Studio: Shudder
Director: Jennifer Reeder
Writer: Brett Neveu
Producer: Neal Edelstein, Brett Neveu, David E. Tolchinsky
Stars: Geno Walker, Kate Arrington, Felonious Munk, Lawrence Grimm, Daniel Kyri, Theo Germaine, Morgan Reesh, Michael Shannon
Review Score:
Summary:
Believing his new apartment to be haunted, an agoraphobic man seeks remote help only to unwittingly escalate his problem.
Review:
The logline for “Night’s End” didn’t sound overly enticing. The movie’s marketing summarized the story as: “An anxious shut-in moves into a haunted apartment, hiring a stranger to perform an exorcism which quickly takes a horrific turn.”
I’ve regularly written about the fatigue many fright film fans feel for things like “found footage,” “woodland cabins,” and supernatural suspense that can be described as “slow burn.” If there’s just a singular word that can open more mouths in yawns than those two-word terms, it might be “exorcism.” Horror already has more demonic possession movies than viewers are willing to watch, and “Night’s End’s” release date fell within weeks of “The Exorcism of God,” “Exorcist Vengeance,” and who knows how many other direct-to-the-DTV-dumpster indies featuring pretend priests pointing crucifixes at growling contortionists.
“Exorcism” turns out to be a poor choice of plot points for “Night’s End’s” synopsis to home in on. As it so happens, this particular exorcism doesn’t look anything like Father Merrin going up against Pazuzu. The event itself is also only a short moment in the movie, although “Night’s End” does tie itself up in other tropes such as restless spirits, a haunted house with a tragic history, and a lot of armchair mysticism that exponentially exacerbates those paranormal problems.
What turned me around to take a chance on “Night’s End” was seeing Michael Shannon listed in the cast. I’ve become increasingly bullish on Shudder as the scary movie streamer’s content continues to keep a closer eye on quality while diversifying its portfolio. Now they’re adding names like Michael Shannon to their original offerings? Sign me up!
If that’s a selling point for you too, you should know that Shannon isn’t in the movie much. That’s because the film’s spotlight stays squarely on Geno Walker as Ken. An unemployed, divorced dad struggling with intense social anxiety as well as OCD, Ken recently relocated to an isolated apartment where he can practice taxidermy and make YouTube videos in peace, though those two hobbies are largely excuses to avoid venturing into the outside world.
Depending on your disposition, you might also wish to know that “Night’s End” is one of those movies mentioned earlier, specifically one describable as “slow-burn supernatural suspense.” Accordingly, the film’s first 10 minutes bear the low heat of a low speed as Ken’s agoraphobic anxiety gets established with his repeated daily routine of preparing coffee, pulling down lunch from carefully organized soup cans, stretching his back on a suspension chair, and so on.
Ken may not be mentally healthy, but he enjoys an atypically healthy relationship with his ex-wife Kelsey and her new husband Isaac (Michael Shannon). Ken’s best friend Terry checks in from time to time via video call too. When they’re not needling him to phone his distant daughters or inquiring about possibly problematic drinking, everyone encourages Ken to take his YouTube channel in a more lucrative direction after it appears as though a ghost haunts his gloomily lit little home. Ken takes the suggestion, but second thoughts spring up when his amateur attempts to capture the entity end up escalating supernatural activity in step with his debilitating paranoia.
Right here seems like as good of a place as any to make an educated guess that “Night’s End” was probably a pandemic-influenced production. It certainly looks like it anyway, since only rarely are two actors in the same setting together and everyone’s interactions occur exclusively over computer screens.
Some actors deliver better performances than others under these circumstances. Maintaining a mostly even tempo even when agitation induces asthmatic panting, Geno Walker holds down the fort as Ken. Michael Shannon does a lot with a little, making Isaac an endearing goofball despite limited screen time.
On the not so hot side of thespian theatrics, the man playing Ken’s friend Terry seems stymied by having to act against a screen instead of another person, resulting in a role dominated by rehearsed line readings and excessive sips from a beer bottle. Another man playing a conniving occultist similarly takes exaggeration too far with foreboding sneers that could stand to be dialed down a notch or two. Then again, those whiffs of cartoonishness are marginally preferable to the actor plainly playing the host of a purportedly popular online ghost hunting show, who says, “We are so amped to be delving into your haunting” with less enthusiasm than a Chipotle cashier who asks if you want your receipt.
A stage play setup solidifies “Night’s End” as a predominantly one-man show in a single location. “Night’s End” doesn’t look like the usual cheap thriller exploiting a small cast in an unattractive, white-walled house though. Props decorate Ken’s apartment to look lived in. Colors splash cozy corners with additional personality to accentuate moody visual atmosphere. As an excellent example of technical efficiency on a shoestring, the movie gives director Jennifer Reeder some good-looking footage for a reel to showcase her sharp eye for lo-fi style.
What the movie doesn’t give is viewers a consistently engaging suspense story. Some iffy fiction made iffier by spates of unconvincing acting writes checks for a wildly apocalyptic ending that a hamstrung budget can’t believably cash no matter how much everyone screams while bathed in bright light. This tight push-pull between what “Night’s End” wants to do and what it can conceivably accomplish leaves the movie looking and feeling like an elongated episode of “Tales from the Darkside” or, for a more modern reference, an episode of “Creepshow” without the comic book cheesiness. Competing factors taken together, “Night’s End” remains an admirable attempt at doing something slightly different with clichéd concepts, but it comes out as a mid-tier movie even by average VOD standards.
Review Score: 50
At least the movie only runs 70 minutes, though I suppose that extra 10 technically disqualifies it from being a literal amateur hour.