Visitors Of The Night

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Directed by Jorge Montasi

Written by Michael J Murray

Starring Candace Cameron Bure, Markie Post and Stephen McHattie


This is a TV movie, filmed in Canada in 1995 for, I think, the NBC network. If not NBC, it might have been broadcast on Lifetime, I believe. It stars Markie Post, a veteran of TV movies dating back into the late 1970s. (She is featured in ‘I’ve Been Waiting For You’, playing the mother of Sarah Chalke’s character, and also makes occasional appearances in ‘Scrubs’ - as the mother of Sarah Chalke’s character).

In the pilot episode of ‘Will And Grace’ (a sit-com I could never understand the appeal of, to be honest) Will tells Grace, “You are so Marky Post in every single Lifetime movie!”

Also amongst the lead cast is Stephen McHattie, who, even if the name is not immediately familiar, is instantly recognisable. He looks like a cross between Robert Patrick and Lance Henriksen.

‘Visitors Of The Night’ is a typical TV movie of its type, the story of a well-to-do woman and her relationship with her troubled teenage daughter, a relationship that is complicated by her difficult and sometimes antagonistic relationship with her estranged husband, a well-known public figure in the small, determinedly middle-class local community. All the usual scenarios are included – troubles with authority figures at school; teenage parties that get out of control; underage drinking; underage sex. The twist here is a topping of alien abduction, crop circles and cattle mutilations.

The storyline has much in common with the pilot episode of ‘The X Files’, which was first broadcast in 1993, and also to a lesser extent with the 1989 Christopher Walken film ‘Communion’.

I have always liked ‘Visitors Of The Night’, ever since the first time I saw it late one night on television -- and I never tire of watching it.

Let me put it this way. ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ by Pink Floyd is an acknowledged rock classic. I quite like Pink Floyd (‘Meddle’ is a particular favourite of mine), but I have never owned a copy of that album and still feel no compulsion to change that. ‘Get Your Dog Off Me’ by forgotten Scottish prog-rockers Beggar’s Opera was released the same year (1973). It is neither an acknowledged classic nor a lost classic. I bought a vinyl copy in the year of its release. These days I have a CD copy and I also have tracks from it on my iPod. I enjoy listening to it now as much as I ever have done.



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I've Been Waiting For You

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Directed by Christopher Leitch

Written by Duane Poole from a book by Lois Duncan

Starring Sarah Chalke, Soleil Moon Frye and Markie Post


This TV movie is based on a novel called ‘Gallow’s Hill’ written by Lois Duncan, who also wrote the novel ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’. Duncan, whose 18-year-old daughter Kaitlyn Arquette was found dead in her car with a gunshot wound to her head, apparently dislikes the film version of that novel, believing that it encourages such violence. The killer of her daughter has never been apprehended.

Christopher Leitch, the director here, wrote the screenplay for the mindless Dolph Lundgren / Jean-Claude Van Damme action film ‘Universal Soldier’, but most of his work has been as a director, mainly of TV movies and shows. His other work includes a remake of the 1973 Kate Jackson / Cheryl Ladd film ‘Satan’s School For Girls’, with Shannon Doherty and Julie Benz taking on the lead roles – plus a cameo appearance by Kate Jackson. If only it was available on DVD!

‘I’ve Been Waiting For You’ is a modern day story of witchcraft. It stars Sarah Chalke (after her days in ‘Roseanne’, but before ‘Scrubs) alongside Soleil Moon Frye. She had previously been one of the leads with Sarah Michelle Gellar in the aborted 1989 teen magazine show ‘Girl’s Talk’. Only the pilot episode was ever made, as far as I know. She subsequently featured in three seasons of ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch’. Markie Post, who I have long had a soft spot for, plays the mother of Sarah Chalke’s character.

As far as plot goes, ‘I’ve Been Waiting For You’ is basically a kind of variation of ‘I Married A Witch’ without the comedy. It doesn’t have any great artistic merit and the holes in the plot are the size of giant meteor craters, but it’s just great fun. I love witchcraft type stuff and the absence of distracting special effects, offal and buckets of fake blood makes for a pleasant change.

If nothing else, the film is worth watching for the hilarious sequence when the ‘witch’ chases an intended victim through the woods.



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