In 1988, paranormal investigators Mick Sutherland (Myles McEwen) and Archie Charlesworth (Ripley Stevens) are called to the home of one Elizabeth Blair in order to confront a series of unexplained phenomena unlike any they’ve seen in their burgeoning careers as detectives of the supernatural. Over the course of seven days, the pair will uncover the mystery surrounding this deadly force, threatening not only the bond between them but their very lives. This is Case 13.
Directed by McEwen and Stevens, who also assume various other behind the camera duties, Nightfall would initially appear to be walking in the ghostly footsteps of familiar, metaphysical thriller fare, but soon diverts into a disturbing yarn with its own offbeat style, at least for the first hour in any case. The visuals, sound design, performances and distinctive character details all work to create an eerie, sparse, unnerving world in which flamboyant jump scares are replaced by the disquieting thrum of an entity floating on the edges of reality. Although, to be fair, there’s a couple of pretty big jump scares as well.
It helps that Sutherland and Charlesworth aren’t your usual travellers into the unknown, as they awkwardly trudge around haunted locales, possessing more of a kinship with the spirit world than the flesh and blood humans they occasionally need to question. The contrast between them is stark, too. Sutherland is logical, rational, organised. Charlesworth is a clairvoyant who’s thoroughly uncommunicative in normal conversation, but possesses the gift/curse of being able to speak in a psychic language, hearing messages from the other side, few of them good. It’s a far cry from, say, the multiplex-friendly, retro glamour of the Warrens in the Conjuring movies and there’s a fascinating dynamic between our two heroes which holds the interest far beyond the creaking doors and flickering lamps.
McEwen is also on writing, cinematography and editing duties, so do those multi-hyphenate tendencies have a detrimental effect on any department? Not at all. Nightfall is crisply cut together, mixing not only various grades of footage but possessing both a cinematic and a documentary eye for detail, contrasting the beautiful and the mundane. The screenplay throws in some reliable touchstones, but the proceedings never feel as if there must be a seat-grabbing shock every ten minutes.
The introduction of a countdown, with the main thrust of the tale dropping the viewer into Case 13 a week before the confrontation which truly stamped their career cards, may immediately give rise to thoughts of wanting to get to the denouement, but the detours are strange, engagingly creepy and give the necessary depth to our occasionally dynamic duo. A deftly curated soundtrack, ranging from a sweet but, in this situation, ominous choral piece through to sampled scratches of dialogue and industrial buzzing serves to maintain the level of discomfort.
The final quarter of an hour does ditch some of the more esoteric stylings for some good old creeping around a dark house and waiting for the next noise to ring out, but even that hackneyed found footage staple seems fresher and more chilling here. Perhaps that’s down to the overriding lack of hyperbole in the piece and a pair of protagonists whose vulnerability ramps up the concern of the audience, particularly during a moment when Mick realises that they’re in genuine danger and may be hopelessly out of their depth.
If the climax leans into more recognisable genre beats, including a smash to black as all hell breaks loose, Nightfall pulls the rug again, switching to an enigmatic closer which may thwart those weaned on the “jump/scream/credits” triumvirate but fits the eldritch template of this project perfectly. The unwillingness to spell everything out – or, at some points, spell almost nothing out whatsoever – gives the film its curious power. Without the budget for huge, destructive set pieces or CGI spirits from the other side, Nightfall trusts in imagination and atmosphere to make the watcher glance anxiously behind them. For a good proportion of its eighty minutes, it succeeds and I hope that this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Mick and Archie, or indeed Myles McEwen and Ripley Stevens.
Nightfall: A Paranormal Investigation screened at this year’s Spirit of Independence Festival in Sheffield, UK. For more details, check them out on Instagram.