The Visitor (1979) User Reviews

crazy mess

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 8 March 2015]

Evil alien Jerzy Colsowicz (John Huston) is searching for 8-year-old Katy Collins in Atlanta who has mysterious powers. He and his bald headed children are opposed by a Jesus Christ figure. Raymond Armstead (Lance Henriksen) is the rich owner of the Atlanta basketball franchise. He is part of a conspiracy trying to gain control of the little girl by marrying her mother Barbara and having another child with her. Katy gets a gun as a gift from Jerzy and carelessly shots her mother paralyzing her. They bring in housekeeper Jane Phillips (Shelley Winters). Det. Jake Durham (Glenn Ford) is investigating Katy and the shooting.

The opening has a Christ-like figure doing an exposition to a bunch of bald-headed kids about an intergalactic battle of good and evil. Then John Huston walks in. That's some crazy drugs these people are taking. I'm tempted to claim this is a B-movie but the A-list cast belies its first rate intentions. The writing is a mess. Giulio Paradisi's directing is a mishmash of styles and ideas. I admire the spirit of abandon of this movie. It has a healthy dose of horror with a child and her superpowers like The Omen. The sci-fi motif is campy. This is weirdly fascinating despite it loopy story. It's definitely not a good movie but I kept watching anyways.

"Sateen was a mew-tant."

[utgard14 · 4/10 · 29 July 2014]

The plot, as I hopefully understand it, is that Satan (or Sateen, as this film calls him) fathers children with supernatural powers. One of these children is 8 year-old Katy, who has telekinetic powers and a heavy Southern drawl. An intergalactic traveler called The Visitor must battle the child for the fate of the universe....or something like that. There's also some stuff about an evil hawk, some bald aliens, and a crazy-eyed Jesus with a bad blonde wig.

Nonsensical Italian-made claptrap that combines '70s fascinations with the occult and aliens. It's an awful movie that rips off many better movies, made watchable by some striking imagery and interesting casting. John Huston, Lance Henriksen, Sam Peckinpah, Mel Ferrer, Shelly Winters, and Glenn Ford are all in this. That says more about the state of their respective careers at the time than it does about the quality of this production. Incoherent but good for some laughs. Dig that terribly out of place soundtrack, too.

Below average fantasy movie with bizarre events and a good but wasted cast

[ma-cortes · 4/10 · 25 November 2018]

Affluent handsome doctor Raymond : Lance Henriksen and a powerful businessmen : Mel Ferrer, among others , conspire with grisly devil worshippers to conceive a devil child from a gorgeous divorced woman called Barbara : Joanne Nail . As the soul of a pre-teen : Paige Connor who has dangerous telekinetic powers becomes the prize in a violent fighting between two great forces , on a hand : God : Franco Nero assisted by Jerzy : John Huston and on the other hand , a nasty devil : Lance Henriksen along with hoodlums.

This is a strange film with suspense, thrills, chills, intrigue, demonic children and fantastic happenings. The picture takes parts here and there of famous films , as it catches scraps from The Exorcist by William Friedkin, The Omen by Richard Donner, The fury by Brian De Palma, Encounters of the third phase by Steven Spielberg and even The Birds by Alfred Hitchcock. The main amusement and excitement result to be the discovery about the images in which the movie is ripped off. The flick has a lot of absurd and embarrassing scenes and several thrilling set-pieces don't make sense. Support cast is frankly excellent with brief appearances of known actors and directors as Franco Nero, John Huston, Shelley Winters, and Glenn Ford as a detective who is attacked by birds at a thrilling scene. And filmmaker Sam Peckinpah who had problem remembering his lines and only worked a day.

Rare and anticlimatic musical score by Franco Micalizzi. Atmospheric but mediocre cinematography by Ennio Guarneri. The movie was produced by Samuel Z Arkoff from American International, though uncredited, and by Ovidio G Assonitis . Ovidio wrote, produced and directed a lot of B films, some of them were successful, such as Tentacles, Piranha 2, Choke Canyon, Lambada, Sonny boy, Out of control and Beyond the door.

The motion picture was lousily directed by Giulio Paradisi who uses the pseudonym Michael J Paradise. He has directed a few films such as Spaghetti story, Adventure in Montecarlo, Tesoro mio, and Ragazzi di Borgate. And he was a director assistant to Federico Fellini in classy titles as Fellini 8 1/2 and La dolce vita. Rating 4 /1o, inferior fantasy, Science fiction movie.

Utterly bizarre midnight movie with some charms

[outdoorcats · 10 November 2013]

This oddball midnight movie is getting a re-release and eventual DVD courtesy of the Alamo Drafthouse.

It's about an evil little girl, who is so evil that John Huston and his pacifist army of intergalactic bald yoga practitioners arrive from space to stop her. Meanwhile Lance Henriksen is the evil boyfriend of her clueless, innocent mother, who sold his soul to the satanic forces nurturing her in a Faustian bargain for...a basketball coach position.

Which leads to the early and highly memorable slo-mo basketball set-piece, easily one of the most unique choices of setting for a horror film sequence I've ever seen!

The atmosphere of this weird, weird film alternates between genuinely and oddly poetic (mostly thanks to the music), pure B-movie cheese, and unintentional hilarity. It's one of the strangest films I've ever seen, but that's not a bad thing in this case. If you give yourself over to its strange charms, this is some kind of consciousness-expanding experience.

Will you like it? There are folks who seek out these sorts of bizarre, unique B-movies. You know who you are. At the very least, you should this film an object of curiosity.

Somehow, and for some reason, John Huston, Glenn Ford, Franco Nero (as Jesus Christ), Shelley Winters, Lance Henriksen, Sam Peckinpah, Mel Ferrer and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are all in this movie.

Weird and Confusing

[carflo · 3/10 · 13 May 2004]

I am relieved to know that other people found The Visitor as confusing as we did. Over the years, whenever my husband and I have had some reason to mention this movie, we always call it "That weird movie with Jesus in a turtleneck." We spent hours afterwards trying to understand the plot; we never got as far as even trying to understand the meaning.

We went to see because it had such a good cast. The previews suggested it had a supernatural theme, which appealed to us. It was a mistake. We should have stayed home and rotated the mattresses.

I can watch really bad movies without a shudder. I even rather like very bad movies. But The Visitor is in a class by itself. It made absolutely no sense - none. I have read that part of the problem is bad editing. I would hope so. I hate to think that so many fine actors would waste their time on this mess as it is.

Let me make sure I've got this straight.

[soulexpress · 2/10 · 25 January 2023]

An old guy wanders the desert, sees a little girl in a cape, then goes into a greenhouse where a bunch of little bald kids are being indoctrinated by this weird hippie cult leader.

Next, the little girl gets a loaded gun for her birthday and accidentally shoots her mom, who seems really chill about being paralyzed from the waist down. Then, Shelly Winters comes to babysit the mom, the little girl goes ice skating, a bird attacks and kills a police detective, and the weird old guy comes to "babysit" the little girl. Next, for God knows what reason, there's something about a basketball team, which the little girl's dad, who happens to be evil, is coaching.

The little girl tries to kill her mom with a bird, but mom's babysitter kills the bird instead. So the girl pushes the wheelchair-bound mom into a giant aquarium with no fish in it, but mom is still somehow alive. So the little girl tries to kill her again, while the evil dad watches.

Meanwhile, the old weird guy is watching some bizarre laser light show going on at the skating plaza, then the Bird Apocalypse happens, and the film is over.

Is that how it plays out, or did I get a contact high from my pot-smoking neighbors?

How to Waste a Promising Story With Horrible and Confused Screenplay and Direction

[claudio_carvalho · 3/10 · 4 May 2005]

An evil force called Zatteen fertilizes many women from Earth with his seed before being eliminated, and their children inherit and perpetuate his power. Barbara Collins (Joanne Nail) is the last woman on Earth with this gift, and her daughter Katy Collins (Paige Connor) has an evil telekinetic power. A battle between good and evil forces settles on Earth. "The Visitor" has a very promising story and a great cast, with names such as John Huston, Glenn Ford, Shelley Winters, Sam Peckinpah and Lance Henriksen. I bought this unknown VHS expecting a great movie. However, the screenplay and the direction are horrible and completely confused, and it is impossible to understand many parts of the story. The characters are also horribly developed, and in the end, this movie is a complete mess. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Herdeiros da Morte" ("Inheritors of the Death")

appealingly weird mish-mosh of aliens, evil businessmen, demonic children, and birds

[FieCrier · 7/10 · 16 December 2004]

Weird movie, but it appealed to me. It does have plot elements and maybe even scenes that are derivative of other movies, but it puts them in such a strange blend that it comes out pretty original.

The movie opens with an old man on a barren otherworldly surface. It goes from him to a man with his girlfriend and her daughter at a basketball game. He's the team's owner. The editing and music in the scene are odd. The music throughout the movie tends to be incongruously more energetic and dramatic that the scene itself or its context. The young girl lowers her glasses to look one of the players right in the eye. He manages a dunk in the last second, and the ball evidently explodes in fire or light as he does so.

The old man from the opening (I believe he is The Visitor) shows up in an airport carrying a passport where he is met by a man with a shaved head. He's taken to the roof of a skyscraper where there are lots of people wearing identical outfits all with shaved heads carrying up large gray boxes. Later, there are white screens on the roof, behind which people's shadows move.

The basketball team owner has boardroom meetings with mysterious men who are unhappy with him. He is to get married to his girlfriend and have a son, but he is not having much luck with that.

The little girl has a birthday party. She sees the old man there, but maybe he isn't really there. When she opens a box that should contain a toy peacock that talks in a creepy voice (we saw it being bought earlier), it instead has a handgun. She takes it out happily, and throws it on a table, where it goes off, shooting her mother. Her mother is rehabilitated as much as she can be, which is inter-cut with the girl doing gymnastics routines.

The girl's eyes sometimes seem to have a white light in the irises, and she seems to have power over birds. There is a memorable scene with a policeman (who she swears at like a sailor) on a highway when he encounters a bird.

Many more weird scenes follow! The end leaves things a bit of a mystery, to say the least. If your usual horror fare is a remake or the latest installment in a seemingly endless series, best to avoid this one.

Unwelcome visitors and lost acting talents.

[Coventry · 2/10 · 22 October 2007]

What do Jesus Christ, a foul-mouthed 8-year-old girl with malicious powers, a flock of evil birds and the owner of the Atlanta basketball team have in common? This riddle sounds like the set-up for a lame joke, and that happens to be also the best way to describe "The Visitor": a lame, bad, drawn-out and overlong joke! The biggest mystery to unravel here is WHY so many terrific and experienced actors got lured into signing up to star in this cinematic mess! The cast includes John Huston, Sam Peckinpah (both prominent directors themselves), Lance Henriksen, Glenn Ford, Mel Ferrer, Franco Nero and Shelley Winters. The plot is impossible to summarize, mainly because there are too many story lines and it really doesn't make the slightest bit of sense as a wholesome. The whole thing reverts back to the ancient battle between good and evil, fought out on earth. No less than Jesus Christ is giving us insight (if you can call it that) in the situation, and then he sends out an elderly angel to Atlanta, because that's where the final earthly descendant of the evil sorcerer Zathaar lives. The visiting angel's mission (I think) is to prevent that the woman, named Barbara, bares another child and he drastically succeeds. Then he still has to bring back her other daughter, the sinister Katy, back to the heavens. And there are birds. Lots and lots of birds. "The Visitor" is truly bizarre, but not in a positive way. Many of the action sequences and murderous accidents are clearly inspired by "The Omen" and perhaps the whole concept is even derived from that classic, as well as from "Rosemary's Baby". That would make this film the most ambitiously complex and admirably disguised rip-off ever made, but still a failure nevertheless. There are two notably powerful sequences, one involving an awkward during the young girl's birthday party and the other being the painful death-ride of the investigating police officer. "The Visitor" is an unbearably pretentious film, ridiculously plotted and remarkably boring considering the overload of story elements. The screenplay often feels incomplete and very incoherent. The fantasy elements are beyond lame and the special effects wouldn't even impress a 4-year-old. The cover-image displayed here on the website looks creepy and intriguing, but sadly like in too many cases, it's utterly irrelevant. Trust the rating and user-comments in this particular case: you do not want to see this junk

THE VISITOR (Giulio Paradisi and, uncredited, Ovidio G. Assonitis, 1979) {Edited Version} ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 23 January 2010]

Whatever one thinks of the movie itself, it cannot be denied that BEYOND THE DOOR (1974) was a highly successful property and when THE OMEN (1976; my own personal favorite of the three major diabolism films of that era) came along, it was almost a given that Ovidio G. Assonitis (aka Oliver Hellman) would contemplate something similar for the Italian market. However, he was anticipated in this by director Alberto De Martino's HOLOCAUST 2000 aka THE CHOSEN (as it was originally released in the U.S.) and RAIN OF FIRE (under which title it has recently been released on R1 DVD) – whereas Assonitis had, with his own BEYOND THE DOOR (1974), preceded De Martino's THE ANTICHRIST (1974) virtually by a couple of weeks! Even so, Assonitis went ahead with his project and, not to be outdone, he concocted a truly bizarre but fascinating mélange of horror and sci-fi that also throws in for good measure elements from THE BIRDS (1963), ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968), THE EXORCIST (1973), GOD TOLD ME TO (1976), CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977) and even DAMIEN: OMEN II (1978)! The cherry on the cake, however, was the fact that he somehow managed to rope in a stellar cast of Hollywood notables to give life to his ungodly premise: John Huston (in the enigmatic title role), Glenn Ford (as an ill-fated police detective), Mel Ferrer (as a sinister surgeon and chairman of a mysterious conglomerate), Shelley Winters (thankfully less obnoxious than usual as a maid-protector), Lance Henriksen (as the Faustian father who apparently sells his soul – and wife – merely to become a successful basketball coach!), Sam Peckinpah (remarkably restrained, glimpsed only in profile and in semi-darkness to boot, as an abortionist – but, apparently, he was drunk and cocaine-addled on the set!) and even an uncredited Franco Nero (as, ostensibly, Jesus Christ and a blond one at that)!! Despite his surprisingly brief time on screen, Ford comes off best from among his colleagues and I particularly enjoyed his altercations with the demonic and foul-mouthed child (the excellent Paige Conner – with gleaming eyes and, obviously doubled, turning occasionally into a faceless 'monster' – who, going effortlessly from sweet to sinister, undoubtedly delivers one of the best child performances in this type of film); another good turn is given by Joanne Nail as her long-suffering mother who, among other things, is left half-paralyzed and wheelchair-bound after a gunshot wound accidentally fired by her own daughter; is abducted and artificially impregnated by an 'alien' bunch inside a truck parked down a darkened tunnel; eventually, her offspring contrives to push the woman straight into a large aquarium in slo-mo (just as Winters has finished assuring her that no harm will come to her while she is around)! It would be virtually impossible to describe the decidedly mystifying plot in a few words, so I will just concentrate on a series of images that remained with me since my viewing of the film: the pre-credits sequence in which a cassock-wearing Huston, seemingly in Heaven or at least another planet, prepares to face up to his enemy; the opening scene set in a basketball court in which the leading player of Henriksen's opponents (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) is literally 'exploded' by Conner's gaze prior to his netting the winning ball!; Conners showing her deadly ice-skating abilities by sending several leering male kids to their doom; the setting-up of Huston's rooftop base by an army of bald-headed acolytes; the surreal chasing of Conner by the latter in Peckinpah's dilapidated clinic; Ford's eye-gouging by Conner's pet falcon and subsequent fiery demise; babysitter Huston dueling with his charge-quarry Conner via a now-primitive video-game; later still, her attempt to do the old man in by literally dropping a stairway on top of him (flattening a shop in the process) a' la THE OMEN's unforgettable falling glass-plate; followed shortly by their showdown inside a hall of mirrors (borrowed, no doubt, from Orson Welles THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI {1948}); the landing of the spaceship in downtown Atlanta; the climactic – and apparently elliptical –'cleansing' attack of a flock of pigeons (standing in for the proverbial doves); the epilogue in which the monk-like Huston brings a seemingly reformed bald-headed Conner in Nero's celestial abode of equally head-shaven children. Strangely enough, it is never explained why the villainous sect need a boy 'heir' when Conner is clearly being such a good {sic} ambassador of Evil on Earth (incidentally, obscure director Paradisi walked off the film which was subsequently completed by producer Assonitis) but, luckily, Franco Micalizzi's alternately funky and eerie score and the occasionally striking visuals smooth over such inconsistencies. In fact, it would be very easy to bash STRIDULUM (whatever that means, it is how THE VISITOR is known – if at all – on its home-ground given that it has never been shown on TV in my neck of the woods) as a desperately derivative and incoherent mess but, frankly, I found it far too enjoyable and weird to be dismissed. For the record, I watched an acceptable (albeit full-frame) VHS-sourced copy of the 90-minute English-language U.S. theatrical version but, since most of the cast is American anyway, this is the right way to watch it; still, apparently, the Italian edition is slightly longer and features an alternate version of the scenes featuring Peckinpah! Although an Italian DVD edition is currently available, as a result of this surprisingly satisfactory first viewing – emulating a similar experience I had in a previous Halloween Challenge with the equally maligned William Castle production, BUG (1975) – I am now looking forward to that long-rumored, fully-loaded R1 DVD from Code Red that promises to offer the longest ever available version (108 minutes) of this unique gem!

GAWD awful

[winstonnc-1 · 1/10 · 13 July 2005]

"The Visitor" holds a rare distinction: of the thousands of films I've seen as a paying moviegoer and paid critic, it is probably the one at the VERY bottom of the barrel. Compared to this, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" and other Ed Wood movies come across as masterpieces of celluloid art. A weird Italian-American ripoff of the horror/sci-fi cycle of the '70s (from "Omen" to "Close Encounters"), this movie looks as though it was made by a hallucinating crew that tossed the old script and started with a new one every day. There is virtually no continuity - and most of the big Hollywood names apparently working for scale and by the day (Shelley Winters, John Huston, Glenn Ford, Sam Peckingpah, etc.) stagger very briefly about looking hung over and very confused. For years, I thought my dim recollections of this movie were a bad dream; but IMDb proves I actually DID sit through this, ah, epic. The most vivid memory I have of it, for some reason, is Shelley Winters doing a perky rendition of "Shortn'ng Bread." Nelson Eddy must have spun in his grave - and if was dead yet, that probably killed him!

There's Nothing Like It

[vorazqux · 8/10 · 23 January 2011]

I understand how some (perhaps most) viewers found The Visitor an incoherent mess, but it may be due to poor editing since its U.S. release in 1979 which, evidently, was also released theatrically to international audiences. However, I am only speculating, but I do know the original Italian version is longer. That version may help to fill in the gaps and possibly extends some of the more emotional scenes in the film which have been severely cut. As I was watching The Visitor, I was disappointed at how abruptly some of these scenes concluded. I wanted and expected a deeper connection to the material and the characters. Regardless of these setbacks, the movie is unquestionably unique on many levels, and I didn't find it difficult to follow. Perhaps because it IS so outlandish, I enjoyed fitting the pieces together. There was never a dull moment with so many things happening throughout the course of the story line. The atmosphere was classic 70s style, and the acting was not bad at all despite (again) the poor editing.

The Visitor is an Omen copy to a degree, but instead of demonic forces at work, the film centers on an evil alien force. This alien force is actually an escaped prisoner named Zatteen, who finds refuge on Earth many years in the past after fleeing from a deadly battle in space. Before his eventual death, he impregnates a number of women, passing along his mutated genes and allowing his future offspring to possess telekinetic powers. Since Zatteen had evil intentions and only wanted to kill and destroy others, his children are of the same breed. In order to carry out his catastrophic deeds, a cohort of wealthy men led by Dr. Walker (Mel Ferrer) is assembled to ensure his plan of world domination succeeds. This mission is challenged when only one woman on the planet in the present day bears the ability to fertilize Zatteen's seed, and her name is Barbara Collins (Joanne Nail). Barbara has already given birth to Katie (Paige Conner), a now eight year–old daughter who shows us she is no angel with some of the wicked things she says and does. The cohort wants Barbara to give birth to a son so he can become the new Zatteen of his generation. This task of impregnating Barbara is given to Raymond Armstead (Lance Henriksen), who must convince her to marry him despite the fact she is unwilling to commit to marriage. Barbara, of course, does not realize she has the special gift of carrying Zatteen's seed in her womb, but she knows intuitively that something is wrong with Katie. That sets up the premise of The Visitor. Of course, there are birds that attack on command, a watchful babysitter (Shelley Winters), a police detective on Katie's trail (Glenn Ford), a mysterious butler, a Jesus–like character who tells tales of the evil Zatteen to a group of young bald–headed children, and the good–guy visitor himself (John Huston), who congregates his disciples on the roof of a large skyscraper. The first fifteen minutes of the film unravels the basis of the plot, but as the viewer, it's important to listen to the dialogue. A lot happens quickly.

Whether you like the film or find it a mess, to say it's not an entertaining effort would seem unfair. The only thing that really was annoying to me was part of the soundtrack dealing with the discotheque music. It was way over the top and out of place for this type of picture. I'm sure it fit the times and some people enjoyed it, but if the movie is to be taken seriously on any level, then that music has to go. If the movie was intended as hype – which doesn't appear to be the case – then the histrionic melody is warranted. On the other hand, the moody, ambient music was excellent, and the ending was solid. Give this cult classic a shot and be prepared to go on a strange journey of plot twists and turns. Watch it on a rainy day when you have the time or are feeling ambiguous and/or disconnected from the world. We all have those days sometimes. That's when The Visitor will leave you a little numb, confused, and scratching your head... but in a good way.

Incompetent nonsense with well-known cast.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 6/10 · 17 April 2008]

Kathy Collins is no ordinary eight year old girl.Indeed,she is unique,carrying within her the power of Sateen,an inter-spacial force of immense magnitude.Katy's primary mission on Earth is to carry these genes forward,a task accomplished by convincing her mother Barbara to bear a similarly endowed male child with whom Kathy would eventually mate."The Visitor" makes no sense.It plays like insane mix of such occult films as "Rosemary's Baby","The Exorcist" and "The Omen" but also a tribute to such sci-fi classics as "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".There are so many disconnected plot elements for example aliens wandering through the desert,giant green clouds billowing up from nowhere or the sky turning the color of blood,but the action is fast paced and some surreal images are quite psychedelic.6 out of 10.

Deluxe Garbage

[saint_brett · 1/10 · 11 October 2023]

Pop your LSD, 'cause here's a movie even Cronenberg would be proud of.

Obi-One Kenobi is on a 6-day 'shroom binge when, out of nowhere, up pops a bandmember from Tangerine Dream cloaked in Jedi knight fatigues.

Not a word is spoken as a face-off unfolds, but the big revelation is that the Sith Lord is in fact Tori Amos' Cornflake Girl who turned to the Darkside, much to the disappointment of Kenobi.

The opening scene doesn't explain its purpose.

A biblical figure with beautiful eyes - name withheld - then preaches campfire stories and indoctrinates a bunch of vanilla monk children who all hang off his every word like brainwashed zombies.

Only ten minutes in, and not one word spoken so far has made any sense.

The biblical figurehead with the pretty eyes has a stroke when he realizes that he's forever trapped in 1970 with no way of returning to ancient times.

Bishop, from 'Terminator,' attends a basketball game and ogles over cheerleaders like Lester Burnham while Regan MacNeil walks the outer court in Kurt Cobain Locs as chilling music lets us know that basketball can shiver your timbers and possess balls that explode in the dribblers faces for no reason other than discrimination against basketball players.

Kenobi arrives in the future like 'Highlander' and hooks up with that traitor Turkey who defected to The Baldies.

They assemble the rest of the vanilla monks and display their beekeeping skills to showcase that the future lies in honey.

Bishop, from 'Terminator,' congregates with Gorbachev and his ring of merry men to thwart the beekeepers plan for world dominance through syrup takeover.

Kenobi taunts Regan - five-yard penalty - and provides her with a loaded handgun for her birthday, so she blows her mother away for no reason.

She's flesh wounded as a result, and the movie jumps all over the shop, from a possessed child doing gymnastics to a woman shooting up heroin and roasting on a rotisserie machine.

Even though Regan attempted to kill her mother, she holds no grudges toward her murderous daughter and seems to be happy to be left paralyzed.

Hyacinth from 'Keeping Up Appearances' is hired to babysit Regan, which results in a lot of child abuse and torment.

The evil shadow men on the rooftop protect their beehive boxes while Kenobi oversees their commitment to be turned into worker ants through silhouetted curtain dance moves and shaved head loyalty as proof of their dedication and devotion toward the queen bee, who I'm assuming is the devil child, Regan.

A detective, with a stained lower lip and a propensity to spy on elementary children, searches Regan's residency without a warrant, steals a thrift store bird statue, and is attacked for doing so by a real-life baby falcon who's killed at the end by Hyacinth.

The baby falcon causes our detective to crash in Ducky Boy territory, which angers them, so they rob the dying man of his wallet and car parts and set fire to him alive.

Not making one ounce of sense, Kenobi, dressed in safari attire, removes his ankle monitor and spies on underage children at a skating rink.

Somehow, without a green card, Kenobi lands a job as a babysitter, even though he's registered on a database.

In a small world, out of all the people he's assigned - Regan.

He lines his pockets full of candy and plays video games with the minor, which leaves one questioning if his motives are sinister with underlying tendencies.

And what happened to his mission about controlling the rooftop bee people? I thought Hyacinth was in charge of Regan.

Kenobi further confuses the movie by pulling the covers off a rooftop pool and confessing his sinister plot to the wheelchair mother who was abducted the previous night by Close encounter aliens who are operatives of Gorbachev's secret society.

Hey, I'm doing the best I can. If you think you can interpret this movie any better, then be my guest and go your hardest.

Kenobi lures Regan to the rooftop of his honey pool experiment, where she's greeted by the vanilla monks, who are just as creepy as every other weirdo in this.

Losing his composure and using the force with anger, Kenobi kills a hotdog standman for no reason, leaving him not standing.

He then taunts Regan in a house of mirrors, like she's Conan the destroyer. (Another yellow flag penalty.) He does a number on her for some reason and keeps rambling on about children, which surely must be setting off red flags by now.

Using stock footage, Kenobi opens the covers of the rooftop pool again in an attempt to communicate with the Close Encounter or Space Invader aliens, while an exorcism is performed on Regan that fails miserably and results in her murdering her mother a second time, but a mob of killer pigeons is substituted over locusts this time as this is no 'Exorcist 2' and they come to save the day, but this movie needed to come with an instruction manual as it's directionless and pointless.

Why is Jesus visiting aliens?

[lovecraft231 · 2 April 2011]

Italian exploitation and horror is known for a lot of things: strong atmosphere, striking visuals, nauseating gore, excellent music, exquisite cinematography-you know, the good stuff. Oh, and ripping off whatever was really big at the time. Two names come to mind in these cycles-one is Bruno Mattei, and the other is Ovidio G. Assonitis. Sure, he did produce the giallo classic "Who Saw Her Die?", but he's mostly known for producing, writing and directing films that ripped off "The Exorcist" ("Beyond the Door")." "Jaws" ("Tentacles", "Piranha II: The Spawning"), "Conan the Barbarian" ("Iron Warrior"), and other titles that were popular at the time. Well, in 1979, he put a whole lot of eggs in a basket to give the world "The Visitor", and the result is one of the most certifiably insane genre pictures I've ever seen.

The plot deals with an alien being (John Huston-yes, that John Huston), who must save an eight year old girl Katy Collins (Paige Conner), who has evil powers. Her mother Barbara (Joanna Nail) is dating basketball player Raymond Armstead (Lance Henriksen, proving he had been in bad movies for years), and wants to marry her. Also, evil businessman Dr. Walker (Mel Ferrer) has a specific interest in Katy, and wants Babara to produce another child, which Babs has no desire to do. Well, she ends up getting pregnant anyway, and Jerzy Colsowicz (the name the alien ends up taking) lets her know that the kid can't be born. Plus, he now finds himself fighting Katy and her falcon for the fate of the universe, and Django himself, Franco Nero shows up as Jesus Christ, though the wig he's wearing makes him look like a member of a Glam Rock band than the Lord. Also, why Christ is visiting aliens is beyond me, but then again, Jesus does love everyone.

I swear to God, I did not make any of this up. This all happens in the movie.

Directed by Giulio Paradisi (who served as a second unit director for Fellini's "8½"), "The Visitor" is completely out of it's gourd. Let's say somebody spent a few days watching an old Biblical Epic, "The Omen", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "Rosemary's Baby", "The Fury", "The Birds", "Star Wars" and "The Exorcist." After this movie binge, they thought "You know what would be awesome? If someone combined all of those movies!" This movie is the end result.

To be fair, the acting, cinematography and direction are all mostly good, but the movie in itself is a train wreck that you find yourself recommending to others even though it's bad. Even by the standards of Italian genre fare the plot makes no sense, it contains a largely inappropriate score, and is so unapologetic about the movies it's stealing from. Then there's the other appearances, with Sam Peckinpah, Glenn Ford and Shelly Winters all showing up, seeming to be confused as to why they are in this movie.

At the same time, there's nothing at all to hate about the movie. I mean, it's a bad movie, but it's also the kind of once in a lifetime viewing experience that anyone who says they love horror should see. There really is nothing else quite like this movie, and to pardon the cliché, it must be seen to be believed, even though you won't be able to make sense of anything that's happening on screen.

See claptrap raised to glory

[bkoganbing · 3/10 · 30 October 2019]

Back in 1956 the movie world was shocked by The Bad Seed with Patty McCormack's role as a truly evil and amoral child. It took 23 years to find a cure for one of these bad seeds in The Visitor.

In The Visitor the bad girl is played by Paige Connor who also has telekinesis powers now. But folks far far away are taking note. John Huston has arrived from a kind of rehab camp for bad children and he means to take her away. But there are forces on earth who want to keep her here doing all kinds of evil deeds.

The Visitor is quite the mess of a film not wanting to get classified as fantasy, horror or science fiction. Some prominent names do some roles her and have all the satisfied look as people whose paychecks have cleared.

John Huston must know how his father Walter must have felt when he was doing The Outlaw for Howard Hughes. John as an actor had this great voice and when he was doing claptrap he could make it sound like The Bard.

See claptrap raised to glory.

Amazingly misleading advertising = Big Waste of Time

[LJ27 · 1/10 · 14 April 2008]

THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS: I remember this film was heavily advertised on television showing drawings of some hooded thing walking around and a voice-over saying that it had arrived on Earth. I was too young to see what was presented in the amazingly misleading ads as something similar to ALIEN. I am now happy that I was too young to see it because I finally saw this film on television and there are a bunch of birds flying around and some down and out actors looking embarrassed to be there but nothing resembling the claws and eyeball on the poster art. I think it was actually some kind of devil/demon OMEN/EXORCIST rip-off that was sold as an ALIEN rip-off. Come on guys, please decide who you are ripping off. This movie is a rip-off even if you don't pay to see it because it steals your time if not your money. I can't believe anyone likes this movie but I think it's a total waste of film.

This One Is for the Birds!

[BaronBl00d · 3/10 · 27 December 2005]

I am...to reference another viewer's shocked remarks at how one could say anything defamatory about this film...appalled at just the opposite. This film is in a word quite ludicrous. The film opens with John Huston in another world needing to come down and bring back a child. We then meet the kid and her mother and the man who wants to marry her. Yes, there is a lot of religious allegory here. Just because allegory is used does not make this profound or deep. It isn't. It has a story with many, many flaws. Lack of coherence being the biggest. Characters are never fully explained. Motivation for characters are never fully explained. Scenes cut from one to another with virtually no transition. The editor for this film must have been either blind or drunk. It is so choppy and incoherent at times as to suggest that several men directed it. Ovidio Assonitis, you might remember the brain behind such great films like Beyond the Door(Chi Sei) and Piranha II: The Spawning, wrote this Italian rubbish whilst another gets "credit" for directing it. I will concede that had more effort been given to fleshing out the story and had the producers picked a real editor and had a real score been made for the film rather than that awful 70s-like soundtrack used and had some more realistic special effects other than blue screens and the like been used - then, yes, this might have been somewhat decent. But you know what? They didn't. What we have here is a weird, highly implausible, very incoherent picture with a cast of famous actors looking quite foolish. John Huston looks quite grandfatherly as the man/angel(?) coming to Earth to find this child. Huston looks lethargic and weary. After having seen this film, he had every right to look and feel that way. Maybe they should have asked him for some advice with direction. Hey, Sam Peckinpah has a small role too. With all that experience why not ask? What could it have hurt? The young actress playing the bratty child is Paige Conner, and she does quite well as an annoying kid you want to see flee the screen as soon as possible. She emits profanity, a trademark Assonitis used with other child actors in Chi Sei with equal ability, with ease to Glenn Ford in what can only be termed as a throw-away role. Shelley Winters is here as some important person. God only knows who. She sings "momma's gonna make shortening bread" about ten times and slaps the kid in the face. Mel Ferrer and Lance Henrikson play heavys. Johanne Nail plays the mother, and she goes through so much that in any other film she would have been dead after the first reel. In here she is shot, paralyzed, pushed into a gigantic fish tank, pulled and then dropped down stairs, and is choked with wire. Oh, and by the way, she manages to be impregnated and have an abortion too. What a woman! Nail, to her credit, is pretty good as she does manage to keep a straight face throughout. Pity, I wasn't able to. Many scenes stand out as being quite absurd. My favorites are: the girl skating on ice like a maniacal Dorothy Hamil and the bird scene where death from above takes the form of pigeons with a vengeance. A totally ridiculous film in every sense. And yes, Franco Nero does indeed have a cameo at the end as some kind of Christ figure. Ooh! That was awfully clever huh? Phew!

Get ready to take a "Walk on the wild side"

[nisi92 · 7/10 · 14 January 2013]

I believe in given movies a chance and I am glad a did with this movie. After the birthday scene, I was hooked. Yeah its bizarre,low budget,okay sound effects but suspenseful,fun,wild,and interesting who can ask for more. Also, it has a great cast and decent plot or whatever you want to call it. The tone of the movie was nice and loved the 70s style in movies when done right. I learned early on after watching this movie to try not to figure it out or believe me it will drive you LOONEY, just enjoy the ride even though you don't know where it will take you. I know this kind of movie might not be for everyone but just give it a chance could become a treat like it did for me while your up late at night and cant go to sleep.

Avoid this incoherent time-waster at all costs!

[MarshallStax · 1/10 · 17 December 1998]

Possibly the worst film I have ever seen, "The Visitor" has many disconnected plot elements that never seem to go anywhere or make any sense. Guys wandering the desert, giant green clouds billowing up from nowhere, spirals of birds whirling indoors...as a series of unconnected images, I suppose the movie may have value, but as a story it is completely worthless. I saw this theatrically on its initial release and hated it; I tried to watch it again a decade later. I thought, "It couldn't really be as bad as I remember," but it was and I fell asleep as it dragged on. Totally awful.

Not Confusing, Just Weird

[dwankan · 6/10 · 12 July 2021]

Despite all the reviews claiming otherwise, this movie isn't at all hard to understand. Yes, the editing is crazy, and the plot takes a lot of very strange turns, but it's pretty clear what's happening in the movie: it's just very bizarre. If you like weird stuff, you might like this film. Then again, you might not. I wanted to turn it off several times, but curiosity kept me watching. The worst part of it was I got a distinct feeling that the little girl was intentionally sexualized in certain scenes. It wasn't blatant, but there were several moments when I was uncomfortable with how the camera and the script seemed to be ogling her.

Ummm... What??

[dracforever · 1/10 · 8 April 2018]

If there was a plot to this movie, I have no clue what it was. Seemed to me that there was not an iota of continuity to this film. Maybe I am just not esoteric enough for this one. View it if you must, but be forewarned, it will be time spent you will never be able to reclaim in your life.

I LUV this film!

[franz66 · 8/10 · 28 January 2008]

I found this film in the bargain bin and sensed that it was a lost treasure and right i was! I understand why some people dislike it so, but I see it as a classic of its time. Its low-budget, gritty location-driven shooting is hardcore 70's style cinema, with a twist of manic Giallo style editing thrown in. It is the story of a visitor from a planet that was overtaken by storms so that their children had to become pure force, as shown in some fantastically composed sci-fi images of a lone planetscape and a chaotic sky that reminded me of "The Man Who Fell to Earth".

On earth a fiercely independent widowed mother does not want to marry the wealthy man who she's dating, which is a good thing because he's really working for a mysterious group of wealthy men who want her to have a son so that they may harness his powers for their own greed and corruption. Her pre-teen daughter Katie has these powers, is crazily talented at ice-skating and gymnastics, and also wants her mother to marry so she can have a brother. She cripples her mother during a bizarre birthday party scene so that her independence is at risk and she is forced to marry, but still the mother is determined to remain single. The Visitor (played by John Houston) intervenes in order to strip Katie of her evil urges and reclaim her as a force of good.

It does indeed sound confusing, but I had no problems in 2008 keeping up with its twisting plot, and appreciate the (by now) retro big screen TV and pong game that Katie's always playing, as well as the use of 1970's architecture, mod sci-fi imagery, and the use of birds as a recurring violent motif manifesting the alien powers. My only complaint is the music they chose... way too heavy.

Shelly Winters is awesome as the housekeeper keeping tabs on Katie and her emerging evil ways.

Bizarre mix of the boring and the fascinating

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 27 November 2016]

From producer Ovidio G. Assonitis comes this rip-off of THE OMEN which may be lacking in coherence and plot structure, but makes up for that in having a mainly famous American cast to give it some box-office draw. The only difference this time is that the child is a girl instead of a boy, but the usual accidental deaths are all present, along with a number of people on the sides of both good and evil fighting over her.

This surreal movie opens with John Huston facing a snow-covered girl with reptilian eyes in a barren desert where the sky is green and a huge storm brews around them. I think this symbolic opening is supposed to remind us of THE EXORCIST and that movie's prologue with Max Von Sydow facing Pazuzu in the desert. The special effects are unconvincing but nonetheless interesting, giving the movie a weird, surreal kind of look, a theme which runs throughout. After this we are introduced to Jesus Christ (played by Italian favourite Franco Nero) who tells a group of skinhead boys the battle between good and evil is still going on! A bizarre prologue to be sure but things are just going to keep getting weirder.

Finally, after about twenty minute, the plot begins for real. Barbara Collins is visiting a basketball game with her daughter, Katy, and her lover, Raymond (Lance Henriksen). Katy makes the basketball explode and thus her favourite team wins. We soon learn that the girl is possessed by evil and has a familiar, in the form of an eagle, to do her bidding. Her eyes also turn silver occasionally via some spooky-looking contacts. Henriksen, it soon transpires, is part of an evil organisation and has been charged with the task of getting Barbara pregnant again (as she gives birth to evil babies).

It's pretty hard to watch this film and keep track of what's going on, because of the sheer lack of coherence in the plot and the wealth of ultimately unexplained things that happen. The evil group that Ferrer leads is never fully explained as to its roots or why it affects them when the child dies. Similarly, the character of Huston is never fully explained or the bald-headed boys in the 'hospital'. The movie is pretty dated, with some appalling fashions (especially in the gigantic sunglasses that Katy wears occasionally) and a cool funky '70s music score (a highlight). Two black accident repair men turn up for a spot of wisecracking comic relief! The special effects are lacking but imaginative, and there's a fine stunt involving Ford crashing his car which is executed well.

The various deaths are about as gory as in THE OMEN, with brief flashes of a bloody eyeball being pecked or a knife driving into a throat. There are some standout moments involving Katy making a metal partition crash down onto a hot dog stand in her attempt to kill Huston, the aforementioned green sky dream sequences, and the ending, in which Katy is attacked by hundreds of birds. There's also a fun hall-of-mirrors sequence seemingly stolen from ENTER THE DRAGON.

The cast is a good one and makes up for the script's deficiencies. Mel Ferrer, a genre staple in this period, makes good use of his cold, creepy eyes as the chief villain. Lance Henriksen basically reprises his role from DAMIEN: OMEN II but is underused. Shelley Winters is good value as a bible-bashing nanny, while director Sam Peckinpah makes a brief cameo as a doctor. Glenn Ford is pretty good as a detective hot on Katy's trail who comes off the worse for wear, while John Huston is excellent and understated as the central crusader for good.

Paige Conner, though, goes over the top as Katy and comes off more as annoying and whiny than frightening or evil; she's pretty unconvincing and not a patch on Linda Blair. The final chief cast member is the familiar-looking Joanne Nail who struggles through an awful role which subjects her to a ton of abuse, like being accidentally shot, propelled into a fish tank, thrown down a flight of stairs, and garroted; it's pretty disturbing the amount of misfortune that happens to her, especially when she's in the wheelchair, and in this the film echoes Lee Remick's unfortunate character in THE OMEN.

I would liken this movie to EXORCIST II in that, overall, it is a flop and disappointingly disjointed, but it has some key artistic scenes that make it worth a watch. Of course, if you're a fan of any of the actors appearing in it then I would recommend it too, to see how they handle being in such a film. Sometimes boring and sometimes fascinating, THE VISITOR is worth tracking down for fans of the bizarre.

freaky movie

[pigeonsoflondon · 3/10 · 27 July 2014]

This freaky movie freaked me out. If you love scenes of old men walking down stairs you'll love this movie. Thank you to the sound editor for playing sexy music during the discussion about abortion. The apparent mime camp on the roof was fascinating. And how about that Jesus guy on that heaven planet. Also, seemingly all children are bald in heaven. There's a lot of graphic beak stabbing viewer discretion is advised. This movie proves that you can get about with just about anything is you put on a freaky accent.I do not approve of the inappropriate angles during the gymnastic scenes. This movie was freaky and had some major flaws.