Stridulum (The Visitor) (1979)
Directed by Giulio Paradisi
In the 70's, the success of movies like The Exorcist (1973), and The Omen (1976) helped create a craze for serious Occult Thrillers. Italian genre film producers were quick to take note, and made dozens of films in the style. The Visitor for example uses the Omen as it's basic template, but substitutes aliens for Christian mythology (sort of). Actually it suggests that the figures behind Christian Mythology are actually extraterrestrials.
The movie starts with a psychedelic meeting between John Huston and an evil entity on the cosmic plane. Then a Christ like figure played by Franco Nero tell a bunch of bald children the story of how the evil alien convict Sateen escaped from the prison ship it was being transported on, and hid out on Earth. We discover That Katy Collins, a little psychic girl is possessed by this entity. Her mother is dating Lance Henriksen, who secretly works for a room of evil businessman types. The businessmen want Lance, and Katy's mother to get married and have some sons, so they can get a psychic alien breeding program on the go. John Huston comes to earth to oppose these plans.
Don't come to the Visitor looking for an effective alien Sateenic Thriller, or you'll be very disappointed. Instead come along for a batshit crazy mish-mash of swearing murderous children, New Age nonsense, Christian nonsense, Ancient Astronauts conspiracy nonsense, and of course UFO's . All with an incredible cast that includes, John Huston, Franco Nero, Glenn Ford, Shelley Winters, and Sam Peckinpah.
Fans of The Manitou should take note.
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