For those of you who have never seen this movie, it’s a real treat and truly a treasure of how bizarre and fascinating a film can be.
Here's the release from Alamo:
Today we announce the acquisition of our first repertory release of 2013, the phantasmagoric sci-fi/horror/action/??? hybrid The Visitor from 1979. Legendary Hollywood director/actor John Huston (The Maltese Falcon; Treasure Of The Sierra Madre) stars as an intergalactic warrior battling alongside a cosmic Christ figure against a demonic eight-year-old girl and her pet hawk, as the fate of the universe hangs in the balance.
In the dawn of ‘70s American blockbusters, European production companies emerged stateside, attempting to recreate box office gold by cloning Hollywood. The infamous Supreme Court-banned Jaws copy Great White, The Exorcist-esque Beyond The Door, and countless others were packaged for export and the burgeoning drive-in circuit.
Producer Ovidio G. Assonitis and Director/Professional Body Builder Michael J. Paradise’s The Visitor (1979) stands as perhaps the most ambitious of all, taking its inspiration by artfully fusing The Omen, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, The Birds, Rosemary’s Baby, The Fury and Star Wars alongside a baffling cast that includes Shelley Winters (Night Of The Hunter), Glenn Ford (Superman), Lance Henriksen (Aliens), Franco Nero (Django) and Sam Peckinpah(!).
-Andrew Peters