The night he retires as a Nevada sheriff, Jerry Black pledges to the mother of a murdered girl that he will find the killer. Jerry doesn't believe the police arrested the right man; he discovers this is the third incident in the area in the recent past with victims young, blond, pretty, and small for their age. So he buys an old gas station in the mountains near the crimes in order to search for a tall man who drives a black station wagon, gives toy porcupines as gifts, and calls himself the wizard: clues from a drawing by the dead girl. Jerry's solitary life gives way to friendship with a woman and her small, blond daughter. Has Jerry neglected something that may prove fatal?

Jack Nicholson's secretary in the movie, Jean, is played by director 'Sean Penn''s mother, actress Eileen Ryan.

[after informing the Larsens of their daughter's murder]


Margaret Larsen:
There can't be such devils out there.


Jerry Black:
There *are* such devils.

Audio/visual unsynchronized: In the first shot of Jerry reading Chrissy a bedtime story, his lips do not match the words he is reading.

Written by Humberto Carlos Benefica
Performed by Orchestra Marrabenta Star de Moçambique
Courtesy of Piranha Records
By Arrangement with Piranha Musik Produktion & Verlag AG