NightwatchYear: 1998 Director: Ole Bornedal Written by: Ole Bornedal, Steven Soderbergh Threat: Psychopath Weapon of Choice: Knife Based upon: Original |
Other movies in this series:
None
Rish Outfield's reviews
Ewan McGregor does a great job as a typical American twenty-something (more
impressive when you consider he's a Scottish heroine-addicted Jedi Knight),
finding himself working in a setting so chilling, I spent the first half with
a blanket in one hand and a bedpan in the other (that was a joke). Josh
Brolin is his psycho friend, Patricia Arquette is his girlfriend, and Nick
Nolte is the gruff detective who always shows up at the absolute worst time.
The biggest problem I had with the plot was that the film made us suspicious
of a certain character from about five minutes into it, continuing us along
this path until we are surprised with the real killer. Now, that kind of
thing can work in a movie like this, but I'm not sure it does here. For
example, as much as I like So I Married An Axe Murderer, I don't think the
revelation at the end as to who the killer is explains why the Nancy Travis
acted the way she did through the whole movie. But I'm on a tangent now.
There were moments in Nightwatch that were truly terrifying. I mean, I was
scared! Unfortunately, it stopped being a horror movie after a certain
point, and moved on to just a detective/mystery thing. If they had managed
to keep the tone and intensity even throughout the entire film, I'd
wholeheartedly endorse this thing. As it stands, it's another one of those
movies where the potential was great, but it came up short.
The tyranist's thoughts
Most horror flicks set in the morgue involve the living dead. They are also usually at least as funny as they are
scary. This then would be the exception.
A law school student (Ewan McGregor) gets a job as the night watchman at the Medical Examiner's offices. All in all
not a bad spot for someone who just wants to study. But there's been a serial killer on the loose and things start
happening that are a little out of the normal. Gradually (to the character at least) it becomes clear that the
serial killer knows the student and is going to frame him for the murders.
Similar to Phantoms, I thought that this movie started out really strong and was
even pretty scary for the first while. Unfortunately, they killed that a little with a red herring subplot, but even
when it all came down to the final confrontation, the movie still maintained a good presence despite the edge that
was lost. Really this is worth seeing. Ewan is pretty good and Nick Nolte is as creepy as ever. Brad Dourif appears
as an almost psychotic doctor. Check it out, it's worth seeing once.
Total Skulls: 8
Sequel | ||
Sequel setup | ||
Rips off earlier film | ||
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie | ||
Future celebrity appears | ||
Former celebrity appears | ||
Bad title | ||
Bad premise | ||
Bad acting | ||
Bad dialogue | ||
Bad execution | ||
MTV Editing | ||
OTS | ||
Girl unnecessarily gets naked | ||
Wanton sex | ||
Death associated with sex | ||
Unfulfilled promise of nudity | ||
Characters forget about threat | ||
Secluded location | ||
Power is cut | ||
Phone lines are cut | ||
Someone investigates a strange noise | ||
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door | ||
Camera is the killer | ||
Victims cower in front of a window/door | ||
Victim locks self in with killer | ||
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls | ||
Toilet stall scene | ||
Shower/bath scene | ||
Car stalls or won't start | ||
Cat jumps out | ||
Fake scare | ||
Laughable scare | ||
Stupid discovery of corpse | ||
Dream sequence | ||
No one believes only witness | ||
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth | ||
Music detracts from scene | ||
Death in first five minutes | ||
x years before/later | ||
Dark and stormy night | ||
Killer doesn't stay dead | ||
Killer wears a mask | ||
Killer is in closet | ||
Killer is in car with victim | ||
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes | ||
Unscary villain/monster | ||
Beheading | ||
Blood fountain | ||
Blood hits camera | ||
Poor death effect | ||
Excessive gore | ||
No one dies at all | ||
Virgin survives | ||
Geek/Nerd survives | ||
Little kid lamely survives | ||
Dog/Pet miraculously survives | ||
Unresolved subplots | ||
"It was all a dream" ending | ||
Unbelievably happy ending | ||
Unbelievably crappy ending | ||
What the hell? |