Directed by Brad Baruh

Written by Irving Walker

Music by Jospeh Bishara

Country: United States

Language: English

Running Time: 82 minutes

CAST

Brea Grant as Casey Pollack

A J Bowen as James Pollack

Barbara Crampton as Leslie Bison

Sophie Dalah as Jessica Pollack

Elise Luthman as Becky Lane

Joshua Hoffman as Jason Pollack

Daniel Roebuck as Jack Sterling

Joy Osmanski as Mika Shand

Kay D’Arcy as Lily Lane

Sky Soleil as Detective Walker

Alexander Walker as Crone

Dianna Miranda as Dr. Cynthia Ramsey

Alison Haislip as Jenni Whitmore

Ryan Schwartzman as Karl Durant

Shauna Case as Amanda Tate

Dead Night is an energetically derivative mess which rewards the curious viewer with fine performances, cool practical FX, and some truly beautiful shots of snowy woods. This one is for folk who respond to energy rather than polish, fans of  cinematic lucidity can definitely give Dead Night a miss.

For all its faults, which are many, Dead Night has an abundance of spirit and ambition; but it all proves a bit too chaotic and overstuffed for long-time producer, first-time director, Brad Baruh to keep under control. Starting off typically enough with a family heading to a remote cabin, Dead Night soon starts careening about, wildly pinballing off its influences and narrative innovations. The setup is delivered with  remarkable efficiency; the Pollack family, and the teen friend of the daughter, are staying at a remote, snow dappled cabin for a break, and also in an attempt to cure dad’s cancer. See, the cabin rests on a large iron deposit which is conducive to health or something; it all sounds a bit New Agey to me, luckily for the viewer (but unluckily for the Pollacks) the forces saturating the woods around the cabin turn out to be from an older, darker age. These primal forces have a plan for the family; a poorly defined plan admittedly, but it is a very definitely a nasty plan. Luckily for Dead Night, in a horror movie nastiness trumps clarity every time.

Dead Night’s cast fight hard throughout to anchor the somewhat wayward movie with sympathetic and winning performances, and are surprisingly successful. A J Bowen appears in yet another low budget horror movie, strengthening the impression that moviemakers get additional funding for employing him. Which would be a double win if it were true and not just a weak joke, as he is never less than good. In Dead Night he’s very good as a Wacky Dad whose wackiness masks his fear of death. The kids don’t get much to work with but are realistic and sympathetic; Jason (Joshua Hoffman) looks at butts on his phone and is surly, Jessica (Sophie Dalah) shows off in front of her friend by testing her parents’ patience and the friend, Becky (Elise Luthman) is calmly accepting, and wholly, like, totally unaware that she is the catalyst for the violent disaster about to descend on them all. A disaster which perhaps descends a bit too quickly, as from that point on Dead Night is less about character and more about carnage and confusion.

But, to Dead Night’s credit, character doesn’t totally get lost in the arterial spray. Or one character doesn’t anyway. Due to the fast moving, gore soaked events with their understandably high casualty rate, Brea Grant as mom has to carry most of the movie on her own. Fortunately she’s good; so good that the maternal desperation fuelling her actions intermittently cuts through the supernatural shenanigans to remind you of the human cost, a cost easily lost under the impressive splatter effects. And it would of course be an act of heinous oversight to neglect to mention genre jewel Barbra Crampton’s performance, which is so much fun it should have its own candy floss stand. Clearly relishing every moment she brings the multi-faceted and evocatively named Leslie Bison to cheekily malevolent life. It’s such a wonderful performance that her turn as the rudest house guest in the world briefly brings a subtler, less physical and more interpersonal horror to Dead Night.

There’s a lot to like in Dead Night, everyone in it for starters, and the clever expository device, which I’m hesitant to spoil, is initially discombobulating in a fun way. Ultimately though it bites off more than it can chew,  and tries to do too much too quickly resulting in cinematic indigestion. But, you know, as a genre piece its strengths outweigh its flaws so Dead Night is alright.