Kolchak: The Night Stalker – Demon In Lace

February 07, 1975 Season 1 Episode 16

If you want to see where we are…HERE is a list of the episodes.

A stone tablet is found in the Middle East and is brought back to America for study. A deadly mystical force is unleashed. In that way, it reminds me of The Exorcist. Kolchak investigates the strange murders of healthy young men who died of apparent heart attacks, all accompanied by the deaths of young women under strange circumstances. 

It opens with an Illinois state college athlete out for a spin one night who gives a lift to an attractive young woman. The young athlete is later found dead of a massive shock-induced heart attack, with the body of the girl he’d picked up lying next to him. The only problem is that the girl he picked up had died hours before of a drug overdose.

Another college student dies under the same circumstances. Kolchak starts to realize the killer isn’t just a person with a grudge. The episode plays with the idea of beauty as bait. As Kolchak digs deeper, the answers get stranger, and the people around him either don’t believe him or don’t want to.

Spoilers Next

It turns out to be the result of a succubus, a female demonic spirit, as mentioned in the ancient stone tablet from the Chicago college. He must persuade the disbelieving professor (played well by Andrew Prine) in charge to destroy the tablet to stop the demon. Keenan Wynn makes a return as police captain Joe “Mad Dog” Siska.

While not quite among the best monsters of the series, the Succubus’s method of luring her victims is certainly an interesting angle. By the end, you get the usual mix of danger and frustration; he finds the truth, survives it, and still has to fight to get anyone to listen. The makeup and special effects in this episode are really good. 

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

29 thoughts on “Kolchak: The Night Stalker – Demon In Lace”

  1. Pingback: Kolchak: The Night Stalker – Demon In Lace – MobsterTiger

      1. Oh…Randy that was the coldest I’ve ever been in my life. Still now…I can’t get warm enough…and that isn’t like me…I love being more cool than warm…but not right now. We got it back on Monday night but still stayed with a neighbor until Tuesday afternoon because it took the house so long to warm back up. We could see our breath in the house.

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      1. Oh my gosh. I heard on the news about Tennessee but not sure exactly where you’re located. Best of luck. What’s the forecast like? Last night it was so cold the furnace could not warm the house up to the temperature on the thermostat. Which was 73F. It was about-24F here last night.

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      2. Middle Tennessee is what they call it…around 25 miles north of Nashville. There are still people without power in some counties.
        Today is promising… they are calling for 36 today! But tomorrow looks terrible…with a high around 19….
        But I’m glad we don’t have what YOU have! lol…we would be finished.

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  6. Some nice comedy in this one- ‘Do you have a set of wheels?’ I enjoyed it more than the chopper one, I just can’t take that headless cycle rider seriously. (Though I liked the premise.)

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  7. I enjoyed this episode and remember it from when it first aired. I like the male eye candy in the episode. I liked learning Vincenzo used to play drums in a band. Had to laugh at the direction he wants to take the news, where it’s only good news and wants Kolchak to put a positive spin on the series of perfectly healthy athletes and others inexplicably dying.

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    1. I did as well…yes I like when they give a backstory to some of the regulars. I also like the older lady in the office.
      That “happy news” must have been a thing in the seventies…I just saw an episode of the MTM show and they tried the same thing.

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    2. Little bits of info add to the back story and add to the texture don’t they? And it made a change for the director to add some beefcake in to the mix. The 70s were about as as misogynistic as it got!

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