Night Owl (1993) User Reviews

VERY low budget and not good--but there's something about it I like

[preppy-3 · 6/10 · 14 December 2010]

Movie shot in b&w and takes place in NYC in 1984 (for no reason I could see). Jake (James Raftery) is 19. He's handsome and popular but there's one problem--he's a vampire (none of his friends know). One night he brings home Zohra (Karen Wexler) and, after some rough sex, drinks her blood. He stuffs her body in a trash bag and throws it away. Her hot-headed brother Angel (John Leguizamo) is looking for her and won't give up. Also Jake falls in love with Anne (Ali Thomas)--but can he control his blood lust?

I'm going to be nice to this movie. It was made on an ultra low budget and though it doesn't succeed it has plenty of moments. First--the bad. I found the soundtrack VERY loud and obnoxious. It's punk rock and I don't like it. The script is kind of hard to follow and a lot of things just don't make sense. Also there's no real ending. The movie just sort of stops. But--I still like it in some strange way. For one thing the acting is good. Raftery is handsome and intense in the lead role. He expertly portrays his character's anguish at having to drink people's blood and his struggle to suppress it. Also he has multiple nude scenes and does have a nice body. Leguizamo is also good (if a little TOO hot-headed) as Angel. Actually no one is really bad. Also there's some nice directorial touches from director Jeffrey Arsenault. I LOVE one scene where all you see is Jake's eyes as he's watching Anne. Also there's an interview with the fabulous Caroline Munro about vampires. It's in b&w but on the DVD they have the full interview in color. So--this is far from perfect but I really like something about it. It was a labor of love for the director and it shows. I give it a 6.

Nice try

[Jonah14 · 6/10 · 17 August 1999]

The movie is shot by Jeffrey Arsenault with an unblinking eye. It is a textbook case of how to produce and direct a guerrilla film -- it succeeds, but its biggest success is its perfect casting of John Leguizamo as Angel.

Prententious Self Indulgent Bore

[Falconeer · 5/10 · 6 August 2020]

The Lower East Side scene in the 90's, that consisted of fake beat poets, musicians that usually couldn't play their instruments, and the junkies and barfly hangers on that thought they were among the most cutting edge scene since Andy Warhol's Factory, are the ones who created this pretentious film. Unlike the Warhol people, who earned attention from all over the world, the East Village scene existed, unnoticed by anyone outside of their group. But they didn't care, and "Night Owl" is a perfect example, It was a film that was made exclusively for those people, to impress them, and to include them in their project. it's a wasted opportunity, because "Night Owl" had potential. But to make it more commercial would have been a sellout. So instead of an erotic and atmospheric film, we get disgusting scenes of vomiting and of a vampire eating raw meat and licking the blood off the bottom of a refrigerator. And instead of atmosphere, we get poor lighting, rendering most of the images just too dark to see. The scenes of New York City are wasted, because so little of it can be seen in the 4x3 cropped picture frame. But at least the director made sure he included all his friends in his film, especially one "Screamin' Rachel," who gets WAY too much screen time, singing her lousy songs in the wretchedly lit bar, that could just as easily have been someones basement. Someone should have told her that she was appearing in a movie, and stopped her from staring into the camera (which isn't supposed to be there) for the entire time she is performing. The only good thing about this film, other than a few good camera angles, is John Leguizamo, who is sadly underused in this student film. If only someone with real knowledge of film making could have been involved to stop the director from making bad choices, "Night Owl" could have been a true cult gem in the tradition of "Martin," or "Fade To Black." Instead it is merely a curiosity piece to those interested in the NYC underground scene that was going on before the city was reduced to the generic, outdoor shopping center it is today. Sadly, NONE of this artistic edginess exists there today, and most of the people in this film are long gone...with the exception of Leguizamo, who went on to a successful career. The incredible Bluray label "Vinegar Syndrome" has given this thing the restoration treatment, but because the movie is so poorly made...it still looks lousy. There are so many great films that are lost. and deserve to be restored; "Night Owl" was an odd choice for them.

Meaningless Streets

[lastliberal · 4/10 · 25 October 2007]

So what if your life is meaningless and crappy. You live in a crappy abandoned building, and you go to crappy clubs that feature someone like "Screaming' Rachel, and you have a meaningless job in a pizza parlor (although we never see you working). Life sucks, especially your, and especially because you suck - blood that is.

Yeah, you do have that extra problem of picking up girls to quench that thirst for blood. I do say this for you, though, you do manage to have sex before you kill them. Your life isn't a total waste.

Jeffrey Arsenault didn't do anything in his first film to make me want to see his later ones and, judging by the response on IMDb, no one else has seen them either. There just didn't seem to be much of a plot. Sullen guy picks up girls, picks up Angel's (John Leguizamo) sister, gets in a fight with Angel, falls in love, throws up a lot after eating meat and drinking his own blood, finally can't take it anymore and rapes his love and chops her up after drinking her blood, gets in another fight with Angel. God, this man's life is miserable!

It just sorta ends.

It is cool seeing Michael Musto, writer for the Village Voice and frequent guest on "Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann"

One of the most interesting low budget vampire stories of the 90's

[Arska-2 · 7/10 · 18 February 1999]

The rough-edged New York City atmosphere in Night Owl makes you associate the film with the works of Nick Zedd and Richard Kern. Night Owl is, however, more sophisticated than the works of the transgression guys, and Jeffrey Arsenault seems to be a master of visuals whose skills are still somewhat in a certain stage of development. Anyway, Night Owl makes a nice surprise in an age when most of the contemporary vampire films coming out of the US are made by straight-to-video crapmakers who should never have been offered a camera with a videotape.

Not your typical vampire horror outing

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 30 October 2019]

Sullen vampire Jake (well played with brooding intensity by James Rafterty) resides in the East Village. Jake cruises trashy dive bars in search of female victims. Meanwhile, the hot-headed Angel (a dynamic performance by a then unknown John Leguizamo) goes searching for Jake after Jake kills his sister Zohra (a brief, but memorable turn by foxy brunette Karen Wexler).

Writer/director Jeffrey Arsenault eschews the usual bloodsucker trappings -- for example, Jake doesn't have fangs and the whole religious angle is notably absent here -- in favor of putting a pronounced emphasis on creating a grim seedy atmosphere and sustaining an equally bleak gritty tone throughout, with an intriguing depiction of the vampire lifestyle as a dismal and lonely existence. Moreover, Arsenault takes fine advantage of various scuzzy New York City locations and lets the meandering narrative unfold at a deliberate pace. The raunchy sex scenes are pretty hot while the moments of sudden bloody violence pack a jarring punch. Ali Thomas makes a favorable impression as the perky Anne, punk singer Screamin' Rachael belts out a few raucous'n'rousing songs, Andy Warhol staple Holly Woodlawn has a cool cameo as a broken down barfly, and Caroline Munro appears as herself being interviewed on television about her work in Hammer horror films. Only the annoyingly abrupt ending leaves something to be desired. Starkly shot in grungy black and white, this is worth a watch for those seeking something different in the vampire horror genre.