If there was a plot to this movie, I have no clue what it was. Seemed to me that there was not an iota of continuity to this film. Maybe I am just not esoteric enough for this one. View it if you must, but be forewarned, it will be time spent you will never be able to reclaim in your life.

There is almost no way to coherently explain what this film is about but I will try to give it a go.Many hundreds of years ago an evil alien fugitive called "Sateen" (clever, huh?) came to Earth and had children. The evil lay dormant down through the generations until it manifested itself once more in a young girl called Katy Collins who can control birds, or something, and has telekinetic abilities, who urges her mother to have another child to her basketball team manager boyfriend so she can have an evil baby brother, a plan also encouraged by an evil board of unidentified men. An ex-tailor turned exorcist (played by John Huston!) comes to the US to stop her and switches a birthday present of a glass peacock for a loaded gun. Upon opening this present Katy chucks it onto a table where it goes off and shoots her mother right through the spine, crippling her. Bearing apparently no grudge against her the pressure to have another baby is still on, meanwhile the exorcist (working for Jesus himself) builds a runway on the roof of a skyscraper, with a bunch of other bald-headed exorcists who stay inside tarpaulin cubicles on said roof. He also acts as a babysitter to Katy while an astrologist housekeeper vows to protect mommy by killing an evil bird before she is thrown through a glass aquarium by Katy. An utterly superfluous scene inside in random hall of mirrors (located in a slum building that Katy flees to for no given reason) precedes a climax involving birds and...look I have NO idea what this film was about. It's enough to make your head explode.It desperately wants to be Damien: Omen II but fails to match that movie's low-brow chills. It would be unfair to Ed Wood to compare this to his work either. Instead I will say that The Vistor is ABSOLUTELY the film Garth Marenghi would make if given the chance. Keep that in mind and you'll have a blast. Spectacularly bad it may well be, but the movie is so utterly baffling that you'll never be bored by it. Exactly how the managed to convince John Huston, Mel Ferrer, Glen Ford, and Sam Peckinpah to be in this is beyond me.The Visitor also has the absolute worst visual effects I have ever seen in a motion picture and editing so mind-blowingly awful that you'll struggle to find a sequence of even five shots that string together in a sense-making way. While little Katy is throwing bullies in all directions during a spur-of-the-moment scene on an ice rink there are several intercut shots of John Huston walking down a very long escalator (which is not moving). Why? The dialogue almost never matches the mouths either. About half the movie is out of focus too. I've never seen filmmaking this bad before. Even Samurai Cop was better made than this. Even the music is hopelessly inappropriate. This movie is honestly a Garth Marenghi masterpiece, a feature length episode of Darkplace.Are you hardened film critic? Test your powers by watching this movie. I DEFY you to make ANY sense of The Visitor.

I grabbed this film off of TCM onto my DVR, and am I ever glad I did. But not for the reasons you might think. I'm glad because I now had the benefit of 'fast-forward' functionality. You'll wish you had fast-forward as well if you decide to watch 1979's "The Visitor", trust me.I won't get much into what the movie is about, or rant about all the easily fixable 'goofs' that occur. What tortured me the most about this film most was the much-misplaced and utterly cheesy 70's 'action flick' music score, and the endless extraneous scenes. Utterly needless scenes that include shot after shot of walking, driving, buildings and passing scenery, actors saying nothing and looking all 'introspective' or just plain confused. Probably as confused as we the viewers.Add to all that a patchwork of fair-to-weak acting (with a small few rays of sunshine here or there), lame effects that could have been done so much better even in '79, and an overall storyline that could have been a lot stronger with some solid writing changes and you have a pseudo-sci-fi-horror flick that might best be suited for viewing at a drive-in theatre. You know, a place where people are often looking away from the screen for... one reason or another. Because there is so much run-on footage in this movie that even if you only catch half of it you'll pretty much get all you're going to get from it anyway. And sadly that isn't much.2 out of 10, and that's being generous. It's a movie that had potential but didn't come close to reaching it. But do see it for yourself. As bad as I think it is some do really get off on this type of bad. You may be one of them.

I understand how some (perhaps most) viewers found The Visitor an incoherent mess, but it may be due to poor editing since its U.S. release in 1979 which, evidently, was also released theatrically to international audiences. However, I am only speculating, but I do know the original Italian version is longer. That version may help to fill in the gaps and possibly extends some of the more emotional scenes in the film which have been severely cut. As I was watching The Visitor, I was disappointed at how abruptly some of these scenes concluded. I wanted and expected a deeper connection to the material and the characters. Regardless of these setbacks, the movie is unquestionably unique on many levels, and I didn't find it difficult to follow. Perhaps because it IS so outlandish, I enjoyed fitting the pieces together. There was never a dull moment with so many things happening throughout the course of the story line. The atmosphere was classic 70s style, and the acting was not bad at all despite (again) the poor editing.The Visitor is an Omen copy to a degree, but instead of demonic forces at work, the film centers on an evil alien force. This alien force is actually an escaped prisoner named Zatteen, who finds refuge on Earth many years in the past after fleeing from a deadly battle in space. Before his eventual death, he impregnates a number of women, passing along his mutated genes and allowing his future offspring to possess telekinetic powers. Since Zatteen had evil intentions and only wanted to kill and destroy others, his children are of the same breed. In order to carry out his catastrophic deeds, a cohort of wealthy men led by Dr. Walker (Mel Ferrer) is assembled to ensure his plan of world domination succeeds. This mission is challenged when only one woman on the planet in the present day bears the ability to fertilize Zatteen's seed, and her name is Barbara Collins (Joanne Nail). Barbara has already given birth to Katie (Paige Conner), a now eight year–old daughter who shows us she is no angel with some of the wicked things she says and does. The cohort wants Barbara to give birth to a son so he can become the new Zatteen of his generation. This task of impregnating Barbara is given to Raymond Armstead (Lance Henriksen), who must convince her to marry him despite the fact she is unwilling to commit to marriage. Barbara, of course, does not realize she has the special gift of carrying Zatteen's seed in her womb, but she knows intuitively that something is wrong with Katie. That sets up the premise of The Visitor. Of course, there are birds that attack on command, a watchful babysitter (Shelley Winters), a police detective on Katie's trail (Glenn Ford), a mysterious butler, a Jesus–like character who tells tales of the evil Zatteen to a group of young bald–headed children, and the good–guy visitor himself (John Huston), who congregates his disciples on the roof of a large skyscraper. The first fifteen minutes of the film unravels the basis of the plot, but as the viewer, it's important to listen to the dialogue. A lot happens quickly. Whether you like the film or find it a mess, to say it's not an entertaining effort would seem unfair. The only thing that really was annoying to me was part of the soundtrack dealing with the discotheque music. It was way over the top and out of place for this type of picture. I'm sure it fit the times and some people enjoyed it, but if the movie is to be taken seriously on any level, then that music has to go. If the movie was intended as hype – which doesn't appear to be the case – then the histrionic melody is warranted. On the other hand, the moody, ambient music was excellent, and the ending was solid. Give this cult classic a shot and be prepared to go on a strange journey of plot twists and turns. Watch it on a rainy day when you have the time or are feeling ambiguous and/or disconnected from the world. We all have those days sometimes. That's when The Visitor will leave you a little numb, confused, and scratching your head... but in a good way.