If there's one thing you can't criticize HE LIVES BY NIGHT is that it takes itself too serious. A campy slasher flick that revels in its own silliness, the movie chronicles the efforts of a radio deejay and a fat police captain trying to apprehend a crossdressing shoe-salesman with a murderous silk stocking fetish. The sexual handicup at the root of the killer's problem and the flashback that explains it, an opening murder that recalls Argento's PROFONDO ROSSO and a generally more refined stylish bravado than its American counterparts from the same time, all point to a certain Italian giallo influence. The film ends however with a long chase scene between victim and killer that seems plucked straight from American slasher. For a movie walking a tightrope between two traditionally horrific subgenres, He Lives By Night is oddly enough defined more by its comedy. I guess a lot is lost in the translation, but what is left is typical HK antics, a general buffoonery that is as sure to make you cringe as it is to get you hooked with its peculiar charm. Accompanied by one of the goofiest casiotone synth scores you're likely to listen, He Lives By Night is an odd but entertaining slice of goofball hack and slash that deserves more attention,
Review of He Lives by Night
