Alone at Night

I am a bit conflicted about "Alone at Night." It clearly has some problems, starting with the title itself. The movie was apparently originally titled "18 & over" and the movie itself still sports this title. The re-titling appears to be a last minute marketing change to try to convince people that the movie is different than it actually is, and it's never a good sign when a movie does that.

"Alone at Night" is the story of Vicky (Ashley Benson), a young woman who just broke up with her boyfriend and was kicked out of their New York home. She travels to the town she grew up in to stay at her cousin's house in an attempt to mentally recover, and she will have a week all alone at the house. She is also a cam-girl (her cam girl act involves putting on a purple wig), and so she figures she can spend the week camming and making a whole lot of money. And we spend the week with her as she cams, hangs around, and hears rumors of a killer nearby...

As I said, the movie has issues. She is supposed to be isolated, and yet there is a seemingly endless stream of men who just happen to stop by this distant house, and each one is more annoying than the previous. Pamela Anderson plays the local sheriff and sort of seems like she's supposed to be comic relief but never really fits. And there is a weird subplot about a strange "Pandemic Reality Show" starring Paris Hilton that we spend an inordinate amount of time watching (it's supposed to be Vicky's favorite show).

But for some reason I enjoyed it a bit more than I should have. I suspect some of that is due to Ashley Benson, who makes a very appealing protagonist. And I was able to figure out the killer from actual clues that were given, which is always nice.

Hard to really recommend it, but I sort of enjoyed it and there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes. I know that's faint praise, but still...

I mean come on! As far as thrillers go this wasn't that bad! It was all very relevant to the time I'm which it was made. From the webcam girls to Covid. And the cast, I mean come on it was sooooo random but so GOOD!!! From some really uhh names, to some stellar B lister cameos. The plot was good, the music was decent and some of the dialogue was cheesy, in a way that makes it amazing haha! And then we have the ending...It. Was. Glorious hahaha!! I am so not mad at the time I spent watching it. I loved seeing Pamela Anderson and Paris Hilton. Then Jake Weary shows up. Like I said before. I don't understand the hate. It claims to be nothing more than it is. A cheesy thriller with a great cast.

This is all over the place. It doesn't know if it's a horror movie, or a campy horror movie, or a drama, or a black comedy. You can be a campy horror movie, you just have to commit to it. I want to say I have respect for ALL filmmakers and congrats on getting this made. I know how much work goes into making a full feature film. The problem is, this doesn't all fit together and there's too many voices. If it wanted to be campy it should have stuck with that the whole way through, but it kept switching up the tone and that didn't work. It made it unwatchable and very difficult to get through. Again respect for getting it done, but it could have been SO much more if the tone were all even.

..this was just straight up bad. The goofy comedic relief objectively fails at the funny. The softcore setups are forced as hell. The overall acting was lacking aside from a few key moments that genuinely impressed me. Ashley Benson was a good lead except for the cringe flirty/romantic moments but I'm aware that's more than likely not her decision. The whole "reality tv" house had virtually no point being in the story. This was just a kinda cheap way to plug those influencers names. There was no real plot twist seeming you're already about 99.99999% sure who the real "culprit" is. (Spoiler: It's who you think it is) All in all aside from those very few good parts, the movie is a total skip you won't regret.

This is a frustrating film. The horror film part is well acted, tense, and has good twists. But for whatever reason, there is an annoying reality show element that feels like it was clumsily added later.

The reality show-within-a-movie is a bunch of horrible social media folks and doesn't connect to the real movie in any additive way. Paris Hilton almost makes it win some irony points, but it never lands.

Keep your finger on FFWD and you can still get a decent experience out of this.

I'd love to see a 70-ish minute cut. Call it "18 & Over, The Good Parts Edition". I think I'll do a fanedit and come back to it in a few years.