The Visitor (1979)

After discovering the last demonic progeny on Earth, a man races off to stop a young girl from leading her mother astray into procreating a being like her that will signal the end of mankind before it occurs.This was just an overall confusing and just plain messy effort that was really troubling. One of the main problems with this one is the fact that there's just no sense at all to the storyline as this one is so over-done and jumbled together that there's hardly anything that becomes coherent about it. The concept of the astral-dimensional progeny of a satanic deity manifesting in a little girl is a fine-enough concept if only it stuck with that, despite how loony and hokey that plot-device actually is, but then it adds in a series of utterly twisted and jumbled plot-points including a pet hawk that's trained to kill, a holy Jesus figure recounting tales to bald-headed children in a garden-of-eden setting, aliens disguised as humans, abductions, satanic powers and two secret society's intent on the interest of the little girl yet both of whom seem malicious more-often-than-not including the supposed protectors so this thing is so stuffed with off-the-wall moments and plot-points that it's hard to keep track of anything. There's so much going on here with all these elements thrust into the middle of the story that elements start canceling each other out, drop off all together which makes their inclusion questionable in the first place or merely set-up in order to ensure that there's something on-screen to hinder the criminally slow-pace and lack of action that continually hurtles forth here as each of these presents it's own problems to the film as it sort of lumbers along without much grasp of how to actually utilize such seemingly independent ideas into a cohesive whole. It really does become such a burden trying to shift through the plot here that it finally outlives it's usefulness and renders the finale nearly moot by the time it finally comes around as the action of the chase through the hospital corridors, down into the street and finally back into the house of mirrors that it doesn't seem to matter how much fun and exciting all this becomes as the ensuing points to get there don't make sense and become quite troublesome to get through. There's a good film in this somewhere as the striking visuals and chilling origins state here, but it's just not found under the weight of the massive, messy-written story.Rated Unrated/R: Violence, Language and children-in-jeopardy.

I grabbed this film off of TCM onto my DVR, and am I ever glad I did. But not for the reasons you might think. I'm glad because I now had the benefit of 'fast-forward' functionality. You'll wish you had fast-forward as well if you decide to watch 1979's "The Visitor", trust me.I won't get much into what the movie is about, or rant about all the easily fixable 'goofs' that occur. What tortured me the most about this film most was the much-misplaced and utterly cheesy 70's 'action flick' music score, and the endless extraneous scenes. Utterly needless scenes that include shot after shot of walking, driving, buildings and passing scenery, actors saying nothing and looking all 'introspective' or just plain confused. Probably as confused as we the viewers.Add to all that a patchwork of fair-to-weak acting (with a small few rays of sunshine here or there), lame effects that could have been done so much better even in '79, and an overall storyline that could have been a lot stronger with some solid writing changes and you have a pseudo-sci-fi-horror flick that might best be suited for viewing at a drive-in theatre. You know, a place where people are often looking away from the screen for... one reason or another. Because there is so much run-on footage in this movie that even if you only catch half of it you'll pretty much get all you're going to get from it anyway. And sadly that isn't much.2 out of 10, and that's being generous. It's a movie that had potential but didn't come close to reaching it. But do see it for yourself. As bad as I think it is some do really get off on this type of bad. You may be one of them.

I thought this was not a bad movie at all. Yes there were several scenes that were rather esoteric but all in all not bad. John Huston plays the inter- galactic warrior. Man is he ever understated and a little enigmatic as this hero warrior. Not a lot of action from his character but still when push comes to shove he is there in spades. The little girl is a pretty good actress in her own right. The mother is fairly hot and she manages to survive, good script in that. Shelley Winters shows up as a babysitter/caretaker and she seems to have a second sense about the evil presence. At the end of the movie the bad guys lose and the guys win. Nice.

Mind numbing in its awfulness. Director Giulio Paradisi concocts a ridiculous mixture of horror and mysticism while roping in a sad cast of actors, both over AND under the hill. John Huston, whose performance consists of walking into rooms, spouting a few philosophically tinged lines of inane dialog and then vanishing, leads the cast as a "visitor" sent from someplace "beautiful" to "rescue" a little girl who is evil incarnate (and apparently the vessel-in-waiting to start a new race under the guidance of creepy doctor Mel Ferrer and a bunch of corporate goons). The girl, who is a curiously talented gymnast and ice-skater, cripples her mother, kills a couple of teenagers, uses foul language when yelling at both Shelley Winters and Glenn Ford and keeps an attack eagle as a pet. It's filmed in Atlanta but the little girl is the only one with an southern drawl. A real mess. In addition to the slumming Huston, Ford, and Winters, Lance Herickson, Sam Peckinpah and Franco Nero are in it too. Director Paradisi even has the moxie to pay homage to the likes of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE as well as THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI.