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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Kicked out of Vegas for uncovering the presence of a creepy vampire, Darren McGavin's Kolchak refuses to abide by the old adage "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!" He heads to Seattle where he runs into old boss Simon Oakland, gets a new job working with him on John Carradine's newspaper, and goes undercover to discover why half a dozen women every 21 years are being murdered in the very same area. Along the way, he encounters some creepy Seattle citizens, among them a prissy library clerk (Wally Cox), a ghoulish professor of the occult (Margaret Hamilton), a drunken tramp (Al Lewis) who has seen perhaps too much, and a group of go-go dancers, one of whom (Joanna Pflug) he brings into his investigation, and another one with a very butch female lover. The mystery involves the old underground city and a nefarious civil war era doctor whose experiments are very Lugosi and Karloff like in their sinister goals.Obviously heading towards a TV series, Kolchak continues his witty observations about all of these freaky people and puts his own life in jeopardy just so he can get a story. It's ironic to see Carradine cast as a newspaper owner rather than one of the creepy characters involved in McGavin's investigation, and in her one scene, Hamilton is deliciously over the top and given some rather risque dialog. What could in a sense be called a variation of the Jack the Ripper case and the Boston Strangler mystery gets its own unique telling where once again McGavin's narration paves the way for intrigue, subtle comedy and a fun finale where everything is wrapped up yet left open for the potential series which came McGavin's way. A well known TV character actor gets to inhabit the role of the fiendish ghoul, a far cry from their respectable film and television roles, and chewing the scenery (and a few women's throats) along the way.

The irrepressible, stubborn, trouble making investigative reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) is back in the thick of things. Now working in Seattle - where he is once again working alongside long suffering editor Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland) - he discovers another baffling case. Young women are being strangled, but that's not all. They're ALSO having small amounts of blood extracted from their bodies. Acquiring a kindred spirit in a quirky records keeper named Berry (Wally Cox), Kolchak realizes that similar murder sprees have occurred throughout the city's history - every 21 years.Producer & director Dan Curtis wasn't about to muck with a winning formula, having accomplished a solid blend of humour and horror with 'The Night Stalker', the original made for television movie about the Kolchak character. Once again, he crafts a tale with a fair number of hearty laughs as well as some pretty damn effective suspense. Richard Matheson wrote the script, which makes great use of this whole other "world" in Seattle, its underground domain. Naturally, our killer is drawn to this environment. Longer, and meatier, than 'The Night Stalker', 'The Night Strangler' gets some real sparks going out of every encounter that Kolchak initiates, with his bull-in-a-china-shop approach winning him very few friends. Our favourite reporter is already behaving as he would on the subsequent, sadly short lived series, having no problem accepting the most utterly fantastic of stories.'The Night Strangler' is impeccably cast from top to bottom. Some of these excellent actors really have no more than brief cameo roles, but they make the most of them. Jo Ann Pflug is lovely and appealing as a belly dancer and university student who becomes a willing participant in Kolchaks' schemes. Oakland is wonderful as always as he and McGavin butt heads and scream at each other. Scott Brady plays the obligatory lawman who quickly loses his patience with Kolchak. Cox is fun, as are Margaret Hamilton as a professor specializing in nutty subjects, and Al Lewis as an amiable tramp. Richard Anderson plays our antagonist, and he's subtly chilling. Thankfully, he's not really seen until the climactic confrontation, helping to keep the character somewhat mysterious.Must viewing for lovers of the made-for-TV horror films of the 1970s.Eight out of 10.

Effective sequel to "The Night Stalker" this time directed, as well as produced by Dan Curtis, this story again revolves around the mysterious murders of several women,this time in Seattle, where Kolchack happens to be. He first thinks it to be the work of another vampire, but all is not as it appears...Another fine guest cast includes Richard Anderson, John Carradine, Margaret Hamilton, Al Lewis, and Simon Oakland, returning as Carl's editor/best friend, who puts up with his antics to an amazing degree.Not quite as good as "The Night Stalker", this still memorably brings back the indelible Darren McGavin as fearless Carl Kolchack, a unique, one-of-a-kind TV character that sadly we have precious little of these days.The one-season TV series followed the next year.

With 'The Night Stalker' proving the highest-rated T.V. movie of 1972, a sequel was inevitable. 'The Night Strangler' reunited Darren McGavin's untidy newsman 'Carl Kolchak' with writer Richard Matheson and producer Dan Curtis, this time also doubling as director. After being ordered to leave Las Vegas, our man is now in Seattle, out of work, and hanging round bars telling anyone who'll listen how he once destroyed a vampire. Tony Vincenzo ( Simon Oakland ), now the editor of 'The Daily Chronicle', takes pity on Carl, offering him a job. Carl's appointment coincides with a series of grisly murders, all involving young women, and in each case they have not only been strangled but had blood stolen via hypodermic syringe. Traces of rotting flesh can be found on them.Kolchak discovers that similar murders occurred in Seattle at regular intervals stretching back nearly a century. It would seem that the killer has discovered the secret of immortality...I did not get to see 'Strangler' until a decade or so after its original U.S. broadcast, when it crept unheralded into the late-night I.T.V. schedules. It is good for the most part; McGavin and Oakland give their usual excellent performances, augmented by Jo Ann Pflug as 'Louise Harper', Scott Brady as 'Captain Schubert', Wally Cox as 'Mr.Berry', Margaret Hamilton as the eccentric 'Professor Crabwell', Al Lewis ( 'Granpa' from 'The Munsters' ) as an old tramp, and John Carradine as the improbably named 'Llewellyn Crossbinder', owner of the Daily Chronicle. Once again, the script is full of witty one-liners and Curtis pulls off a few genuine scares, but it impossible to ignore the fact that it is essentially the same story as its predecessor - a series of murders, Kolchak berated by his editor for his interest in them, he investigates, deals with the supernatural threat, only for the authorities to then suppress the story. The killer is using the girls' blood to make an elixir to keep himself alive. Richard Anderson's 'Dr.Richard Malcolm' is alas nowhere near as frightening as Barry Atwater's 'Janos Skorzeny'. Very suspenseful climax in Seattle's underground city though.The final scene has Kolchak and Vincenzo, both out of work, heading for New York. A third T.V. movie would have seen the return of Skorzeny, but it was never made. Instead we got the weekly series 'Kolchak: The Night Stalker' which lasted only one season.