The Night Visitor

1971 Directed by László Benedek

Locked in the cold asylum of his mind - a sane man stalks his prey...

An insane Swedish farmer escapes from an asylum to get revenge on his sister, her husband and others.

Max von Sydow Trevor Howard Liv Ullmann Per Oscarsson Rupert Davies Andrew Keir Jimmy Kennedy Arthur Hewlett Hanne Bork Gretchen Franklin Bjørn Watt-Boolsen Lotte Freddie Erik Kühnau

Alternative Titles

Papegojan, Perfekte Rache

horror crime

106 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Gramercy Riff ★★★½

For those that like their thrillers free from Hollywood fluff. A super dry, very cold and at times quite tense little murder mystery. Not because of who did it, the questions here -initially- are why and how. One of its strong points is the opening sequence. Man in his undies running around in snowy landscapes with the wind whistling, apparently escaping from something, but with a goal. He knows what he's doing and it ain't pretty.
It had me hooked right from the start. Sure, you can pick this plot apart if you want to, good for you, but I don't care about that when I get to watch a chilling and detailed prison escape like the one here. Influenced by classic French crime films, no doubt. There's some awkward acting going on (Per Oscarsson mainly) which spoils an aspect of the film's climax, but other than that I had a good time with The Night Visitor.
Review by MrSneakyMan ★

A very dry and stuffy thriller about a man who escapes from an asylum to kill some folk and frame his brother-in-law. It's kind of ridiculous and not very interesting given that the audience knows what is going on from the start. Oddly the only info they choose to keep from us is character background that fleshes out the reason for the whole mess, but does that really matter? Von Sydow is killing people, that is certain. They 'why' is not very important, but the structure would indicate that the movie sure does think it is. Then the final reveal of information is handled with such utter disregard that one gets the impression that no one cares. Great! Way to…
Review by Michael's Cinema Paradiso ★★★½

Afterthoughts: A ‘70s horror thriller starring Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann, I must be dreaming.
Despite a lot of poor acting from some of the supporting cast, the story itself is great, and maintains a high level of intrigue and tension throughout. The best part is the Bresson-esque prison break scene, which that alone makes it worthy of a watch.
Review by fulci420

Bergman regulars Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullman star in "The Night Visitor", a thriller that never really gets going. Mostly it consists of Sydow roaming around the Scandinavian countryside in his underwear, he looks like a certifiable loon but it's not exactly thrilling. There's a rather useless investigation subplot considering we know what Sydow is up to from the very beginning. Overall just blah, Ullman is annoying and the scariest thing on display here are Sydow's pale spindly legs. Creepy minimalist piano score from Henry Mancini is effective.
Director Laslo Benedek is mostly known for early Marlon Brando vehicle "The Wild One" which wasn't so great either. An odd note of trivia this was originally going to be a Steve McQueen vehicle made in 1963.
Review by Paul D ★★

#99 Hoop-Tober 3.2.1
Having been wrongly convicted of an axe murder and locked away in the local insane asylum, Salem has escaped and has come back for revenge against those who pinned the crime on him.
Or so it appears, because when the Police Force (both of them) check up on these allegation that he was responsible for a new rash of murders, it turns out that he was safely locked away in the Colditz-like institution all along.
The Night Visitor is an odd one, filmed in Sweden and Denmark, in English, with a cast that half Swedish and half British.
And that's not all that's odd, the entire movie is predicated upon the notion that a man can get…
Review by Kristin ★★★★

The most impressive part for me was the fact that Max von Sydow did his own stunts while wearing nothing but his undergarments. This includes running long distances in the snow, climbing houses & trees, rummaging his hands in the snow, climbing walls, and so on, all in his skivvies. It's fairly obvious it's actually him because of his super pale, muscular legs. The snowstorms appeared very real (it was filmed in Sweden & Denmark, after all), and he looked damn frozen the entire time. So that alone impressed me, seeing that most action scenes in films are faked these days via green screen tricks.
This was filmed 2 years before The Exorcist.
It's suspenseful enough, despite telling what happened to cause…

Recent reviews

Review by Gramercy Riff ★★★½

For those that like their thrillers free from Hollywood fluff. A super dry, very cold and at times quite tense little murder mystery. Not because of who did it, the questions here -initially- are why and how. One of its strong points is the opening sequence. Man in his undies running around in snowy landscapes with the wind whistling, apparently escaping from something, but with a goal. He knows what he's doing and it ain't pretty.
It had me hooked right from the start. Sure, you can pick this plot apart if you want to, good for you, but I don't care about that when I get to watch a chilling and detailed prison escape like the one here. Influenced by classic French crime films, no doubt. There's some awkward acting going on (Per Oscarsson mainly) which spoils an aspect of the film's climax, but other than that I had a good time with The Night Visitor.
Review by migh ★★★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

aye that was ace, well enjoyed it. the opening sequence sets the scene very effectively as we see a barely clothed man running away from a fortress-like building in the dead of the night and into a windswept, snow covered wilderness. first twenty minutes or so develop from this scene and culminate in a grim and shocking event. what follows is a dark detective thriller where you think you know what is going on but it's never made too obvious, before we reach the wicked Poe-esque ending. there are great performances especially from Max von Sydow and Trevor Howard, and the harsh country setting is a character in itself, featuring some amazingly cold and creepy scenes that have you shivering…
Review by tweedle dumclub ★★★

funny accents and max von sydow running around doing stunts & killing people in his undies
Review by Kristin ★★★★

The most impressive part for me was the fact that Max von Sydow did his own stunts while wearing nothing but his undergarments. This includes running long distances in the snow, climbing houses & trees, rummaging his hands in the snow, climbing walls, and so on, all in his skivvies. It's fairly obvious it's actually him because of his super pale, muscular legs. The snowstorms appeared very real (it was filmed in Sweden & Denmark, after all), and he looked damn frozen the entire time. So that alone impressed me, seeing that most action scenes in films are faked these days via green screen tricks.
This was filmed 2 years before The Exorcist.
It's suspenseful enough, despite telling what happened to cause…
Review by Casey Burchby ★★★

Odd. Swedish. Cozy. Trevor Howard. Murders.
Review by Jonathan Chawla ★★

A bafflingly bland film featuring a fabulous fur hat, many swans, a nifty blue lamp (IKEA!), and blond Jesus running through the snow in his skivvies. Addtionally, all the male characters have great boots. Otherwise, this movie is terrible.
Review by Swisher ★½

The night visitor does not own pants.
Review by Jason ★★★

A slight, but compelling tale of murder and revenge. Max Von Sydow (a couple of years before he exorcised Linda Blair) is locked up in an impenetrable asylum for murder. And somehow he’s getting out and committing even more! The how and why of it all is the basis of the movie and it’s kind of fun in that dry, matter-of-fact European style (you’ll probably fall asleep if you watch too late at night so I recommend a morning/afternoon watch). The asylum itself is at once beautifully decrepit and a massive, creepy structure juxtaposed against a magnificent Scandinavian backdrop. My favorite parts detail Von Sydow’s clever prison break. Filmmaking itself is a bit sloppy with some obvious gaffes but there’s still something alluring about movies untouched by computers.
Review by Adam Q ★★★★ 1

Loved seeing von Sydow and Ullman in a non-Bergman. Dripping with atmosphere, this was even better than expected.