Servants of Twilight (1991)

Given horror author Dean R. Koontz's incredible success, I'm baffled at just how few of his many novels have been adapted for the screen (especially considering the popularity of the horror/thriller genre as a whole). Servants of Twilight proves that, in the right hands, Koontz's work can be almost as compelling to watch as it is to read.Bruce Greenwood stars as Charlie Harrison, a tough private eye hired by single mother Christine Scavello (Belinda Bauer) to protect her son Joey (Jarrett Lennon) from a fanatical religious cult who believe the boy to be the AntiChrist. A game of cat and mouse ensues, with Charlie, Christine and Joey unable to trust anyone, danger lurking around every corner.Even though his budgetary limitations are obvious in the picture and sound quality, and the lack of any real stars, director Jeffery Obrow manages to wring quite a lot of tension out of Koontz's economical tale. The film might be a simple series of fight or flight encounters with the cultists, saddled with a predictable ending, but there is no shortage of excitement to be had along the way. A more appealing child actor (Lennon bears a striking resemblance to Dobby the house elf) and some gore (decapitated dog?) would have been welcome, but even as it stands Servants of Twilight is a more than serviceable chiller.

That summary alone isn't really saying much at all, especially for those unlucky bastards who forced themselves to sit through the particularly dreadful "Phantoms", "Hideaway", or ANY of the "Watchers" movies. That being said, this film about a devoutly religious cult headed by a pre-Twin Peaks Grace Zabriskie, who are hellbent (pun intended) on killing a six year old boy (young Andrew dice clay himself, Jerrot Lennon) whom they believe to be the current incarnation of the anti-Christ and willing to kill anyone who get in their way is passable entertainment if you can get past the overtly melodramatic beginning. Belinda Bauer as the mother of Joey is a big letdown, primarily because she's one-dimensional, well more so than the other cardboard cutout characters populating the movie, but also because she didn't follow up her terrific nudity in "Winter Kills" (only bring that up because one scene promises nudity, but then the director choose to pussy out). The ending is groan-inducing and silly. But there are still some unintentional laughs to be had here. Oh and I felt the need to call it the best THEATRICAL film only because I actually found the made for TV flick "Intensity" to be quite good and the best Koontz adaption put out thus far.My grade: C-

**SPOILERS** One of the many Anti-Christ-like movies released throughout the 1970's 80's and like itself, "The Servant of Twilght", the 1990's. That by that time just about exhausted it's subject matter:Satan's return in the flesh. Having this crazed religious cult"The Church of Twilight"led by the insane Saint Grace, Grace Zabriskie,together with her fanatical followers try to track down the boy Anti-Christ Joey Scaveilo, Jarrett Lennon, and kill him before he grows up and becomes too strong to be stopped, as Satan himself. The film has some dozen people including Grace end up dead before it's finally over. Just guess who ends up surviving this whole bloody mess to be able to do his dirty work in the future? Poor private investigator Charlie Harrison, Bruce Greenwood, is seen at the start of the movie being wheeled into the local psychiatric ward suffering from a complete breakdown, psychically and mentally. All this from what he's gone through earlier in the movie that we see in a series of flashbacks. Having been hired by Cristina Scaveilo, Belinda Bauer, to protect her and her young son Joey from "The Church of Twilight" cult who targeted him for death Charlie at first took what Belinda told him at face value. Not at all realizing, until it was too late, that these religious nuts might have something to what they believe in. Always a step ahead of Charlie and the Scavilo's it turns out that the cult has a person very close to Charlie who tips them off to where he's taking Joey and his mom Christina. That leads to the three getting trapped in this safe house, out in the sticks, where Saint Grace and her followers make their move to finally put an end of Satan's big comeback in the world of the living; and make it possible for the for events in the the book of Revelations to become a reality. With everyone of Saint Grace's people wiped out in the preceding shootout it was up to the only survivor of the cult the giant Kyle, Carel Struycicen, to do what he has to do in killing Joey and prevent him from growing up and destroying the world. Kyle just can't bring himself to do it so it falls on a frustrated and betrayed Grace's to do the nasty and dirty job b herself. It's then when she's suddenly attacked by a squadron of vampire bats who end up killing her by sucking her dry. Charlie begins to unravel when Christina ,who Grace killed earlier in the movie, comes back to life after little Joey touches her and finally sees the light but by now he's already lost his mind. Everything Charlie now says about Joey's secret identity, the Anti-Christ, is relegated to mindless babble to anyone who bothers to even listen to him. Passablse thriller but nothing more with an ending that's just more confusing then what you saw up until then. Leaving you wondering what exactly was the connection between Joey and his mother Christine, did she know that he was the Anti-Chist? Your also left wondering just why Joey was so interested in having Charlie as his daddy? Was Charlie really his natural father?

One of the reviews here stated that this movie wasn't scary. I have to disagree with that. Anytime there's a little boy/girl involved with the dark lord, unless the acting is SO poor, or the plot so riddled with holes, it's usually scary. HOW scary?.....well that's a matter of opinion. I, however, found this flick to be "7" scary on a scale from 1 to 10. I don't think it was predictable at all...... and without giving away any secrets I would recommend this to ANY Sci-Fi/Horror fan. It was well done, well acted and I thought the script was well written for what it is! Check it out!