BY JACK RANSOM MAY 22, 2024
The lega-sequel to the mostly forgotten 1994 first film. Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever picks up almost 30 years after the events of the first film.
Synopsis
Martin's daughter, Emma, takes up a night watch job to find out what happened to her parents all those years ago. A meeting with Wörmer in his cell pulls the serial killer out of his coma and sets in motion a chain of fateful events.
Review
Just to be clear I unfortunately did not get around to watching the first film before this (I own the DVD and have heard good things). This admittedly automatically hindered my attachment and investment in the returning characters in this follow up and suffering from a lack of context about the previous film’s events (though this sequel does offer up brief expository catch ups). No prior knowledge aside, I was hoping this would still stand alone as a solid horror inflicted crime outing. Unfortunately that is not the case.
Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever is a sluggish, derivative and uninspired sequel that I’m still not entirely convinced that anyone was asking for. Firstly, this has no business being nearly 2 hours long. Despite being somewhat engaged in the first half, around the mid-point the film takes a sharp dip into tedium before barraging the viewer with a hammy, gory, twist/revealed filled final act. Also (without spoiling), this film takes entire scenes (even the way they are shot and contextually presented) and plot points directly from David Gordon Green’s Halloween (2018).
I can certainly imagine that tonally the original was far more hard edged and gritty. Sure there are a couple of bursts of gnarly practical gore (a particularly effective wound reopening scene certainly made me wince) and the film is solidly lit, with strong shadow usage at times. However, I can’t escape the feeling that this just feels too polished and glossy (it does very much have a streaming/DTV feel to the production) and some of the pop/electro soundtrack choices just come off as invasive and irritating.
Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever is a generic, snooze-inducing crime horror that I can only hope doesn’t represent the quality of the first film. The performances are fine, practical effects are solid and the film starts off engaging enough. However, the screenplay is going through the genre motions, the dialogue and song choices tip into cringe-inducing and really you have seen this material done better before.
STAR RATING
Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever is streaming now on Shudder
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