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Film: The Night Watchmen
Year: 2017
Director: Mitchell Altieri
Writer: Dan DeLuca and Jamie Nash
Starring: Ken Arnold, Dan DeLuca and Kevin Jiggetts
Review:
This was a film I had heard about when it was making its festival round last year. I finally got a chance to view this film and I was intrigued. The official synopsis is three inept night watchmen, aided by a young rookie and a fearless tabloid journalist, fight an epic battle for their lives against a horde of hungry vampires.
We get a couple of things established to start us off. The first is that we learn a beloved clown by the name of Blimpo (Gary Peebles) dies when he is touring Romania. We then shift to the location the film will take place. It is inside of an office building that houses a tabloid newspaper. We actually see the interview of a new employee, Justin (Max Gray Wilbur). They actually play some jokes on him during this and he gets the name Rajeeve, since the uniform he is given belonged to this guy.
The two main security guards are Ken (Ken Arnold) and Jiggetts (Kevin Jiggetts). They are both slackers, but seem to really take their job pretty seriously. Ken has a thing for a journalist, Karen (Kara Luiz). It does turn out in this film that she is a lesbian, or at least bisexual. There is a third night watchman, Luca (Dan DeLuca) who is pretty mysterious.
Everything is kicked off when the body of Blimpo is accidentally delivered to the building that we are in. The guys who accidentally bring it there ask if they can leave the body overnight as the medical building it supposed to be taken to is closed. Things take a turn when Randall (James Remar) unleashes Blimpo who has turned into a vampire.
We do get some interesting takes on the mythology of vampires. There is a meatball sub that is doused in garlic used to repel them, a cross tattoo and random wooden objects that are used for stakes in this film. There is also that the newly turned vampires are very zombie like with the ones who have fed and the longer they are creatures of the night, the smarter they become. Both of these aspects I really enjoyed. I actually did think that the vampires were really good though.
Being that the film is a comedy, not all of it landed. Some jokes got really played out, really quickly. There is a little bit of slapstick comedy as well as some things that do take you out the realism of the film. Some of it lands while some of it definitely fell flat.
The editing of the film was pretty well done as it. I thought it really gets into it pretty quickly on and things escalate quickly. The film does keep the action going with some little lulls here and there. I didn’t find any issue with this. The ending I thought was fitting for the tone of the film, except I did have a slight issue with the outcome of Blimpo or the lack there of.
Acting for the film was pretty good. Arnold, DeLuca, Jiggetts and Wilbur all play off each other very well. Most of their comedy in the beginning comes from them trying to intimidate Wilbur. I did find that funny as it is hazing at work. Luiz was really good and I thought she was very nice to look at as well. Remar is funny in his role. I thought the vampires were good, even though they act more like infected zombies. I did like seeing Tiffany Shepis in this film, but I was disappointed that she is barly in it. She is a solid horror actress and I really wanted more of her.
The effects of the film I thought were pretty good. There seemed to be some CGI, but it doesn’t look bad at all. For a film like this I was pretty impressed. I thought the look of the vampires was solid and they do look pretty frightening. It adds to it that many of them are clowns like Blimpo. I thought overall the effects were well done.
Soundtrack for the film I thought was solid. I don’t really recall too much of it, but I didn’t really have any issues with it. I thought that it fit for what they needed it to do.
Now with that said, I thought this film was fun. That aspect made it enjoyable. I thought it had an interesting story and the comedy doesn’t hinder it. Not all of the jokes landed, but quite a few of them did. I thought the film did have some interesting takes on the vampire lore and vampires in general. This was a perk. The editing was good and I thought the ending fit for what they needed it to do. The acting of the film was good in my opinion. The effects of the film were good too, even though I think a lot of it was CGI. It didn’t look bad. The soundtrack was fitting as well for what they needed. It doesn’t stand out, but it didn’t need to. Overall there are some issues, but I thought it was a fun film. I do think it is an above average as well.
My Rating: 6 out of 10