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I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Blistering performances.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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-

I must admit "Servants of Twilight" is a whole lot better than I originally expected! This faithful adaptation of Dean Koontz' religiously occult novel is fairly engaging, reasonably suspenseful and it benefices from good acting performances by underrated B-actors like Bruce Greenwood, Carel Struycken and Grace Zabriskie. My initial thoughts were rather skeptic, as the directors-duo Jeffrey Obrow and Stephen Carpenter were previously responsible for cheesy horror-turkeys like "The Dorm that Dripped Blood" and "The Kindred" and those flicks aren't exactly famous for their unbearable level of tension. "Servants of Twilight" is a world of difference, as the film closely follows Koontz's original story lines and clearly cuts back on the amount of graphic violence. Greenwood stars as a brilliant private detective who's hired by single mother Christine Scavello because some scary old woman threatens to kill her 6-year-old son Joey. The old lady is the leader of a fanatic religious cult, called the Church of Twilight, and she firmly believes little Joey is the illegitimate son of Satan and that he must be stopped before he gains enough powers to bring the world to an end. The religious freaks mean serious business and undertake several attempts to kill the child. Detective Charlie and his assistants flee towards Santa Barbara for safety, but the cult-members easily follow them everywhere they go. He does everything he can to protect Joey, but is he really as innocent as he looks? After all, what's the real story with his unknown father and why does little Joey draws such sinister pictures? Unquestionably the greatest aspect about the story is how Joey and his mother are continuously portrayed as helpless victims, but there's always some doubt whether or not he isn't really the Antichrist. At the same time Grace and her docile church members are depicted as malevolent & relentless child-murderers, but they're beliefs are so convincing and well stated. Especially the first half of the film is tense and exciting, with a handful of solid action scenes and intelligent dialogs. The entire second half, including the rather silly climax, is much weaker. The plot takes some severely implausible twists and quickly becomes very tedious. Still, "Servants of Twilight" is an overall entertaining little thriller, warmly recommended to both fans of Dean Koontz's writing talents and modest B-movies.

**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?

Read the book; watched the movie. The changed ending moved the category from psychological drama to horror by changing the character of the boy, but that was probably intentional. Production values were poor, sound and music likewise below par. This could have been another Indiana Jones with some more effort and money. Strongly suggest a remake; the story is good enough. I give it a 5/10 for entertainment value.