Night's End

This movie has an identity problem. Is it about a shut in with anxiety? Sort of. Is it about a ghost? Sort of. Is it a webcam found footage sort of thing? Sort of. Does it have Michael Shannon in it? Sort of. Is it a comedy? Eh, not really, but parts of it are hilarious. Especially the ending.

Holy crap, movie, pick a plot point and stick with it.

Be warned, this movie is kind of meh, but I found myself kind of liking it a little because of how ridiculously it ended. There were some particularly funny lines with well timed deliveries. The acting was pretty decent all around. Unfortunately, the story is all over the place.

It starts out with a lot of character development focusing on the main character, but honestly, the movie ends up having little to do with him. Why spend all that time on him when he's basically the straight man for a punchline?

I liked the lead actor's portrayal of a man with mental health issues doing his best to make "forward progress" but in the end, the story didn't feel like it needed him at all or even had much to do with him, really.

If the entire movie was more closely related to how it ended, I would have loved it, but they started it one way, and ended it a completely different way - and it wasn't like some cool twist or anything, it was just hilarious, in my opinion.

I went into this without realizing Michael Shannon was in it and was surprised to see him. He doesn't have a large role but it's a supporting one, for sure. He certainly doesn't save the movie.

This isn't a very good movie, but it has its moments.

It starts off your typical haunted house, I've even seen the set up with the blogger picking up weird events before. Which works even though it's not super original. They have video calls to introduce other characters, which also works in the situation to make things a little bit more interesting. I really liked the other super natural bloggers.

But it takes a turn that I didn't expect, and it actually surprised me. The budget isn't high, but I think they do well with what they had. The CGI at the end is terrible, but I don't think it takes away from the enjoyment.

It's not an "amazing film" but I had fun with it, and enjoyed it. The bad guy is a bit "muhahaha evil" which does change the tone, but I liked the surprise thru brought.

I think if Jennifer Reeder expects to get funding to make another movie she probably should start by taking her name off the credits of this piece of garbage and replace it with "Allen Smithee". It's a complete abomination. Never have I seen acting and writing so amateurish, SFX so poorly executed, a plotline so preposterous and enough cheese to cover the entire moon, all in one movie. It's not even in the "it's so bad that it's good" catagory. It's just bad. Period. And how they got the great Michael Shannon to appear in this mess is anyone's guess. Seriously, there is literally not enough negative adjectives in the English language to convey just how awful this movie is. You have been warned.

Night's End is a clear Covid project about a shut in who communicates with concerned friends via Skype. Our lead is played quite well by Geno Walker. He is a depressed, down on his luck man living by himself trying to start a YouTube channel about being divorced, yard work and more. When spooky happenings occur in his apartment he gets noticed and has to push the envelope.

The film is is fairly slow paced but had me interested enough to know what was happening. Problem is that the script doesn't have anywhere to go other than predictable places you expect. You will call the ending with plenty of time to spare.

The acting outside of our main character in the last 20 minutes of the movie is among the worst I have seen in a long time. There are "scary" parts that got an audible laugh out of me and one character screams like he was auditioning for Trolls 2.

Also the restrained budget this movie clearly has also is a big problem. You kind of know what WON'T happen because it would cost too much money. I also think this is an issue for the performances as it almost feels rushed.

So a weak script , no money and bad performances come together to make one of the worst endings in a horror film this year. This is definitely a skip.

Never in my life have I seen a movie fall apart so completely in the last 15 minutes. For the majority of the movie, you'll believe you're watching an attempt at a serious horror film. By the time you reach the end, you'll find you were very, very wrong. Despite almost turning the movie off multiple times due to lack of interest in the slow story, I stuck it out until the end. If the movie had been a horror-comedy, much of the movie's ending could have been forgiven. The bad acting, awful special effects, horrible editing, and insanely stupid plot all come together for a conclusion you won't believe. Seriously, you will not believe what you're actually watching. It's that bad. I can't even begin to imagine what the director was thinking when he decided he could pass this off as anything even close to resembling a decent horror movie.