Review of The Norliss Tapes (1973) by Brett B — 03 Sep 2014

A prototypical 1970s television spooky movie-of-the-week, THE NORLISS TAPES follows in the footsteps of THE NIGHT STALKER and is one of the better made-for-TV genre entries I've seen. Its premise is intriguing: a writer (and paranormal debunker) goes missing, and the only evidence that exists is a collection of cassette tapes on which he dictated his most recent case.

In that sense, the story's a mystery within a mystery, and it works well on that level. It's a well-paced 72 minutes of supernatural shenanigans, and it's directed well by Dan Curtis; the staging and blocking of scenes is consistently interesting, there are a couple of nifty long(ish) takes, and the film makes nice use of its San Francisco-area setting.

If there's a criticism to be made, it would be that THE NORLISS TAPES is pretty much right out of NIGHT STALKER's playbook, from the subject matter, to the overall look, to the premise, to the voice-over narration.

This is not a bad thing in and of itself, but it does leave things feeling just a little bit familiar to those who've seen THE NIGHT STALKER (or its follow-up series, KOLCHAK). Still, it's an above average slice of '70s genre television.