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| Frank Spotnitz will never forget Jan. 11, 1972. That was the day ABC broadcast ''The Night Stalker," a thriller about a headstrong newspaper reporter, Carl Kolchak, who is convinced a vampire is on the loose in Las Vegas. The film, which starred Darren McGavin, quickly became a cult classic and spawned a short-lived TV series that later inspired ''The X-Files." ''It scared the pants off of me," recalls Spotnitz, a television producer who was 11 years old at the time. ''It seemed so real." Spotnitz, who worked for eight years as a producer and writer on ''The X-Files," is hoping to spook a new generation with the premiere of his ''Night Stalker" remake series on ABC. As in the original film, Kolchak works as a reporter, this time in Los Angeles, where he hopes to somehow link unexplained violent crimes to the bizarre murder of his own wife 18 months before. Stuart Townsend (''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen") stars as Kolchak. Gabrielle Union (''The Honeymooners") is Perri Reed, the senior crime reporter at the Beacon who is very skeptical about Kolchak's theories and his personal history. ''The mythology of the show is good versus evil," Spotnitz says. ''I believe there is evil in the world . . . and evil seems more powerful than good because evil is not handicapped by a conscience or morality or mercy. So how do you win?" ''The Night Stalker" is up against some tough competition in the scary category this season. ABC's alien-drama ''Invasion" has already created buzz. There's also ''Threshold" on CBS, ''Surface" on NBC, and ''Supernatural" on the WB. What's more, viewers today -- after watching shows like ''The X-Files" or ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer" -- need to see more than a mummy or a werewolf to jump out of their seats. ''I want to be genuinely frightened or mystified," says Nancy Holder, a fan of the original ''Night Stalker" and author of 20 novelizations of ''Buffy" and ''Angel," including most recently ''Queen of the Slayers." Holder, who teaches creative writing at the University of California at San Diego, says the key to penning horror stories is creating not only a hair-raising monster but also establishing a likable protagonist. ''I want to care deeply about Kolchak or I won't care about the show," she says. |