Fear the Night

Trouble Iraq war veteran Tess (Maggie Q) attends the bachelorette party of her younger sister Rose (Highdee Kuan) organized by her older sister Beth (Kat Foster) with whom Tess has a strained relationship. On the night of the party, assailants surround the house and shoot at the group using bows and arrows as Tess using her military training to keep everyone alive and take down the assailants.

Fear the Night is a new home invasion thriller written and directed by Neil LaBute and starring Maggie Q for Quiver distribution and has recently premiered on VOD. Fear the Night doesn't stray far from the template of established home invasion thrillers, but it LaBute does create some pretty interesting characters thanks to his ability to create tense and uncomfortable situations from abrasive characters (such as In the Company of Men and Nurse Betty). The opening 30 minutes of the movie where Maggie Q's Tess deals with the unspoken awkwardness leading up to and during the bachelorette party kind of reminded me of the Karyn Kusama film The Invitation from 2015 in that much like how that film mixed horror tropes with an awkward dinner party setup, Fear the Night does something similar to an effective albeit not as successful degree. Once the action starts Fear the Night more or less follows most of the tricks and trappings of the home invasion setup but does add that little extra something by keeping some of the characters abrasive enough there's that lingering tension left over from before. The movie's also nicely bloody and with its lack of firearms and reliance on improvised or unconventional weaponry, we do get some fun bloody sequences including one scene with a potato peeler that will make many wince and cross their legs.

Fear the Night is the definition of a "solid rental". It's a familiar setup that's given just enough extra something to make it a reasonably breezy sit and has a solid performance from Maggie Q. For a quiet night in of violent fun you can certainly do worse.

Action/Suspense/Thriller home-invasion film written and directed by Neil LaBute and starring Maggie Q. The movie revolves around Tess, an Iraq War veteran and a recovering alcoholic, who returns home to attend her sister's bachelorette party at their family farm. The film takes a dark turn when a group violently invades the party, and Tess has to use her military training to protect herself and the other women from the violent assault.

LaBute stumbles into the common pitfall of romanticizing PTSD. Tess, like many of our real-life service members, unfortunately suffers from it, but the film falls into the cliché of presenting its symptoms as beneficial. In the movie, Tess's PTSD symptoms, such as heightened suspicion and strong startle response, coincidentally align with the actual threat present at the bachelorette party. This narrative choice can suggest that her trauma has somehow prepared her for this extreme situation. In reality, PTSD is a complex and often debilitating condition. It can manifest in various ways, including hypervigilance, flashbacks, and avoidance behaviors, all of which Tess presents with in the film. However, it does not work as the sort of "sixth-sense" often implied in films, including this one, and is something people have to work hard at to overcome. In other words, in real life, people succeed despite their trauma, not because of it; this film has that backwards.

Despite these criticisms, the performances from the entire cast were good. The action scenes, although sparse, were solid and suspenseful, with LaBute's skill in crafting suspense seeing the film approach an ominous horror-like atmosphere. Anything with Maggie Q is always worth a watch, and not just because she's gorgeous; she's a phenomenal actor and her presence elevates any film she's in. It's a shame that LaBute didn't tap deeper into her martial arts skills and athleticism, which could have greatly added to the film's fight scenes. This film would have been a perfect showcase for them, and their inclusion would have only made a decent film better.

Overall it's a good one-time watch for fans of the genre. 6/10.

A 6 is too high. Maggie Q is one dimentional here, but I will say she still looks good for 44.

The story is loose and several threads are intrdouced and left to dangle in the wind. The characters are not developed enough to care about any of them.

Also, all men in the movie are pigs or killers. Or that is how they are portrayed.

I watched half and fast forwarded to the end. Just too much dead space that does not advnace the film. Mild thriller. Never gets intense enough to grip you.

It is a very by the numbers girls in cabin with no cell coverage attacked by country good old boys bent on killing them for sport. But medicore script.

This had potential. Alas.

Fear the Night on Prime Video, starring Maggie Q, initially sets a compelling stage, promising a taut home-invasion thriller. The first half genuinely builds suspense, establishing a tense atmosphere as a bachelorette party becomes a battle for survival.

Maggie Q delivers a committed performance as Tess, showcasing her physical prowess and carrying the emotional weight of her character. She's undeniably the film's anchor, making you root for her despite the escalating chaos.

However, the film unfortunately loses its grip. The action, while frequent, often feels undercooked, lacking the visceral impact and creative choreography needed to sustain engagement. What begins as a clever cat-and-mouse game devolves into repetitive encounters.

The script, after a strong start, struggles to maintain its narrative coherence, and the direction, initially effective in building tension, falters in delivering truly impactful set pieces.

The final 10 minutes are particularly regrettable, dragging out the conclusion unnecessarily and diminishing the overall experience.

Fear the Night had the ingredients for a gripping ride, but ultimately falls short of its promising potential. 5.5/10.

I had not heard about this movie from writer and director Neil LaBute priot to sitting down to watch it. So I really had no particular expectations to the movie. But I Will say that the movie's synopsis sounded interesting enough, plus the fact that the movie was starring Maggie Q certainly was a good selling point.

The storyline in "Fear the Night", however, turned out to be a rather bland and generic home invasion type of movie. Writer and director Neil LaBute didn't really bring much of anything new to the genre, and instead played it safe by cashing in on all the stereotypical tropes seen in the genre in many movies before this. But hey, at least there is a sense of security and familiarity in that aspect, I suppose.

The acting performances in "Fear the Night" were okay, and they had a good cast ensemble together for the movie, I will say that much. But the actors and actresses very given very little of anything substantial to work with.

If you're looking for a home invasion movie to watch, then I will say that there are better choices out there and more entertaining movies to be seen.

Watchable for what it was, "Fear the Night" is not a movie that made a lasting impression on me. And it is hardly a movie that warrants more than just a single viewing, because there isn't sufficient contents to the storyline to suuport more than just the first and only viewing.

My rating of "Fear the Night" lands on a very bland five out of ten stars.