It is time again, for us at Terribly Fun to continue our annual look at the entire filmography of Casper Van Dien. The rules are simple, he must have a named, semi-big speaking role; IE- if he played the waiter in X movie, and asked if the leads were ready to order, and that was the entirety of his role, it does not count. Also, anything that is officially listed as uncredited will also not be included. So, let us look at the second movie of this year’s Casper Van Dien-athon!

As you can surmise from the title, “Night Eyes Four: Fatal Passion” is the fourth, and last, in the “Night Eyes” series. It is also the only one that was made-for-TV, and the only one I have seen. Why would I watch the fourth in a franchise first? Well, because of Casper Van Dien!
 

The plot made enough sense for me to not ask what I missed in the other entries, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t goofy-
After someone breaks into successful psychologist Angela Cross’s (Paula Barbieri) home, she hires Night Eyes to install a new security system, and their employee Steve (Jeff Trachta), to do overnight watches. With an increasingly irate patient, laissez faire cops, and two troublesome housemates of Angela’s, Jenny (Sondra Spriggs) and Roy (Casper Van Dien), the suspect list is hard to narrow down. As weird break ins and secrets come to light, can Steve protect Angela, as he was hired to?

 

Directed by Rodney McDonald, who also ushered in the second film, this movie looks as made-for-TV as you can get. Not cheap looking, but like any other cookie cutter Lifetime movie you can imagine; as far as I know, this wasn’t made for the Lifetime channel (just using that as a comparison), but very little information exists about this movie. He keeps the pace up nicely, so you are never distracted by the plotholes, until reflecting on the movie later. The sex scenes (look at the title) are lacking any true risque-ness, which makes the movie feel quite tame. Try as it might to be sexy- cutting just before we see too much, lots of lingerie, etc.- it is beholden to TV standards, and therefore can only go so far. So, it isn’t a late night Cinemax sort of deal, but can it still be a guilty pleasure?

 

Gary Graver’s cinematography is okay. Again, this looks very TV-ish, but it is competent. The editing, by W. Peter Miller, is good, and the climatic showdown has a nice energy to it. The musical score is there, I guess. To be honest, I don’t remember it at all.

Oh yes! John Eubank and Henry Krinkle’s script is filled with bad one liners, nonsensical double and triple crosses, and exposition-o-rama. And while bad, I got that feeling that everyone making the movie knew the kind of schlock they were in, so there is a certain playfulness to the proceedings that make it a bit more than it would be otherwise.

As Steve, Trachta is just fine. Not necessarily amazing, but not that bad either. Paula Barbieri has a tricky role, and she doesn’t quite get it right. She’s perfectly acceptable as a psychologist, and her fear in the beginning seems real enough. But, once she and Steve become an item, she does not properly exude that animalistic magnetism required to make us believe she wants him in public, etc. Plus, a third act reveal for her makes little sense, and again, she doesn’t have the gravitas to pull it off. As the impulsive Jenny, Sondra Spriggs plays the seemingly ditzy airhead type well, and is fun.

 

Andrew Stevens is the only actor to be in all four movies, as Will Griffith (whom I believe to be the main character of the first two, at the very least). His role is peripheral here, getting injured early on, and being in the hospital for most of the runtime. He is not bad, but I did not totally get why him being absent was such a big deal for the characters, but that could just be something built up over the other movies- at the end, it is revealed that Will is not just Steve’s direct supervisor, but also the owner of Night Eyes security; now I get it!

 

Van Dien is completely average here. His chemistry with Spriggs (he plays her boyfriend) is good, and a double cross/ late in the game revelation is handled well on his end, but aside from looking good and being manipulated, he has nothing to do.

 

Having never seen the first three “Night Eyes” movies, I can attest to this movie still working on its own. While never above average technically speaking, the movie isn’t dull. Once the plot kicks into high gear, there are loads of bad one liners and ridiculous plot turns that will you keep you laughing at the movie. Happily, the acting keeps everything from being unbelievably ridiculous, so it never turns bad bad, just good bad. Throw a b-movie party, turn this on, and have fun!