Perhaps I should explain that I am one of those people who are willing to sit through the most egregious crap, just to be able to hear Nancy Kwan's charming Hong Kong accent and see her fabulous zygomatic bones. But even for me, 1978's "Night Creature" was tough to get through. In this one, Nancy and a few others pick the wrong time to pop in on her dad, big-game hunter Donald Pleasence, at his private Thai island in the River Kwai. Donald has just released a preternaturally cunning and spitefully ferocious black leopard to hunt and engage in a battle of wits; a creature that wastes little time going after Nancy's half sister... Anyway, this movie is basically junk. Ineptly lensed and directed, with a weak story and little in the way of suspense, it surely doesn't offer much to the casual viewer. And the DVD in question here doesn't help. The picture is fuzzy and scuzzy, revealing a crummy and scummy 16mm print source, and the sound quality is very poor. Still, somehow, a viewing of "Night Creature" does have its compensations. Pleasence's acting is fun to watch, ranging as it does from hypermaniacal to catatonic. The film is atmospheric in parts, the Thai scenery looks nice, and Nancy Kwan looks even nicer. She is 39 in this film--18 years past her yummy Suzie Wong debut--and still looks very beautiful. Heck, she's still a looker TODAY, at 68! But even those zygomatic bones aren't enough to redeem "Night Creature." This is surely a film for Nancy Kwan completists only. Like me
15 Reviews
UNDEVELOPED MAIN THEME IS LOST ALONG THE WAY.
rsoonsa31 August 2004
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.
Kitty Kitty
Steve_Nyland6 January 2007
Like many I was suckered into watching this film thinking it was a horror opus with some sort of demonic black panther (leopard?) stalking scantily clad buxom B movie bombshells through the jungles near strategically photographed Angkor-esquire ruins of Thailand. It is but it isn't, and while NIGHT CREATURE isn't a "bad" movie -- there is some camp value to be had here amongst all of the conversations, and one really good extended cat attack scene -- it doesn't have much to recommend it, aside from Donald Pleasence. Like Peter Cushing or Basil Rathbone he elevates the film beyond the dreck level just by appearing in it.
Dr. Loomis plays a novelist and great white hunter drawn to equatorial Southeast Asia who takes up the challenge to track down a rogue panther that is mauling local villagers on some sort of island/peninsula/water bound isolated location. Predictably, he freezes up at the last moment of truth when confronting the beast and is maimed for life. "Crippled" is the non-politically correct expression. Other round-eyed Caucasian relatives drop by to visit, there is intrigue and romance under the jungle canopy and next to the photogenic ruins, and at some point the panther emerges from the teeming forests to claim the only white woman in the cast. The creature must be stopped lest it ruin the local tourism business, and Dr. Loomis gets really intense, sits around glowering like a madman while knocking back the native booze & gabbering about the past, and finally lures the panther to go mano-a-mano with his wits, slamming the doors at the last second ... and then skarkers. The film concludes with the surviving Americans getting onto a boat and leaving the natives to their doom, which would have been my suggestion from day one.
Filmed in 1978, this is actually one of the "When Animals Attack" vein of thrillers made after the success of crowd-pleasers like JAWS, FOOD OF THE GODS and GRIZZLY. Here the menace is in the form of a sexy trained panther, which means only one thing: Animal rights activists will be offended by how the animal was coerced into performing for the camera. If the movie had been made today the cat would be a computer animation and Ralph Feinnes would have played the Donald Pleasence role, so we can be thankful that the movie was made when it was & by who bothered to show up: It is a forgettable little bit of 70s Saturday afternoon idiocy. It's also funny how the pivotal scenes in the film all seem to involve action being staged with the Angkor-esquire ruins looming in the background. They serve only as a set decoration, whatever relationship the panther has with the ancient traditions that erected the monuments is never delved into, and essentially this is a PG rated (made for cable?) Jungal Trash exploitation film about white people going to the jungles and having all sorts of fascinating adventures while the natives carry the luggage.
What the film needed was some sort of lurid angle that would have produced bared breasts or better yet a blasphemous native sexual rite combined with a supernatural kicker. As mentioned above there's one great scene where the cat stalks a woman amidst the ruins, the final images of Dr. Loomis sitting in the boat with the face of the panther superimposed on him were perhaps the most evocative moments in the production ... aside from an excellent monsoon sequence filmed during an actual monsoon. If it sounds like I am just not getting into the spirit of things here you are correct, the film is plodding, unimaginatively staged, derivative, cheap, and has little to recommend it aside from another unhinged Donald Pleasence performance. Perhaps the most compelling reason to acquire a copy and subject yourself to watching it is that it's completely obscure, out of print, and with no anti-animal exploitation disclaimer at the end, likely to stay that way.
4/10; Worth a look for Animal Attack fans, otherwise you might want to try NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS, at least that one has some breasts.
Dr. Loomis plays a novelist and great white hunter drawn to equatorial Southeast Asia who takes up the challenge to track down a rogue panther that is mauling local villagers on some sort of island/peninsula/water bound isolated location. Predictably, he freezes up at the last moment of truth when confronting the beast and is maimed for life. "Crippled" is the non-politically correct expression. Other round-eyed Caucasian relatives drop by to visit, there is intrigue and romance under the jungle canopy and next to the photogenic ruins, and at some point the panther emerges from the teeming forests to claim the only white woman in the cast. The creature must be stopped lest it ruin the local tourism business, and Dr. Loomis gets really intense, sits around glowering like a madman while knocking back the native booze & gabbering about the past, and finally lures the panther to go mano-a-mano with his wits, slamming the doors at the last second ... and then skarkers. The film concludes with the surviving Americans getting onto a boat and leaving the natives to their doom, which would have been my suggestion from day one.
Filmed in 1978, this is actually one of the "When Animals Attack" vein of thrillers made after the success of crowd-pleasers like JAWS, FOOD OF THE GODS and GRIZZLY. Here the menace is in the form of a sexy trained panther, which means only one thing: Animal rights activists will be offended by how the animal was coerced into performing for the camera. If the movie had been made today the cat would be a computer animation and Ralph Feinnes would have played the Donald Pleasence role, so we can be thankful that the movie was made when it was & by who bothered to show up: It is a forgettable little bit of 70s Saturday afternoon idiocy. It's also funny how the pivotal scenes in the film all seem to involve action being staged with the Angkor-esquire ruins looming in the background. They serve only as a set decoration, whatever relationship the panther has with the ancient traditions that erected the monuments is never delved into, and essentially this is a PG rated (made for cable?) Jungal Trash exploitation film about white people going to the jungles and having all sorts of fascinating adventures while the natives carry the luggage.
What the film needed was some sort of lurid angle that would have produced bared breasts or better yet a blasphemous native sexual rite combined with a supernatural kicker. As mentioned above there's one great scene where the cat stalks a woman amidst the ruins, the final images of Dr. Loomis sitting in the boat with the face of the panther superimposed on him were perhaps the most evocative moments in the production ... aside from an excellent monsoon sequence filmed during an actual monsoon. If it sounds like I am just not getting into the spirit of things here you are correct, the film is plodding, unimaginatively staged, derivative, cheap, and has little to recommend it aside from another unhinged Donald Pleasence performance. Perhaps the most compelling reason to acquire a copy and subject yourself to watching it is that it's completely obscure, out of print, and with no anti-animal exploitation disclaimer at the end, likely to stay that way.
4/10; Worth a look for Animal Attack fans, otherwise you might want to try NIGHT OF THE SORCERERS, at least that one has some breasts.
pleasant freak out saves the day, if you wait long enough
HEFILM17 April 2006
The recent DVD release of this is pretty murky and mediocre at best, but the film is worth a look, especially for animal attack movie fans.
The opening scene is pretty laugh inducing with its POV cat footage, and most shots of the impressive title beast are used at least twice but the film does build some momentum. Ross Hagen, the producer and actor is pretty hard to take in his perky mugging fun lovin' tour guide character but once he gets scared by the cat things improve.
The direction is a big pain in the ass, lots of freeze frames and slow motion--the slow motion is actually effective once you get used to it but the stills and the voice over, especially right at the start have to be put up with rather than learned to liked.
The island setting with its ruined temple and rain is impressive as is the cat action stalking around the ruins or into the house. Good kitty. Cat training and wrangling gets top marks. There is a prolonged kill scene at night which is pretty intense, despite the hard to see DVD quality of it. This kill motivates Pleasance to do maybe his best crying freak-out in a long career. It belongs on any Pleasance fan's greatest hits tape! This is also one of the few in his fistful of film credits where he is the major character in the film rather than just showing up a couple of times quickly as happened more in the back half of his career--aside from the Halloween movies.
He totally unglues in this great scene, it is shocking actually the way it should be, this breakdown scene. From that moment on the film is much better and gains momentum steadily until the ending.
Has to be said that more people should have died for this to be more drama and less melodrama, but the central theme for the Pleasance character does work itself out and his interaction with the other characters is interesting. That can't be said for the interaction of those supporting characters on their own.
Probably unlikely a better DVD will come along anytime soon, and too bad the film didn't have a better director, but again the cat is impressive and if you can put up with serious problems in the first 30 minutes it's worth the ride.
The opening scene is pretty laugh inducing with its POV cat footage, and most shots of the impressive title beast are used at least twice but the film does build some momentum. Ross Hagen, the producer and actor is pretty hard to take in his perky mugging fun lovin' tour guide character but once he gets scared by the cat things improve.
The direction is a big pain in the ass, lots of freeze frames and slow motion--the slow motion is actually effective once you get used to it but the stills and the voice over, especially right at the start have to be put up with rather than learned to liked.
The island setting with its ruined temple and rain is impressive as is the cat action stalking around the ruins or into the house. Good kitty. Cat training and wrangling gets top marks. There is a prolonged kill scene at night which is pretty intense, despite the hard to see DVD quality of it. This kill motivates Pleasance to do maybe his best crying freak-out in a long career. It belongs on any Pleasance fan's greatest hits tape! This is also one of the few in his fistful of film credits where he is the major character in the film rather than just showing up a couple of times quickly as happened more in the back half of his career--aside from the Halloween movies.
He totally unglues in this great scene, it is shocking actually the way it should be, this breakdown scene. From that moment on the film is much better and gains momentum steadily until the ending.
Has to be said that more people should have died for this to be more drama and less melodrama, but the central theme for the Pleasance character does work itself out and his interaction with the other characters is interesting. That can't be said for the interaction of those supporting characters on their own.
Probably unlikely a better DVD will come along anytime soon, and too bad the film didn't have a better director, but again the cat is impressive and if you can put up with serious problems in the first 30 minutes it's worth the ride.
On the island, the boring island, the Puttycat prowls tonight
.
Coventry12 May 2009
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.
Hunter becomes the hunted
Chase_Witherspoon30 April 2011
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.
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.
Poor choices = failed movie
jefctaylor6 February 2006
Warning: Spoilers
With its muddy sound and blurry, grainy film stock, Night Creature is a real chore to watch. Poor choices in casting and music serve to underscore the queasy tone of the movie, which verges on a "Manos: The Hands of Fate" level of badness. The filmmakers have an odd preoccupation with Donald Pleasence' "crazy face," that has earned him the villain role in countless 70's horror. In this "jungle adventure advertised as a horror film" (thanks Psychotronic Film Encylopedia) Pleasance is supposed to be a big game hunter with an Ahab-esquire obsession with his quarry. The repeated fade from Pleasance' beady staring eyes to the black leopard's eyes is supposed to emphasize the connection between them (is Donald Pleasence the "Night Creature?" whoa, deep, man.) None of the human characters are likable; not the "hero," played by the producer in an ugly suit with an unbuttoned shirt, not the two female leads (one to be eaten by the monster, one for a love interest) and not even the little girl, whose peril is supposed to evince some suspense out of this mess. The black leopard, while acting unlike any real animal, behaves like a movie monster, killing for fun not food. Unfortunately, the decision to shoot nearly every scene in bright sunlight (what's the name of this movie again?) and to show the monster in full body view from the very first frame, rob the animal of its ability to be menacing. This movie comes close to "so bad it's good" status, but without the cast of MST3K to help you through it, you'd better give it a miss.
Absolute dreck
JohnSeal2 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
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.
Mediocre animal attack flick.
HumanoidOfFlesh23 February 2015
Donald Pleasence plays a big-game hunter who strands himself on his private Thai island with a leopard that once almost killed him during hunting.Unfortunately his family including two adult daughters visits him so the situation becomes more complicated."Night Creature" directed by Lee Madden is a mediocre animal attack flick with low body count and the lack of tension.There are few effective horror bits for example the scene in which the cat attacks and kills one of the daughters,but not much happens during 80% of the movie.Still if you are animal attack movies collector you can give "Night Creature" a look.5 tropical rainfalls out of 10.
Night Creature
BandSAboutMovies5 October 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I love Donald Pleasence because he was a working actor. Like John Carradine, he was there when you needed him. And at times, he'd show just how good he was. But he's a workmanlike - in a good way - presence in so many movies.
Directed by Lee Madden (The Night God Screamed, the Alan Smithee who made Ghost Fever) and written by Hugh Smith (second unit director of Abby, writer of The Glove), Night Visitor has Pleasence as Axel MacGregor, a writer and big game hunter who has unleashed a deadly black panther and doomed everyone around him which is a real problem as his daughters Leslie (Nancy Kwan, Wonder Women) and Georgia (Jennifer Rhodes) have just come to town along with Ross (Ross Hagen, who also produced this movie), a guide who seems pretty sleazy.
All this movie should be about is Pleasence hunting this animal that has already hurt him and he's brought it to his turf for one last battle. You have the great thespian monologuing and trying to imitate the big beast and man, his eyes bugging out and him snarling and that's the best.
At times, I'm given to just yelling out Pleasence line reads, like "The evil is gone" and "I shot him six times." I celebrate him eating at a salad bar in 90s giallo. I've read that he drank through this entire movie and I in no way want to judge him for that. My memories of the actor are always wonderful and he lives again every time someone watches one of his films, whether he's playing a President, the devil or a preacher who turns into a warthog.
Directed by Lee Madden (The Night God Screamed, the Alan Smithee who made Ghost Fever) and written by Hugh Smith (second unit director of Abby, writer of The Glove), Night Visitor has Pleasence as Axel MacGregor, a writer and big game hunter who has unleashed a deadly black panther and doomed everyone around him which is a real problem as his daughters Leslie (Nancy Kwan, Wonder Women) and Georgia (Jennifer Rhodes) have just come to town along with Ross (Ross Hagen, who also produced this movie), a guide who seems pretty sleazy.
All this movie should be about is Pleasence hunting this animal that has already hurt him and he's brought it to his turf for one last battle. You have the great thespian monologuing and trying to imitate the big beast and man, his eyes bugging out and him snarling and that's the best.
At times, I'm given to just yelling out Pleasence line reads, like "The evil is gone" and "I shot him six times." I celebrate him eating at a salad bar in 90s giallo. I've read that he drank through this entire movie and I in no way want to judge him for that. My memories of the actor are always wonderful and he lives again every time someone watches one of his films, whether he's playing a President, the devil or a preacher who turns into a warthog.
A man's obsession with a black leopard.
michaelRokeefe20 December 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Check that lame-o-meter. Donald Pleasence is Axel MacGregor, a world renowned writer, test pilot, big game hunter and writer. MacGregor has a lop-sided sense of machismo and his ego has been threatened by a black leopard who attacked him on safari. He has the animal captured alive with the intent to let the beast loose on his private Southeast-Asian island paradise in order to track it down and claim superiority with a high powered rifle. Meanwhile his daughter and granddaughter make an unannounced visit. MacGregor will have more than enough to deal with...right down to his last bullet. The supporting cast includes: Nancy Kwan, Lesly Fine, Ross Hagen and Jennifer Rhodes.
Good for a quick flick
soulful0123 July 2022
First of all, if you're writing a review and clearly don't know who Nancy Kwan is and her place in film history, you can forget pretending you know what you're talking about. That said, I agree this is not an award winning film, but it's good entertainment, which as I recall, is kind of the idea behind show business. It's a good made for TV movie, even though it was made for the SE Asia film market. At the time, and as far as can see to this day, every film had a love interest angle. This film didn't show the actual love scene, but implied it with a kiss. In the conservative SE Asian media market at the time, this is not surprising. There definitely could have been more hunting scenes, and the movie did seem hurriedly edited with a lot of choppiness from one scene to the next, but this was a budget film and not a Hollywood blockbuster. The version we see may be the one that was distributed after the Thai censors had a go at it. I don't know. All I can say is that for the $3 I paid for it, I thought it was a good movie with Donald Pleasance and Nancy Kwan, two of my favorite actors, in it. The 2 adult character actors are respected and performed well. The kid was annoying, but aren't they all? For those of you who obviously didn't exist in the 1970s, you really need a better understanding of the different culture and history of America's previous decades if you want to make commentary, and hope to make a career of it, on the films and other entertainment mediums of the time. I do recommend this film.
The kitty's gonna get ya if you don't watch out.
mark.waltz15 February 2023
Warning: Spoilers
An interesting setting for beautiful location photography, but idiotically plotted in certain ways, this adventure film with a bit of horror starts off fine, and I really thought I was going to like it. But when Jennifer Rhodes goes outside at night to look for the family dog with her daughter, it becomes absolutely ridiculous when she doesn't rush inside after telling her daughter to run because she senses danger. It's a 5-minute sequence of Rhodes being stocked by a black panther, covered in blood at one point and not trying to get inside to get medical attention. She's the daughter of Donald Pleasance, once a victim of a black panther as well, now determined to hunt it and destroy it, but putting everyone in jeopardy because of its presence on the outside. Nancy Kwan and Russ Hagen co-star in this disturbing and frequently dumb adventure where Pleasance can't explain why he did what he did, and now everyone else is in jeopardy because of his stupidity.
Playing another daughter of his, Kwan tries her best to create a compelling character, but the script really prevents that from being the case and the film begins to drag as it becomes more absurd. By this time, the audience has either begun to root for the big cat as those stuck there do nothing to try to get off the island, and Pleasance, despite having a commanding presence, plays a character so so centered and vile that the audience doesn't care what happens to him anymore. Obviously this is a script that someone like Peter Cushing would have turned down or maybe in Vincent Price's case just laughed at and walked away, and It ultimately becomes the cat and mouse game where the mouse is bigger than the cat but certainly not as strong.
Playing another daughter of his, Kwan tries her best to create a compelling character, but the script really prevents that from being the case and the film begins to drag as it becomes more absurd. By this time, the audience has either begun to root for the big cat as those stuck there do nothing to try to get off the island, and Pleasance, despite having a commanding presence, plays a character so so centered and vile that the audience doesn't care what happens to him anymore. Obviously this is a script that someone like Peter Cushing would have turned down or maybe in Vincent Price's case just laughed at and walked away, and It ultimately becomes the cat and mouse game where the mouse is bigger than the cat but certainly not as strong.
That Leopard's Not Roaring, It's Yawning...
azathothpwiggins18 February 2022
Horror icon Donald Pleasence is big game hunter Axel MacGregor in this non-frightening sleep-inducer.
MacGregor is so obsessed with a man-eating black leopard that he has it captured and brought to his private island, so he can hunt it. All goes well until MacGregor's family -including the lovely Nancy Kwan- shows up unexpectedly, unaware of the danger they're in.
Alas, what could have been a tense, terrifying story is instead a bland test of endurance for the viewer.
Absolutely nothing works! Not even Mr. Pleasence or Ms. Kwan can salvage this one...
MacGregor is so obsessed with a man-eating black leopard that he has it captured and brought to his private island, so he can hunt it. All goes well until MacGregor's family -including the lovely Nancy Kwan- shows up unexpectedly, unaware of the danger they're in.
Alas, what could have been a tense, terrifying story is instead a bland test of endurance for the viewer.
Absolutely nothing works! Not even Mr. Pleasence or Ms. Kwan can salvage this one...
This "Night Creature" Is Tame As A Housecat
missmonochrome1 January 2013
Writer/race car driver/pilot/big game hunter Axel MacGregor(Donald Pleasence) has been restoring temples in Thailand when a spate of local villages are plagued by a violent panther killing and attacking the residents.
Being given every multi hyphenate job title short of superhero, Axel sets off to hunt and kill the animal. Unfortunately, his legendary brass fails him and he ends up physically mauled and severely ego bruised.
Cut to the present, where he has survived the attack with a bad leg and a worse attitude. Axel hires a local team to capture the cat, and bring it back alive to his private island residence. Rather than any of 1,000,000 logical actions...he released the animal onto the island, and plans to stalk and kill it with a rifle loaded with 9 bullets (one for each of the supposed lives a cat has in popular idiom).Public safety is apparently totally less important than repairing the damage to his mythical reputation.
As it so happens, Axel's family decides to make a once in a half decade visit just then. Idle, spoiled daughter Georgia (Jennifer Rhodes), her independent half sister Leslie (a still sexy Nancy Kwan), Georgia's small child Peggy, and Georgia's boy toy of the moment Ross(producer Ross Hagen).
Billed as a horror movie, it's actually an extremely slow moving melodrama. The extremely well trained cat is always shot in slow motion, and there's only one actual attack in between long runs of meandering dialog.
Shrill Georgia ends up the cat's first island victim(due to an ill considered search for Peggy's pet dog), and poor Peggy ends up sitting out in the rain for what seems like 3 days while a weak Ross/Leslie love story is quickly sketched in, Axel's Ahab like obsession and post death of his daughter breakdown chew the scenery (and ample location shots) to pieces, and Ross attempts to save the day while looking to be more and more like Ross Hagen writing a Mary Sue stand in for himself that's far more accomplished than he ever actually was.
Nancy Kwan is giving nothing interesting to work with,Ross Hagen is a smarmy twit, Peggy as a character is nearly forgotten about, all of the native actors are little more than the help.
Donald Pleasence's fits of overacting are the only non narcolepsy inducing moments in an otherwise indifferent film with a an allegory as awful as the final visual transition serving as a dud of an ending.
Most all of the cast had long careers as working actors, and this film is pretty much the nadir for all of them, skip it and watch a National Geographic special instead. All of the gorgeous panther tracking and location shots, far less of the boredom.
Being given every multi hyphenate job title short of superhero, Axel sets off to hunt and kill the animal. Unfortunately, his legendary brass fails him and he ends up physically mauled and severely ego bruised.
Cut to the present, where he has survived the attack with a bad leg and a worse attitude. Axel hires a local team to capture the cat, and bring it back alive to his private island residence. Rather than any of 1,000,000 logical actions...he released the animal onto the island, and plans to stalk and kill it with a rifle loaded with 9 bullets (one for each of the supposed lives a cat has in popular idiom).Public safety is apparently totally less important than repairing the damage to his mythical reputation.
As it so happens, Axel's family decides to make a once in a half decade visit just then. Idle, spoiled daughter Georgia (Jennifer Rhodes), her independent half sister Leslie (a still sexy Nancy Kwan), Georgia's small child Peggy, and Georgia's boy toy of the moment Ross(producer Ross Hagen).
Billed as a horror movie, it's actually an extremely slow moving melodrama. The extremely well trained cat is always shot in slow motion, and there's only one actual attack in between long runs of meandering dialog.
Shrill Georgia ends up the cat's first island victim(due to an ill considered search for Peggy's pet dog), and poor Peggy ends up sitting out in the rain for what seems like 3 days while a weak Ross/Leslie love story is quickly sketched in, Axel's Ahab like obsession and post death of his daughter breakdown chew the scenery (and ample location shots) to pieces, and Ross attempts to save the day while looking to be more and more like Ross Hagen writing a Mary Sue stand in for himself that's far more accomplished than he ever actually was.
Nancy Kwan is giving nothing interesting to work with,Ross Hagen is a smarmy twit, Peggy as a character is nearly forgotten about, all of the native actors are little more than the help.
Donald Pleasence's fits of overacting are the only non narcolepsy inducing moments in an otherwise indifferent film with a an allegory as awful as the final visual transition serving as a dud of an ending.
Most all of the cast had long careers as working actors, and this film is pretty much the nadir for all of them, skip it and watch a National Geographic special instead. All of the gorgeous panther tracking and location shots, far less of the boredom.
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