Nightwatch

source: Nightwatch

There are better films out there, sure, but this little hidden gem is definitely worth a watch, particularly if you like the kind of thriller that has a paranormal tint to it. McGregor is very good here (although he seems to possess the weirdest accent out there) as is Josh Brolin and Nick Nolte. The plot concerns a young man who takes the job as the night watchman at a spooky morgue. Things start to play on his mind, and as they do the bodies begin to rack up as a serial killer is on the loose. Is it McGregor? Or is his mind playing tricks on him, and if so who is the killer? Watch and see!

Minor spoilers. I don't scare easily, but I had trouble sleeping after this one..... The film begins with some of the creepiest scenes I have ever seen in a film. Super! I don't think I'll ever be able to listen to my kids sing 'This Old Man, he played one......' again. Ewan MacGregor is Martin, who takes a job as a nightwatchman in a morgue. Nick Nolte is excellent as Inspector Cray, the policeman in charge of finding the necrophiliac serial killer responsible for murdering prostitutes and taking out their eyes. Yeuk! When bodies are tampered with at the morgue, Martin becomes chief suspect, and I was totally fooled by the red-herrings given to disguise who the killer really was. It's a shame about the fairly standard ending once the killer was revealed, but when I say 'fairly standard' it was still good, just not as good as the rest of the movie. Gaping plot-hole for me was how the killer engineered Alex's involvement with Martin??

Genuinely creepy. Scary. Real suspense. This is Nightwatch(1997) in a nutshell. If it was at theaters I missed it, so it may have been direct-to-video. That's a pity, because though it isn't exactly Hitchcock, it has more suspense than Saw, Saw II, Scream and Hostel, combined. I'm talking real 'what's down that dark corridor' suspense, not what happens when a carefully placed cat jumps out of a closet at a precise moment. The camera angles, darkened sets, and dead-on (no pun) direction put you right in Ewan McGregor's shoes as he creeps down corridors of the coroner's office, fearing that he'll see a corpse moved to a new spot -on its own. Catch this one on cable or DVD if you can!

Nightwatch, which was apparently an English-language remake of the Dutch film Nattevagen, both from director Ole Bornedal, was a dark horror murder mystery. It has a great cast in Ewan McGregor, who has a good American accent, Patricia Arquette, John C. Reilly, and Nick Nolte. It's sad that they weren't asked to do anything impressive. There was a very existential tint to it, but it was too little, too late to add any depth. It did make me think, though. Still, it was nicely shot, and the gross parts are enough to make you shiver without making you sick, and they were done quite effectively. Nothing was unnecessary. The soundtrack was a good mix of rock, classical, and spooky "atmosphere" music.

The only real complaint I have about this movie is that - despite the fabulous performances and the great editing and adaptation - the original scandinavian version was better precisely because of the fact that it was a bit grittier, rawer, and more "real".

I love it when movies like this are made, especially when they're done right, like NIGHTWATCH, a superior thriller that had me on the edge of my seat since the beginning. Masterfully acted, especially good job by Nick Nolte. -*** stars

The scenes in the morgue were effectively done, without gimmicks. At every turn down the hallways there was TERROR. Under no circumstance would I have worked there! The darkness, the dampness. It was all enveloping. I thought this remake was done right well. The last ten minutes were exceptionally taut and frightening. I am still undecided whether the 'friend' really did cut off his thumb to slip out of the handcuffs. But it sure was convincing. Yes, as I said, I would give this thriller a clean EIGHT.

I did not like Nightwatch, because it was not as frightening as it wanted to be. The actors were quite bad, and it was just a remake. I did not like Nattevagten, too, but that one has been at least a bit interesting. I rated both movies 4/10, because they are almost the same. Same story, and so on... It is maybe two years ago that I have seen Nightwatch, so I cannot tell you much about it. But I will watch it again when it is on TV.

Where do these crap scripts come from? This is terrible, really terrible. Ewan McGregor had nothing to work with and probably did the best he could with it but its a shame he and Nick Nolte chose to be in this movie. It seems like these two guys knew the writer or something and decided to go in one of his films to make him feel good. But for the audiences who have to watch these kind of movies, please! Spare us the torture!