Nightshot (2018)

Nightshot follows the hour and a half exploration of an abandoned sanatorium by (the idiotic) Nathalie and (too-curious-to-be-real) Hugo, who find out that once you enter the sanatorium, it is very difficult to get out.

–

The tl;dr Review:

Nightshot is good, kind of. Very kind of. Okay, okay, it’s an almost mediocre kind of good.

While I do like the long take attempt and points have to be awarded for the creativity with some of the more mind bending moments, I just have to say:

Nathalie and Hugo are too moronic to be real people, which is sort of what broke my suspension of disbelief. Nathalie does sort of smarten up at one point, but Hugo just continues being really, really, really dumb. If I was exploring an abandoned sanatorium, I would be exploring it with Hugo.

–

The Full Review:

So maybe I should elaborate a bit more on what I was saying in the tl;dr.

I like the technical parts of Nightshot far more than the writing. There are some sneaky cuts throughout, and some really well done low budget practical effects work, but the character logic is just a bit too insulting.

At some point, I sort of stopped caring about either character and was just absorbing all of the technical beauty.

The overall writing is just sort of, well, messy, throughout. The dialogue is about as typical as it gets for found footage horror, and the choices made by the characters are definitely not the choices that an actual person in that scenario would even consider making. It’s the writing that sort of prevents Nightshot from being a great film.

I mean, let’s be real, Hugo is not someone you would ever want to work with. He’s the kind of guy who would stop in the middle of a crosswalk and stare at the shiny sports car that’s barreling towards him. He’s also the kind of guy that would complain about climbing a ladder because he doesn’t want his brand new Yeezys to get dirty.

Nathalie is actually kind of likeable. I mean, her character progression from curious to frightened is plausible enough, and she has some good moments, even if her character isn’t much better than Hugo.

Where Nightshot actually shines is the technical work. I don’t like constant use of darkness, but considering the setting, it makes sense. There’s also some good makeup work that pops up every now and then.

One scene in particular (you’ll know it when you see it) was really well done, even if it was just the tiniest cool moment ever, it’s where the skills of the crew are most evident.

Plus there’s the whole long take thing. I mean, this is meant to look like an urban exploration video, and some parts of it definitely look like that. There are some sneaky cuts throughout, and while I sort of noticed a few of them, they didn’t ruin the overall experience.

Overall, I mean, if you’re looking for found footage horror, you could do a lot worse. If you like to see some sneaky technical work, Nightshot would be a good one to watch.

-Joseph