“I’ve opened the circle. I’m ending the world.”
On New Mexico’s Maskai Native American reservation, Tribal Police deputy Youngman Duran (Nick Mancuso) is investigating a report from a local rancher that one of his mares has been mutilated.
When Duran’s parents died, medicine man, Abner Tasupi (George Clutesi) raised Duran. Now Abner is an old man. He has grown disillusioned with mankind. Abner uses his magic to put a curse on the Earth. He weaves a spell to end the world. Abner believes that everyone bad must die. Duran believes he is just rambling.
The next day he finds Abner dead. Abner’s body is covered with strange bite marks similar to the mutilated mare. Duran gathers the equipment he needs to bury Abner. When he returns to Abner’s home he finds Philip Payne (David Warner) taking samples from the body. Furious that Abner’s body has been desecrated Duran runs Payne off without allowing him to explain why he is there. Duran then buries Abner according to Maskai tradition.
Meanwhile Walker Chee (Stephen Macht), from the neighboring Pahana tribe discovers that oil shale is in the Maskai Canyon. The canyon is sacred ground. Working with oil tycoon Roger Piggott (Ben Piazza) Chee wants to exploit the oil but Duran knows the Maskai tribal chiefs will not permit it.
Payne goes to Chee to explain to him his theory of what is going on with the mutilations. He believes that vampire bats contaminated with bubonic plague are in the area. His mission is to destroy the bats. He enlists Chee’s help. While Payne is looking for the bats, the bats are attacking people. Not only are the bats draining them of blood, they are infested with fleas carrying bubonic plague.
When the Maskai chiefs steal Abner’s body they become infected with plague and die. Duran is now on board with finding the bats and killing them.
“Nightwing” was released in 1979 and was directed by Arthur Hiller. The movie is based on a book by Martin Cruz Smith. The movie is one of the lower budget affairs originally distributed by Columbia Pictures. Granted it doesn’t have the polish like the “A” list movies, but it is a fun horror movie. As a “B” run movie it also has become slightly obscure. It took awhile for me to first remember the name of the film, and then to find it. I saw it on TV once and then never again.
For years the movie has been labeled as a rip off of “Jaws”. I don’t care. Everything is a rip off of everything else. There isn’t a movie out there that isn’t compared to “Jaws”, “Psycho”, “Star Wars” “Jurassic Park” or “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. As far as movie plots are concerned there is nothing new out there. Get over it. It’s all in the presentation.
In 1979, the movie won the “Worst Picture” award at the “Hastings Bad Cinema Society”. An award society that is now defunct. A lot of critics weren’t very nice to the film, but fans were, pardon the pun, rabid for it. With good reason. The blend of Native American mysticism and modern day science adds mystery to the film. The melding of the supernatural with science makes the bats a greater threat. Were they a product of evil spirits or were they a product of man? The ambiguity is the theme of the story.
Nick Mancuso does a good job of pretending to be a Native American. Apparently, at one time, lots of Italians were cast as Indigenous Americans. The music score was done by Henry Mancini. The haunting music adds even more eeriness to the film as does the cinematography showing the Arizona desert in all its shades and shadows.
The bats are probably the worst part of the movie. They aren’t horrible but they do remind me a little of an old Bela Lugosi movie. The bat special effects are what remind you that it is a “B” movie. I am one, however; that believes a bad monster does not necessarily make for a bad movie. “Nightwing” is entertaining and spooky and I liked it.