Night Shift

It's a low-budget film, with a simple idea, simple actors, not very interesting characters and little blood, however, it's entertaining as much as possible and delivers an interesting ending.

There are much better films that take place in roadside hotels, like Vacancy from 2007, but this film here is actually cool. It's simple, but not terrible. The biggest problem, in my opinion, is that the film often doesn't find its genre! He goes through a lot of comedy, drama, suspense and horror, and never gets what he really wants to get right.

As positive points, I highlight the main actress who works well in the character, the scare scenes with rats and the ending which is a bit surprising and fun.

Caught this on Prime during a rainy day and since there was nothing else on... Since I have seen Lamorne Morris on TV since Jeff Lewis remodeled his pool house, I was excited to see his newer work.

Here's my elevator pitch...chick traveling takes an under the table job working the night shift at a modern day version of the Bates Motel. Spooky antics ensue, chick makes friends with cutie Asian tenant chick, girl-bonding takes place...nothing to worry about, right? Wrong!!!

What's that sound, a ghost??? Maybe?

I won't wreck the ending for you, because honestly it's worth watching if you've got the time to kill. But don't expect any groundbreaking new storylines.

If you go into things with no expectations, you'll come out happy, it's really a fun, campy horror flick.

Lamorne, I need a ride to bingo Thursday, hmu!!!

I was prepared to waste an hour and a half on a Saturday night with this one but it turned out this was pretty good for about two thirds of the film and easily worth six stars (or more). Solid acting by Phoebe Tonkin, Lamorne Morris, Madison Hu, and well, pretty much the whole cast. Everyone played their part with gusto on conviction. There really was a perfect balance between humor, suspense and apprehension throughout the film. My reason for 3 stars is 'the big twist' in the story. The last few minutes were a complete disaster IMHO and although the directors thought they were being clever, let's face it, we are not that dumb.

This is a good movie if you just want to watch something moderately entertaining on the cheap... but don't expect anything above that because you're not really going to be getting that. This is a pretty moderate and alright movie; it's not great, but not terrible either.

What you're going to get is a movie with a functional, albeit wonky at parts, story with alright characters that can give off some entertaining sequences and performances, and it does have a cool aesthetic with a pretty good setting of a motel in the middle of nowhere.

The movie has your expected tropes of whisper talking, references to other media, comedic relief sequences peppered throughout the movie, jump scare sequences, and an ending that you'd expect from a movie like this today. The movie does pull a considerable amount from Psycho and The Shining, which is fine. The only part that might not be good is that SOME scares last way too long, to the point that they're more goofy than scary.

Overall, this is okay. At best, it's decent enough, and it's ho-hum at worst. If you have a few dollars to spend, and an hour and a half to kill for the night with some friends or loved ones, then you could perhaps spend it on this... I'll give it a very light recommendation...

Apparently, this is a directorial debut from The China Brothers and, if this is just a showcase of skills and abilities, then I suppose it's cool... I guess this is just to show that they can get the job done... hopefully they go on to bigger and better things!

In 2023's Night Shift we are introduced to a young woman who is tackling her first night shift in a remote motel. When she was young her mother and her sisters got killed by a serial killer and apparently the motel is haunted. Therefore she spends most of the night walking around being scared of pretty much everything.

Sadly that is most of the plot. We get some side characters that don't have much to do and there are a few lame jumpscares scattered throughout the movie. The movie is pretty slow paced and there's not much to see, making it a rather boring watching experience. There are some humorous scenes that I didn't mind and also the acting was decent.

In the end I thought that the movie was pretty predictable and did not have any tricks up its sleeve. Also without spoiling anything I think the ending didn't make much sense but you can see that for yourself if you want. I think it's a below average movie that is slow paced and mostly uneventful, even though it has a semi-interesting premise. [4,9/10]