The Overnight

Damn, some days I pick terrible films to watch, and I hate myself.

Within five minutes of The Overnight starting I wanted both lead characters to jump out of their hotel window, or to be offed by someone else, they were utterly infuriating, especially her.

The annoying thing is the premise is a good idea, but everything about the execution of the film, especially the acting and dialogue of the two leads sucks.

Did I say I hate myself?

What was that ? Just a horrible movie. The movie makes zero sense. Not worth a 1 rating....but there was no zero rating. Just a mess of nothing . Couldn't follow anything.

'The Overnight' is about a young couple who go on vacation, but end up staying the night in an old hotel which turns out to be haunted... or full of ghosts, or demons, or something.

First of all one half of the couple (the woman) just isn't that likable. Perhaps it's me being old and grumpy, but I can't stand the younger generation who are always on their phones taking selfies, so she rubbed me up the wrong way right from the start.

Anyway, the hotel itself is nice. From what I've read online it's not a set, but a genuinely run-down hotel which was used for filming purposes, so it fits the bill for a creepy environment. But the whole thing just takes a while to get going. At least forty-five minutes of the hour and a half runtime are just taken up with the couple bickering and experiencing events which are - only slightly - spooky.

Sure, the acting isn't too bad, but there isn't much here that's either creepy or gory - which doesn't bore too well for a film that's supposed to be 'horror.' The film looks okay from a technical point of view and at least it doesn't come across as cheap, just a little unfocused. I couldn't really work out what the general threat was - it could have been ghosts, or possession, or suicidal entities seeking revenge. Who knows?

Yeah, there's the obligatory 'fight for their lives' in the final act, but it's too little too late. Plus as there's only two protagonists to begin with, you know that nothing much is going to happen to them until the absolute end. There's just not enough here to particularly recommend.

The first part of a story should have something that make the main characters likable or something we can identify with.

It is better to invest in a good makeup artist than just bying some cheap contact lenses at Amazon you see at any rave party.

Laughing children with some ketchup stains are not scary. Speaking latin is not scary. Wearing a black hoodie is not scary.

Black goo, can actually be scary, but it have to be in context and with some explanation.

Now there are actually some good nuggets in this mess.

Having 3 bad guys with different objectives is actually a really good one. This would add to the story if their different goals would clash more, how would the stalker react if he saw his lady being sacrificed ?

The house with ghosts repeating their last day as living, is also a good one - if only there were a reason to follow the clues to how that day was and what order it happened in. If the couple had found a diary, some pictures adn so on.

Moaning in a movie must be distinct enough so we understand what the characters hear, and what belongs to the soundtrack. The creaking of the floor in the beginning was very clear and effective, we heard a second creak from the left, and understood there were someone there. Why would this be dropped in the rest of the movie ?

There is more but brings me to the final nail in the coffin for me in regards of this movie, it lacks any subtlety. Any form of building suspense is soon destroyed here with some closeup, wobbling of camera or straight blurry fighting scene.

This might be ok, in your filming of the action in riding the rollercoasters at Disney, last vacation there - but is out of place in a thriller or horror.

So I went into this movie not expecting much based off of the reviews. One review said they "wished the main girl lead would of died in the first minute to keep from hearing her scream"

Pause....

She didn't scream once throughout the WHOLE movie.

It does start off as a WTF is going on movie, but stick with it everything ties together about halfway through the movie.

It is different from other movies of this caliber and I don't want too give much away in this.

It's not a bad movie at all and makes sense if you pay attention to it. Another review said it "...doesn't make any sense...", and it does just again pay attention to understand what's going on.

Yes the acting is not the greatest but again it's a B rated film, and of course all actors/actresses needs to start somewhere.

There is some comical spots in the movie, and one actor I fell in love with even though he doesn't play too much of a role in this movie, but his spots toward the end made me like his character.