield might be more than he can handle. He’s also more than a little scummy, so I couldn’t wait until the moment where he got his comeuppance.

As Dees hunts Renfield in his own plane, the question is if it’s wise to chase after a moody vampire (no). But the tension is allowed to build, with more and more disturbing things happening along the way. There’s even enough space given to Dees, Blair, and their cheerfully smarmy boss to show how these tabloid reporters are bloodsuckers in their own right.

Stephen King’s unique talent is being able to take the mundane in life and transforming it into the terrifying. A Cessna airplane isn’t a symbol if fear or… anything, really, other than transportation. But when its black frame is sulking on a runway with dark windows and corpse dirt leaking from the luggage hold, it can start to ring those alarm bells that we have in the back of our head. Probably not a good idea to look inside, then. Vampires with pilot’s licenses are rare but not to be underestimated.

Ferrer plays perhaps one of his most unlikable characters, a very bitter reporter who’s seen way too much trash and been involved in covering a lot of it. But he’s also a genuinely good actor who makes for captivating viewing and can hold his own at the center of any good B-grade flick.

And yes, The Night Flier is somewhat good. It was all but shunned and slammed when it originally came out — like many other Stephen King short story adaptations — but over time it’s enjoyed a second life with admiring fans. I suppose it’s the fact that this movie is put together fairly well, tells a strange but engrossing tale, and even manages to be quite spooky in its own right. There are a few shocking cuts that made me jerk back from the screen, and the finale sticks the landing (so to speak).

I don’t want to oversell it too much, mind you. It is a short story stretched into 92 minutes with some filler, hosting a mystery that really isn’t one, and reserving most of the juicy stuff for the last 10 minutes. It’s a pretty darn rollicking 10 minutes, though.

There aren’t many Stephen King adaptations that are actual hidden gems, but this might well be one. Atmospheric, slightly unsettling, well-made, full of practical effects, and with a twist ending, The Night Flier flew under most people’s radars. Will it yours?

Intermission!

• “Why do all the weird ones like to travel at night?”
• Breast surgery horror stories is “always good”
• “You’re good with hicks, you’re the best!” “Thank you.”
• Smash cut to a disturbing bathroom suicide
• A grinning old lady outside the window where you’re being murdered is creepy
• Slow-mo scraps of airline tickets thrown into the air for some reason
• Renfield is from Derry, the same town where Pennywise lives
• Dirt with worms and maggots
• Gravestone kicking! The new fad sweeping the nation!
• “The fatties in the supermarket checkout line are going to love this guy. God, I hope he kills more people!”
• “When you give blood, all you get is a glass of orange juice. When you take blood, you get headlines.”
• His head was all the way capitated
• Growly dog… on a roof?
• Angry phone call montage!
• Many of the Inside View tabloid covers describe various Stephen King stories
• Man, he took out an entire airport
• You can’t see vampires in the mirror, but you can see their bloody pee
• The mirrors being smashed without seeing the vampire
• The movie going full-on black-and-white is a terrific choice