THE NIGHT STALKER

A series of murders plague the Las Vegas Strip. All of the victims had their bodies drained of blood. Carl Kolchak, a veteran reporter who has been fired from newspapers across the country due to his tenacious and unprofessional approach, thinks the killer believes himself to be a vampire. His managing editor, Tony Vincenzo, refuses to run the story under the vampire angle without proof, arguing it could cause a panic and soil the paper's reputation.

When a man attempts to rob a hospital of its blood supply, the police are called in. The thief is shot multiple times without effect, and escapes, outrunning a police car and motorcycle. From eyewitness testimony, the police positively identify the thief as 70-year-old Janos Skorzeny, who is the prime suspect in multiple homicides extending back years, all involving massive loss of blood.

Kolchak's girlfriend, Gail Foster, a casino "change girl", urges him to explore vampire lore. The evidence persuades Kolchak that Skorzeny is a real vampire. Following another failed attempt to capture Skorzeny, the authorities strike a deal with Kolchak to eschew traditional investigative methods for his vampire-centric approach in exchange for giving him exclusive rights to the story. Acting on a tip, Kolchak locates Skorzeny's safe house and pursues the story on his own, wanting unhindered access to the evidence. He photographs stolen blood packets in the refrigerator, a coffin with native soil inside, a victim bound and gagged to a bed with an intravenous line drawing blood, and other incriminating evidence. Compromised when Skorzeny returns, Kolchak is wrestled to the floor. His friend, FBI Agent Bernie Jenks, arrives and joins the fight. Realizing that dawn has broken, Kolchak and Jenks pull back the shades and stake Skorzeny, just as authorities burst through the front door.

Kolchak writes the story for the newspaper and proposes to Gail, telling her that they will move to New York City. The authorities, however, unwilling to publicly admit that Skorzeny was a vampire, print a false version of the newspaper story with his byline and threaten to charge him with first-degree murder unless he quietly leaves Las Vegas. Gail has already been forced to leave the city for being "an undesirable element". Kolchak exhausts his savings placing personal advertisements across the country in a futile attempt to find her.

Kolchak, sitting in a hotel room, listens to a replay of his dictation of the Skorzeny case. He explains that if anyone tries to verify the events, they will find that all witnesses have either left town, are not talking, or are dead. Skorzeny and all his victims have been cremated, destroying any further ability to investigate the matter and eliminating the possibility that those killed by Skorzeny would rise as vampires.

Kolchak and an FBI agent destroy the vampire, Janos Skorzeny, but authorities suppress the truth, force Kolchak to leave Las Vegas, and his girlfriend Gail is also forced out of town.

The ending underscores the price of pursuing the truth in a world hostile to the unexplainable. Despite Kolchak’s success in stopping the supernatural threat, institutional denial and personal loss leave him isolated. The final note is one of frustration and futility, as Kolchak’s evidence is covered up and his life uprooted, reinforcing the film’s cynical take on authority and the cost of obsession.