When a new horror movie lands with a painfully generic title and reports of a troubled journey to the final cut, this tends to leave you with pretty low expectations going in. Dead Night premiered at 2017’s Fantastic Fest, then known as Applecart; a title I’m glad they ditched, as a) it could easily be mistaken for Dustin Mills’ 2015 film of the same name, and b) it’s a pretty oblique title with no obvious relation to the content of the film itself. Reportedly this first screening didn’t go down so well, and the film has been significantly reworked for release, although as I didn’t see that initial cut I couldn’t say how extensive these revisions have been. However, I can comfortably declare that the end result is a very entertaining 85 minutes or so which should be warmly appreciated by old school horror fans. None of that ‘elevated genre’ crap here: this is classic, unmistakable, unabashed horror, just the way we’ve always liked it, and contrary to what certain critics might think, this doesn’t mean it sacrifices intellectual content for splattered brains.
For evidence of how old school Dead Night is, look at the bare bones of the premise: it centres on some characters who – gasp! – go to stay at a cabin in the woods. However, far from the typical band of mismatched horny college kids on a bender in the middle of summer, this is a family in the bleak midwinter, and there’s a particular bleakness to their situation as husband and father James (AJ Bowen) has terminal cancer. Wife Casey (Brea Grant) has picked out this specific place for a family getaway as, according to a new-agey friend of hers, the cabin sits atop a natural rock deposit with medicinal qualities, which along with the power of belief might be enough to cure James. Of course, neither the wife, the husband nor their teenage son Jason (Joshua Hoffman), daughter Jessica (Sophie Dallah) and her accompanying friend Becky (Elise Luthman) really expect it to work, but if nothing else they’re hoping it will make for a nice family vacation, even if it’s their last. Of course, things prove to be more final than expected, when they stumble across an unconscious woman in the snow, who reveals herself to be Leslie Bison (Barbara Crampton); unbeknownst to them, an candidate for local governor. Taking her into the cabin to nurse her back to health, the family are soon perturbed by Leslie’s strange, somewhat sinister behaviour, and are quickly even more anxious to get rid of her than they were to save her life. But, as is wont to happen under such circumstances, things soon take a turn for the worse, not to mention the weirder.
It’s hardly the most ground-breaking premise, but Dead Night does find an interesting way of conveying the story by sporadically cutting between the central narrative and flash-forwards to a corny true crime TV show relaying the ‘official’ story of what happened that night, painting the protagonists and the circumstances in a somewhat different light. This is an intriguing and largely successful device, confirming certain hunches about where things are headed whilst also leaving just enough mystery for there still to be a few surprises in store as things develop. And, yes, things do get a whole lot more bizarre the further on we get, as what initially seems to be a relatively standard psycho killer flick with obvious echoes of The Shining packs in demonic/witchcraft elements. Questions can doubtless be raised as just how much sense any of it really makes, but I’d argue that’s hardly the point. Debutante director Bradford Baruh and company seem to be aiming for a mind-bending nightmare atmosphere, and they’re largely successful. It’s worth bearing in mind that Baruh and fellow producers Andy Meyers and David Wiese all worked with executive producer Don Coscarelli on John Dies At The End (whose lead actor Chase Williamson gets a cameo here). While Dead Night plays things rather more straight-faced, it’s every bit as fast and loose with the laws of reality.
Things are also helped by a strong cast. The presence of Barbara Crampton alone should obviously make this a must-see for most gorehounds, and her performance here is among the most sinister she’s ever given; whilst she’s long been an inarguable horror icon, I’m not sure that she’s ever played a role so outright villainous as Leslie Bison before. AJ Bowen has also proven himself one of the most dependable actors in the genre this past decade, from the likes of House of the Devil, You’re Next and The Sacrament, and he’s every bit as on form here. However, Dead Night really belongs to Brea Grant as Casey, whose descent into maybe-madness is pretty much the anchor of the whole movie.
Dead Night is released theatrically and to VOD in the US on 27th July, from Dark Sky Films, and has its European premiere at London’s Arrow Video FrightFest 2018 on 24th August.