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{{one source|date=November 2016}}

{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox television
| image              =
| caption            = 
| genre              = Comedy<br>Horror
| creator            = 
| based_on           = 
| writer             = 
| screenplay         = 
| story              = 
| director           = [[Alexander Grasshoff]]<br>[[Don Weis]]
| starring           = [[Darren McGavin]]<br>[[Simon Oakland]]<br>[[Jack Grinnage]]<br>[[Carol Ann Susi]]
| music              = 
| country            = United States
| language           = English
| executive_producer = 
| producer           = 
| cinematography     = 
| editor             = 
| location           = [[Chicago]]
| camera             = 
| runtime            = 92 minutes
| company            = [[Universal Pictures]]<br>[[Universal Television]]
| budget             = 
| network            = 
| released           = {{Start date|1974}} 
}}

'''''Crackle of Death''''' is a 1974 film, the fourth produced in the ''[[The Night Stalker (1972 film)|Night Stalker]]'' film series.<ref name=NYT>{{cite web|title=Crackle of Death|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/88053/Crackle-of-Death/overview|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141223201151/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/88053/Crackle-of-Death/overview|url-status=dead|department=Movies & TV Dept.|work=[[The New York Times]]|author=Hal Erickson|author-link=Hal Erickson (author)|date=2014|archive-date=2014-12-23}}</ref>

It combined the ''[[Kolchak: The Night Stalker]]'' episodes "Firefall"<ref name=NYT/> and "The Energy Eater"<ref name=NYT/> with additional narration by [[Darren McGavin]] as Carl Kolchak. It also contains new dialogue by McGavin, Simon Oakland and Jack Grinnage, as well as new "scenes", such as a newspaper on a desk and the image of the [[doppelgänger]] being inserted into old footage (for example, when Kolchak looks at the sky, he sees the doppelgänger's giant face). The new material was put together in late March 1976.

Before ''Crackle of Death'' was a third movie entitled ''The Demon and the Mummy'' that combined two more episodes in a similar manner; namely, "Demon in Lace" and "Legacy of Terror".

All four episodes comprising these films were subsequently withdrawn from the original television syndication package. They were not made available in their entirety again until a [[Columbia House]] VHS video release in the 1990s. The TV-edited films have never been released on home video.

==See also==
*[[List of Kolchak: The Night Stalker episodes]]
*[[The Night Stalker (1972 film)|''The Night Stalker'']] (1st movie): The original [[vampire]] story.
*[[The Night Strangler (film)|''The Night Strangler'']] (2nd movie): A [[mad scientist]] achieves immortality through murderous means.
*[[Kolchak: The Night Stalker#Production|''The Night Killers'']] (3rd unproduced movie): [[Extraterrestrial life|Aliens]] replace prominent citizens with [[Android (robot)|androids]] in Hawaii.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{IMDb title|id=0166157}}

{{The Night Stalker (franchise)}}
{{Alex Grasshoff}}

[[Category:1974 television films]]
[[Category:1974 English-language films]]
[[Category:Films directed by Alex Grasshoff]]
[[Category:American horror television films]]
[[Category:1974 horror films]]
[[Category:1974 fantasy films]]
[[Category:The Night Stalker (franchise)]]
[[Category:1974 films]]
[[Category:1974 American films]]
[[Category:Speculative crime and thriller fiction television series]]
[[Category:English-language horror films]]
[[Category:English-language fantasy films]]


{{US-tv-horror-film-stub}}

{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=Crackle of Death|access_date=2026-03-01}}