The Visitor
directed by Giulio Paradisi
starring John Huston, Lance Henriksen, Joanne Nail
Arrow Video
In the 1970s and 1980s the Italian film industry was not demure in cashing in on any trends that could be profitable. They churned out seemingly endless amounts of largely forgettable films in the wake of various American blockbusters, so it would be easy to label The Visitor (1979) as nothing more than a cynical cash grab. The Visitor is often dismissed as just a jumble of other movies, like The Omen, Rosemary’s Baby, Carrie, The Birds, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, like that doesn’t sound amazing. Sure it literally lifts from all of those films and others, but it also creates its own strange and infectious vibe. On closer examination, director Giulio Paradisi’s film is a delightfully strange science fiction tale that rises above its schlocky roots.
Jerzy Colsowicz (John Huston) is an archangel sent by space Jesus (Franco Nero) to stop the devil who has been born into a little girl, Katy (Paige Conner) ,who is just starting to discover her powers which include telekinetics. Katy’s mom Barbara’s (Joanne Nall) boyfriend, Raymond (Lance Henriksen), is in league with a shadowy group of satanic businessmen who inseminate Barbara to bring forth a second child to aid Katy in fulfilling her destiny. Meanwhile, Jerzy lurks about un-menacingly while Katy’s pet osprey takes care of anyone who crosses her path. All the time, the clock is ticking on when Katy’s full evil force will be unleashed.
Back in the day, The Visitor was a familiar sight in any video store, with its cover featuring a giant eyeball brandishing a piano-wire garrote. Arrow Video continues to send The Visitor home, with a striking new 4K UHD release boasting picture and sound we couldn’t have dreamt of in the 1980s. The transfer of the European cut of the film struck from the original camera negative is lush and comes packed with supplemental materials including an almost giddy audio commentary from film critics BJ & Harmony Colangelo, video essays by Meagan Navarro and Willow Catelyn Maclay, and a terrific booklet featuring new writing by Marc Edward Heuck, Richard Kadrey, Craig Martin, and Mike White.
The Visitor is very much a film that rewards patience. The first time through, it is easy to laugh at the clunky mash-up of references that are Frankensteined into a plot-like structure. If you give it some time and watch it a second or third time, the charms of the film start to bleed through, and it reveals itself to be a unique bit of science fiction cinema, reworking familiar tropes in unexpected and interesting ways. Freed from the shackles of “figuring it out,” you are able to enjoy the insane vision on display in what should have been a mildly profitable and instantly forgotten bit of Italian science fiction that is still finding new audiences over 45 years later.
