This one sounds like the greatest movie I never knew existed. Drafthouse Films announced that this Halloween, they’ll be releasing a bonkers 1979 sci-fi/horror movie that sounds like the demonic lovechild of The Exorcist, The Omen, Star Wars, and The Birds. Its name? The Visitor.
Drafthouse will be releasing the movie in its uncut format in cinemas for the first time since, well, ever. It will be in Los Angeles, New York, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Portland and San Francisco the weekend of Halloween before getting a slightly wider release thereafter and a VOD and home entertainment offering in January 2014.
From the press release:
Legendary Hollywood director/actor John Huston (The Maltese Falcon; Treasure Of The Sierra Madre) stars as an intergalactic warrior battling alongside a cosmic Christ figure (Franco Nero) against a demonic eight-year-old girl and her pet hawk, as the fate of the universe hangs in the balance.
In the dawn of ’70s American blockbusters, European production companies emerged stateside, attempting to recreate box office gold by cloning Hollywood. The infamous Supreme Court-banned Jaws copy Great White, The Exorcist-esque Beyond The Door and countless others were packaged for export and the burgeoning drive-in circuit. Producer Ovidio G. Assonitis and Director/Alleged Bodybuilder Michael J. Paradise’s The Visitor stands as perhaps the most ambitious of all, taking its inspiration by artfully fusing The Omen, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, The Birds, Rosemary’s Baby, The Fury and Star Wars alongside a baffling cast that includes Shelley Winters (Night Of The Hunter), Glenn Ford (Superman), Lance Henriksen (Aliens), Franco Nero (Django) and Sam Peckinpah (director of The Wild Bunch).
To quote a very dear friend of mine, this movie sounds “cuckoo banana pants.” Possibly the strangest amalgam of premises, riffs, genres, and especially actors I’ve ever heard of. It sounds too good (bad) to be true. I’m very much looking forward to this. Let us know what you think of this news, and tell us your favorite movie that’s a mix of a bunch of other movies, in the comments below.
Favorite movie that’s just a combination of other movies? Battle Beyond The Stars – that Roger Corman classic combining 7 Samurai/Magnificent 7 with Star Wars (itself already partially an homage to Kurasawa movies). Amongst other hefty pluses – the spaceship had boobs. Who could ask for anything more?
Although shlock film fans have already seen 1979’s THE VISITOR (& probably own a bootleg copy), let’s be honest – we are a small % of film fans and we should be thankful a film like this is even getting a HD restoration / release!
I applaud Drafthouse Pictures’ for remastering, offering a longer cut, and giving a theatrical distribution to any film that typically ends up being shared via torrent files (either these films were never available on disc? or these films were and said discs are out of print – like the Code Red DVD – or said film hasn’t been offered up on blu-ray yet!)
Most have found THE VISITORS on disc (or online) either by it’s Italian title ( Stridulum ), or Spanish title ( El Visitante del Más Allá ) – so offering up the North American distributed version deserves appreciation. The Cast – its like an episode of the Love Boat in a low budget movie – you can’t duplicate a cast like this!
THE VISITOR scores just for having a potty mouth kid throughout the whole film (lol) & I still have the vhs tape released under Warner Bros Home Video!
Not to sound like a douche…But I’ve been collecting rare films since the early 80’s and unless this is different than the existing “uncut version”, it’s really not that rare at all( I would imagine the DVD is still available). ISuper fun though. Very excited about seeing it on the big screen and I bet Drafthouse has done a beautiful job with it.
Can’t wait to see their Ms.45 re-master!
That teaser is 70’stastic!