Nightworld (2017)

At the final level, every object or idea in our world becomes reduced to a single line said in passing between people. This usually consists of a quality assessment plus a scope, such as, “The FIAT 500 is a great car for driving between your garage and a repair shop.”

If we were to do this for Nightworld, a movie featuring the charismatic Robert Englund of Freddy Krueger fame, our summary would be, “It is a good first chapter for a horror novel.” Ultimately, this movie seems designed to be the first in a series because not enough occurs, the characters are ingenues who do not become more interesting over time, and yet, a potent mythos is set up.

The film begins with Brett Anderson (Jason London) lounging around his house in Varna, Bulgaria, haunted by dreams of his late Bulgarian wife. Anderson has retired from the LAPD after a traumatic gunfight, and then spent three years with Anna, who promptly died or committed suicide; the movie never makes this clear, or maybe I slept through that part.

Deciding to put his life back on track, he takes a job in Sofia as a glorified security guard in an ancient mansion. In this really lovely building, he confronts a maze of technology monitoring a supernatural presence, and must consult with the blind and aging Jacob (Robert Englund) to make sense of it all.

This movie is so mile-wide-inch-deep that to say any more will pretty much spoil the thing, so let this be said: it is an “atmospheric” movie, which means lots of slow scenes and human interest leading up to a final conclusion in which there is sudden, not really logically consistent action. In other words, a slow build up to a sudden explosion, sort of like a premature ejaculation.

Unfortunately, the atmosphere is mostly boring because it requires these relatively high powered actors to act stupid and useless for eighty minutes, and then to be adventure movie action heroes for ten minutes, then spent two minutes looking shocked as the plot concludes. Expect sudden onset sleep attacks.

The sets are beautiful, the acting really very good for the top four characters and sort of adequate for everyone else, and the characters reasonably compelling albeit one-dimensional with absent clarity for their motivations. The supernatural presence is strikingly realistic and interesting. But the movie simply does not deliver.

Since no one involved seems to be incompetent, my guess is that this, indeed, is a first chapter. They wanted to establish a world in which they can sell video games based on supernatural zombies, or the dead not come back to life but crossing over from a dualistic “Nightworld,” and they intend to make a dozen movies on this topic.

That being said, no review can be meaningful. This first chapter introduces an interesting world. Not enough happens to do more than read the movie summary, but the movie is not poorly-executed, just low in content, which forces its characters to be hollow and their motivations vapid.

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12 thoughts on “Nightworld (2017)”

  1. T. Desecration says:

    More Brett Stevens film reviews. The Bill & Ted one was a classic. Review something by David Lynch

    1. whatever is dead says:

      seconded

    2. gayner faguswat says:

      brett superstar.. there’s some personality cult for brett going on here every now and then, some fandom blindly seeing gold in everything he touches (writes). from my understanding of dm and the rather fucked up sodomize the weak thing, that’s pretty paradoxal. if it’s against the mainstream like it’s said too often here, how can this fanboy brett stuff be understood? do these readers actually understand what they claim to enjoy, or is dm.org after all mainstream just the contrary way… brett, you’re the god of dm.org, and our personal messiah, darken our way, and lead us

      1. I'm black says:

        It’s cuz Brett’s like real smart ‘n shit.

      2. Nespithe & Burzum says:

        His writings and those of Obscura Hessian and Devamitra from an earlier incarnation of the site seem more authentic than the metal larping DEUS VULT stuff and the rubbish of some other editors.

      3. BlackPhillip says:

        Do you have a point?

      4. Some considerations says:

        Its because the readers secretly want to be sodomized.

        Also the horror movie genre is deader than metal.

    3. Robert says:

      Agreed. Mulholland Drive is a fucking classic.

  2. I'm black says:

    More of these please.

  3. Exfoliation says:

    http://www.soiledsinema.com/2018/02/twin-peaks-return.html?m=1 here’s a damn fantastic review of Lynch’s 18 hour cobble of 40 short films with the Twin Peaks brand slapped on it, wonderfully dour with the best gore that’s been on the screen in years, it’s also a genuinely creepy horror series that resembles nothing of the former show and in fact confirms my suspicions Lynch never cared about Twin Peaks as it barely resembles the older shows at all, there’s so much many exploding, gnawed, crushed, and shot up human heads, give it a chance

    1. I am the wack blizzards says:

      That was actually the worst thing ever written

      Presumably anyway, since I killed myself in shame for the author after a couple minutes, guess I’ll never know and that’s okay, but don’t be like that guy

      1. Exfoliation says:

        It’s only because you’re sensitive for negroes

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