SCORE: 5.5/10
OVERVIEW
Nathan and Daniel are caught in a road accident that kills them both. As they come to grips with their deaths, Nathan confronts his past and the consequences of his actions. Now trapped in the hellish void of Pandemonium, he encounters tortured souls like Jeanne, a disturbed child; Julia, a grief-stricken mother; and Norghul, the guide of the great void. Will he find a way to escape the torment that awaits him for eternity?
REVIEW:
To be totally honest.. Its a stinker. And i have a hard time figuring out why people can actually give it a good rating. A film made at this ‘level’ have to perfom better. It solely lives on the name.Which sucks, because the first one is so good. Already in the beginning there is some of the worst dubbing work I’ve ever seen in a film, ever. The whole setup is just so bad. The pacing is off and in general the work takes you away from the movies. Not that the plot is good. The story is in general thin as paper, and you sit with that feeling that the protagonist’s action is so unreal. In know we talk about a film here, but come on. Its not good, and a real disappointment.Cant recommend.
Thirty years after the original Nightwatch and twenty-seven years after the American remake, writer/director Ole Bornedal returns, rather literally, to the scene of the crime with Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever, a standalone sequel to the original Danish film.
Martin (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, My Name Is Modesty: A Modesty Blaise Adventure, Shot Caller) survived the events of the first film and the suicide of his wife Kalinka. Itβs taken its toll though, heβs dependent on prescription drugs to get through the day, and heβs even less likeable than he was back then. He also has a daughter, Emma, played by the directorβs daughter Fanny Leander Bornedal (Munch, Journal 64) who is in med school.
Early in the film, needing money, she takes her fatherβs old job, night watchman, or ward clerk as itβs called now, at the morgue. As sheβs being shown around before her first shift, she finds out that WΓΆrmer (Ulf Pilgaard, Body Switch, All I Want for Christmas: The Magic Time Machine) wasnβt killed, heβs alive blind and in a coma at a nearby asylum. She becomes determined to see him. If that sounds like a really bad idea, thatβs because it is.
Bornedal seems to have taken some inspiration from recent slashers like Scream VI and Halloween Ends, dealing with the notion of trauma and how it hangs over people, never letting them fully move on, and even affecting other generations. In a rather clichΓ©d bit of plotting, Emma was the one who found her motherβs body after she hung herself, and carries her own scars from that.
And just like the evil of Michael Myers doesnβt die, neither does WΓΆrmerβs. Emmaβs visit rouses him from his comatose condition and, with the help of another inmate, Bent (Casper KjΓ¦r Jensen, Antboy 3, The Sommerdahl Murders), heβs soon out and looking to kill Emma and anyone who survived his original rampage, starting with Emmaβs Godmother Lotte (Vibeke Hastrup, The Substitute, Everything Will Change), which in turn brings Jens (Kim Bodnia, One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk, Pusher) back from Thailand for Nightwatch: Demons are Foreverβs final showdown.
Running a hair under two hours, Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever is a very deliberately paced, slow burn of a film thatβs nearly half over before the first killing takes place and isnβt in too much of a hurry to get to the next one. Thankfully, the script stays interesting most of the time, though some of the scenes of Emma and her friends acting like stereotypical cinematic college students are pretty dire.
Thankfully, this is kept to a minimum and the script rarely goes off course and builds up a considerable amount of tension by the last half hour. In that aspect, Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever is much more of a mystery thriller than a horror film, and if not for the last half hour Iβd call it just that. As it stands, itβs still something of a borderline case As it stands, itβs still something of a borderline case that could as easily go in the direction of Halloween 2 or X-Ray in the final minutes or in the direction ofΒ InoperableΒ orΒ Disquiet.
However, you want to classify it though, this is a film thatβs better than a decades later sequel has a right to be. The mix of returning characters and new faces works well, helped by some good performances, especially Fanny Leander Bornedal who shows she wasnβt just cast because of her looks or who the director was. Itβs also to the castβs credit that the various revelations and misdirections in the final act work as well as they do.
Overall, Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever is an above average film with some solid subtext about trauma, guilt and trying to get out from under it. The film does have its missteps, from the fairly pointless inclusion of a couple of characters to a gaffe where the emblem on a vehicle steering wheel says VW, but an exterior shot reveals it to be a CitroΓ«n, but theyβre minor issues in an otherwise worthy bit of entertainment.
Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever is currently streaming onΒ ShudderΒ and will probably turn up on some of AMCβs other streaming services in the next couple of months as well.
