Dead Night

Moviecut—Dead Night

As is often the case, the wildly varying imdb reviews fail to hit the mark. Dead Night is a fairly well-shot, supernatural horror flick containing some better-than-low-budget visuals, creature effects and gore. It's just that the production team forgot one key point when making a film: It's the story, stupid. Not going to dissect Dark Night here - a couple of other reviewers have done a pretty good job there already. Still, for me, this is certainly not a "9" but is equally not a "2". The criticisms about the near complete lack of a storytelling narrative are not unfounded. This is a film that desperately needed a singular storytelling voice. The truth then, as usual, is somewhere in the middle. This one gets a pretty strong "5" from me for the look and feel alone. Plus a few non-cringeworthy performances. Oh, and Barbara Crampton does a fine job as well.

It starts off in a beautiful setting with decent imagery, acceptable characters and a unique concept. The practical effects on the monsters and transformations were amazing, and loved the gore. It starts off with a family traveling to a remote cabin up in the snowy mountains, think of a supernatural slasher with monster like elements. My main problem was how confusing the plot was, and everything kind of ended outta no where. The action we get is decent tho, but it lacks a GOOD explanation of what was going on and why. But I dug it, recommend it if you got nothing else to do with your time.

Another one of these movies that don't make sense, followed by a failed attempt to add depth to the whole thing with some half-baked explanation the writer undoubtedly thought grandiose and mythical. Pointless.

Well, where to begin?! I have to say that the trailer looked decent and it pretty much goes downhill from there. No real direction or point to it. Things are not really explained though it's obvious they were hoping for a sequel. The biggest thing that ruins this movie is the true crime documentary style show that pops in throughout the movie. There really is no point to it as it doesn't lead to anything and not only that but it tells you what's going to happen (mostly) and who dies and who survives about 15 minutes into the movie so from that point on there really isn't any point to continue watching the movie. A bad horror movie has pretty much one thing going for it and that's trying to figure out who dies and how. Take that away and you might as well watch paint dry. There's nothing here to redeem this mess of a movie so put this movie in the "never watch" pile.

I saw the movie in Chicago, after they edited the film. The movie cuts back and forth between what really happened to the family in the cabin and a reality TV true crime program about the deaths. The reality TV part was reduced, which was probably a good idea. The supernatural aspect of the movie isn't very clear, they need to flesh that out with some additional scenes. It's only 80 minutes long, so that is feasible.

'Dead Night' did intrigue me, with a creepy poster/cover, a fine premise and as someone with a general appreciation for the genre it fits under. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there (though there are decent to good ones as well), made me though apprehensive. It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws present in those films are here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'Dead Night' is very weak, with so many huge flaws and doesn't do anything with any potential it had. Good things are few. Best thing about the film is the acting, which is above average and in some cases quite good. The setting has some atmosphere and there are a few sporadic effective shots. They are the only things however that struck me as halfway decent here. Going on to the negatives, the story does feel over-stretched and some of it comes over as vague and under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less unsettled and never gaining momentum. All the characters are too sketchy and with cardboard thin and colourless personalities and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates. The sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions) and the effects are shoddy. Dialogue can be stilted and rambling while the pace and film drags on forever, apparent from the very start, never recovering that interest is lost fast. The ending has no build-up and just ends ridiculously. Found too many of the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense. Thrills are none, thanks to stodginess, knowing too much too early and excessive over-familiarity, and found myself never invested in the drama, which tended to be indifferently acted, interminably paced and statically directed. A lot of 'Dead Night' has really dull and going nowhere plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you shocked are far from creative or unsettling. It all feels rather tame while the threat completely lacks menace and looks terrible. Nothing freaky or interesting, no development and too derivative, while everything is unimaginative and are more odd than scary, completely failing to show any sense of dread. There is nothing interesting or illuminating with what the film was trying to do and the drama is overwrought with no momentum and a lot of weirdness. The direction is barely there and disorganised and the music is ill-fitting. 'Dead Night' is very amateurish visually, too drearily lit and shows no care in the way it's shot. Concluding, weak. 3/10 Bethany Cox

I do watch some trash, but I generally get a level of something - even if it's poor acting or a shoddy storyline, there's usually something you can grip onto. I just finished watching this and I have no idea what it was about or what happened. The last thing I understood was a family trip to some woods and the family found a woman outside who took advantages of their hospitality, drinking their milk. I've rewound it, paused it, read up on it, asked other people about it. I'm still none the wiser. Don't waste your life on this - watching the movie is a horror in itself.

That is all not sure what kind of "spoiler" could be written about this movie

I watched it last night and was pleasantly surprised with how bloody/gory the film is. the gore is 100% practical and it's fantastic/well done. Barbara Crampton is excellent as an antagonist (that's not a spoiler since it's in the trailer). Brea Grant is very good too and kick ass as the mother trying to save her family. my only complaint about it is the storyline is incredibly stupid and makes little to no sense. it also has an idiotic fake tv show (a Dateline/Crime story type show on the actual family in the film) within the movie which i hated. LOL. but again the blood/gore is so full on that it makes up for it. you have decapitations, arms cut off, branches stabbed into eyes/faces, etc. etc. there's even a full on transformation complete with those special fx facial bladder things (like in THE HOWLING). bad storyline aside this movie is a fun 80's style film that fans of practical FX gore/blood will get a kick out of!