The Visitor
Italian insanity
Release Date: OUT NOW!
1979 | 15 | 109 minutes | £ 19.99 ( dual- format Blu- ray/ DVD) Distributor: Arrow Video Director: Giulio Paradisi Cast: Joanne Nail, Paige Conner, John Huston, Lance Henriksen, Shelley Winters, Mel Ferrer, Glenn Ford
“I hope you
all have seatbelts…” Lance Henriksen’s advice on viewing The Visitor doesn’t go far enough. A helmet and elbow pads would help too, in case you need to escape by commandorolling into the road.
This bonkers Italian effort was conceived as an Exorcist cash- in, but that remit seems to have expanded to cover The Omen, The Fury and Close Encounters. Eight- year- old Katy is the progeny of Sateen, an evil alien mutant who’s passed on psychic powers. We learn this not via investigation, but cos it’s info- dumped to a roomful of bald kids. By Jesus Christ. Who’s blond. John Huston is the titular Visitor, here to stop more Sateen sprogs being spawned. He’s just one of a host of well- known American actors you’ll feel awfully embarrassed for.
Studded with memorable moments of madness – the opening psychedelic vision- scape; an ice rink sequence where Katy hurls fellow skaters through windows; an attack by swarms of birds – The Visitor looks like a masterpiece when compressed into a trailer, but the lack of a coherent narrative means that as a full- length feature it’s a dog’s dinner. Entertainingly awful.
A trailer and three interviews ( 23 minutes), two of which are solid gold: Lance Henriksen is amusingly bemused, while the writer delivers hilarious revelations about a director who, if not reined in, would’ve made a film twice as barking. Ian Berriman