My suspicion is that there are many a person listed in the credits at the end of Nightstalker who have the same kind of willingness to sell their soul in pursuit of their ambitions. The film is, on the one hand, about the capitalist spirit, and on the other one of the creepiest film I have seen in years. It is brilliantly done [Rotten Tomatoes: 95% for critics; 87% for the audience, IMDb: 8.1]. It is about running a business, taking your opportunities where you find them, the application of cost-benefit analysis, the reality of price setting, business management, motivation for both self and one’s employees, and much more along these lines.

The underlying thoughts and words spoken by Jake Gyllenhaal are right out of Peter Drucker and the latest manual on how to succeed in business. Their application in a most unusual setting, which is itself a revelation. About lots of things but mostly for its entertainment. Its take on the capitalist system by the multi-millionaire far left capitalists of the film industry is itself a parody of the highest order, not that they would see it themselves.

But what the film does particularly well is remind us that a market system is built on the presumption of a moral order in the universe. No one watching the film would be in any doubt that the actions taken are morally wrong. The system we live in works only because there are these codes of ethics that are imposed by all of us on each of us. The film is a fantasy, a kind of dystopian version of how the market works.