Review: The Visitor (1979) - Playing at TIFF Bell Lightbox

Cast: Mel Ferrer, Glenn Ford, Lance Henriksen
Director: Giulio Paradisi
Country: USA | Italy
Genre: Horror | Sci-Fi

Editor’s Notes: The Visitor plays tomorrow and New Years Day at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto. 

Somewhere in a realm beyond human comprehension, the battle for humankind wages on as omnipotent forces decide the fate of mankind with unknowable intentions and caustic snow covers a vast desert while swirling ink horizons loom ominously in the boundless purple skies. Dead-eyed Jodorowsky’ian disciples decide the fate of mysterious temporal matters as the invariably ambiguous intentions of John Huston are hidden behind his dolefully benevolent eyes. He is sent to intervene in earthly matters that are still somewhat evasive even after having seen the entire film, but the biggest mystery of all is how such a strange AquaNet-fume fueled delirium made it to screen with the likes of talents like Huston, Sam Peckinpah, and Lance Henriksen with its strange mix of dutiful plot ambiguity and its feathered-hair, haloed-light aesthetic.

A product of late 70s Italian filmmaking from director Giulio Paradisi that borrowed elements from anywhere it could find an intriguing thought or idea, The Visitor is something that needs to be seen to be even remotely comprehended.

A product of late 70s Italian filmmaking from director Giulio Paradisi that borrowed elements from anywhere it could find an intriguing thought or idea, The Visitor is something that needs to be seen to be even remotely comprehended. It changes gears and cinematic influences with a casual alacrity that it keeps itself mired in an irremovable veil of bewilderment, allowing one to forgive transgressions against the laundry list of popular American films that were thrown into the blender as it forges something that is both impenetrable and charmingly unique. It adheres to the notion that style is substance with a wanton disregard for rationality, leaving loose ends as fuel for the film’s disjointed mysteries as the audience lives in the same mortal coil as the unwitting participants of its meta-realistic undertakings. Such a phenomenon is not rare for Italian genre films of its day, though one would be hard pressed to categorize this mishmash of influences that range from Rosemary’s Baby to the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky in a genre, but The Visitor’s strange aesthetic of feathered hair and haloed lights mixes with its muddled supernormal plot to create a film experience that leans heavily on novelty but still manages to work.

Finding a recognizable face through the wispy haze of its over-lit stages is jarring as a film such as this lives outside of conventional space and time…

The Visitor’s saving graces come from the unusual cast that lends credence to the benevolent omnipotence of its titular “visitor” behind the weathered eyes of John Huston, or the affluent husband played by Lance Henriksen, maintaining a plausibly cool demeanor while facing Kafkaesque boardrooms to validate his merits as a proper guardian over his sadistic “daughter” who has begun exhibiting strange supernatural powers and malicious intent toward his wife who has been confined to a wheelchair and is incapable of defending herself against the seed of gods and angels.

Finding a recognizable face through the wispy haze of its over-lit stages is jarring as a film such as this lives outside of conventional space and time, lured and forever trapped by the false assurances of permanent modernity that will have one believing that Pong will always be topical and Xanadu hairdos will never go out of style. By falling into the trap of shortsightedness it creates something that could have only come from its time, forging unintentional historical value as it becomes an example of the aesthetic sensibilities of a place and time, impossible to recreate earnestly and inherently valuable in its rarity.

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Matthew Blevins

Director of Home Entertainment & Sr. Staff Film Critic

Behind me you see the empty bookshelves that my obsession with film has caused. Film teaches me most of the important concepts of life, such as cynicism, beauty, ugliness, subversion of societal norms, and what it is to be a tortured member of humanity. My passion for the medium is an important part of who I am as I stumble through existence in a desperate and frantic search for objective truths.

Latest posts by Matthew Blevins (see all)

• Review: Sunrise (1927) - On Blu-ray/DVD today - NP Approved - January 14, 2014
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• Review: The Visitor (1979) - Playing at TIFF Bell Lightbox - December 30, 2013