Nightfall

Based on a classic science fiction novella by Isaac Asimov, this intriguing story of a semi-primitive civilization that's about to encounter an eclipse, gets off to a rolling start. David Birney, ex-TV star, heads up the camp that doesn't believe "nightfall" is coming. The other camp is led by a blind sage, who prophesies the imminent approach of total darkness. So far, so good. But then a woman, who may or may not be a literal snake, enters the picture. After seducing Birney, she turns her attention to one of his married aides. The blind prophet, on the other hand, latches onto Birney's ex-wife, whom he initiates into the fold by having ravens pluck out her eyeballs. Sci-fi gets shunted aside, and good old sex and jealousy take over. Since not much more than a nickel was spent on special effects (or wardrobe, for some of these people), it's understandable why the filmmakers chose to opt for simple human melodrama. But we never quite figure out who the mysterious woman is, or why the blind seer always looks directly at whomever he's speaking to, or what happens to these people during "nightfall" (at the end, darkness and snow both descend on these smiling would-be flower children; and the credits roll.) This is Julie Corman's (daughter of the legendary king of the "B" movies, Roger Corman) first effort at production. And she has somewhat faithfully followed her father's formula: sex, violence, low budget. All except for simple storyline. In a Roger Corman film, Vincent Price was a bad guy, and so, at the end of the movie, Vinnie died a horrible, but appropriate, death. Nightfall, for all its detours into gratuitous sex and violence, never delivers on the main story. Not recommended. (Available from most distributors.)