Dead Night Movie A Watchable Stinker

Dead Night was released in 2017 and stars Barbara Crampton. But even the best scream queen couldn’t save this film. In a story that follows Casey, your average loving mommy something lurks in the woods outside. But between the forest and a stranger, something sinister happens that puts blood in the snow.

Sounds good, doesn’t it?

The Dead Night Trailer and Premise Behind The Movie

The trailer for Dead Night and the opening sequence pressed all the right buttons. There are some heavy-trope throwbacks. You know the ones that are illegal to put in horror films nowadays without causing a tidal wave of disapproving grunts. In the opening sequence, a couple is ‘parking’ like… lovers lane type parking and the guy gets out to check out a weird vibe and says;

‘I’ll be right back”

Quote from Dead Night

The concepts in “Dead Night” should work. The ideas are all solid and fun and fit within the structure that I look for and enjoy generally in horror movies.

Even the casting is filled with familiar faces including the illustrious Crampton who breezes through her role as a villainess with the grace of someone of her caliber. I mean the lady is a legend. You just have to look at her previous roles to know what I’m talking about. Aside from that, her blonde locks and pretty features make her the perfect bad guy.

Babies in the Woods

In the scene, after — ‘I’ll be right back;’ the guy doesn’t, in fact, come back, the film fast forwards to the future but we are still in the woods. A creature lovingly hands a grunting woman, a stick to bite down on before an echo whispers;

“It’s a girl.”

Quote from Dead Night

I curiously wondered where this is going. A bit of ambiguity is always a bonus. However, the creature is next spotted near a house and looks somewhat like a lost raver from a dimly lit nightclub in his white hoodie and poncho. He is a lurker and does his best with the murkiness of his lurking but I still expected him to break out some dance moves.

Complete with a voice-over, Dead Night takes an odd documentary-type turn. The tonal shift is welcomed but not cohesive. Whether or not this addition adds value to the rest of the film, I can’t say for certain. But a quarter of the way into this beautifully shot; dark and exquisitely scenic movie, I became rather puzzled. I literally scratched my head and wondered what on Earth was going on. I began hoping that there was going to be a massive superman style twist sent in to save the day.

Dead Night 2017 Movie Review

Finally, buried amongst the confusion were these other stories that crept into the film and all of a sudden it ended. In the end, I decided that I really didn’t enjoy Dead Night. What’s more, the plot became nonsensical to the point where I was really annoyed at the direction of the storyline.

Did they run out of time to finish the details of the story? Did one of the writers get drunk and decide to create the ending the way they did? What happened, did Brad Buruh and Irving Walker flip coins and pick a story arc from a list they had to finish off?  

Furthermore, I’m not going to spoil this one, and I also don’t want to deter anyone from watching it because it is absolutely watchable. In other words, it might be the perfect movie for a dark and stormy night as part of a double feature but watch something really good after it! To clarify, Dead Night is one truly watchable stinker in its purest form.

I give Dead Night

2.5 if the ladies were lost ravers too I wouldn’t have been surprised out of 5