Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Good idea lost in the noise

The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Would this be called Norwegian Noir? Not sure how to categorize it- just see it without knowing anything about it and let it chill you.

Max von Sydow plays Salem, wrongly convicted of a murder and sent to stay in an asylum for the criminally insane. As the movie opens, he has successfully pulled off an escape, and he wreaks vengeance upon his hapless family. However, because he is able to actually return to his cell in time, suspicion falls upon his brother in law, Anton (Per Oscarsson), instead. An inspector played by the always solid Trevor Howard must solve these baffling crimes.Slasher fans might hear of this one and get their hopes up, due to the violence suggested in certain scenes, but we never see any actual killings. This is more of a straightforward thriller. It overcomes a rather trite story set up to deliver an incredibly engaging yarn; it's what director Laslo Benedek ("The Wild One") and company do with the material that matters. It's filmed on location in Denmark and Sweden, in some mightily forbidding looking country; you can practically feel the cold while you watch. The atmosphere is stark and impressive, helped all the more by an unusual but amazing Henry Mancini score. It's deliberately paced but fascinating, especially when Benedek and screenwriter Guy Elmes (who works from Samuel Roecas' original story) lay out for us the tons of preparations that Salem has to go through in order to pull off each escape from and return to the asylum.Von Sydow is typically excellent, as is Liv Ullmann as his sister, Oscarsson as the volatile, panicky Anton, Rupert Davies as a savvy but sickly lawyer, Andrew Keir as the asylums' head doctor, and Arthur Hewlett as the genial old Pop. Watching this, it's easy to root for Von Sydow, especially during the finale where he must "beat the clock", and the tension is undeniable. This intoxicating film sure does keep you on your toes at times. And "The Night Visitor" does end on an irresistible, rather humorous note.It could definitely stand to be better known.Eight out of 10.

OK, so this was better than I thought it was going to be when it first started. I initially balked at the appearance of the film as the white balance was all off (the snow looked blue or yellow rather than white) and it was a poor quality image overall. This initially put me off as I felt I was watching some kind of shoddily put together film. I don't know where this film is supposed to be set as the 3 main characters are Swedish yet the police are English and in English attire. The location is covered in deep snow and does not look like England. It was all a bit jarring and initially off-putting. Also at first it seemed to be a rather generic opening and I thought I would get nothing more than a dull slasher-type film. However, after about 15 minutes or so I started to get intrigued by the storyline. It also helped that Trevor Howard was in the film, as I enjoy watching his performances. I also enjoyed Per Oscarsson's surreal performance. In fact he was the best character in the film because of it. I couldn't really tell if he was a really bad actor or supposed to be acting that way but it was interesting to watch and his scenes were the most interesting. Max Von Sydow on the other hand was really dull and brought no life to his character. Overall, a jarring and unusual film. I enjoyed watching it and it created a very good atmosphere – at points I felt cold watching it. But I still only gave it a 6 because Von Sydow's character was the focus of the film and him and his scenes were a bit boring.

A man is running away from a large brick building surrounded by a high wall. He's running across rocks and snow in his underwear and boots. He sneaks into a farmhouse and steals some odd items, and sneaks into another house where he kills a woman. It's not the last person he'll kill either; he's trying to frame someone, but why - and how is he getting away from the place that establishes his alibi?This is a very good movie. As a horror movie, it doesn't have a very high body count, or much gore, and there's no on screen violence - it cuts away from that. Some horror movies benefit from that, some don't; this one doesn't need it. The locations: isolated locations surrounded by snowy fields are very nice to look at. Acting is very good, as is the musical score by Mancini.Definitely deserves to be better-known. I'm surprised some critics didn't like it. Some didn't like that the movie gives some things away early on that could have been withheld. I don't agree; not every movie that has secrets needs to save them for a big reveal at the end. Others felt that the characters' motivations weren't established. I can only suppose they weren't listening to the dialog, because that was fully discussed.