Night of the Bastard

...Stumbled across this on Tubi and Loved it! Gritty, fun homage to the 70"s and 80's Satanic/Cult- panic films of that time period, such as "The Devil's Rain", "The Devil Rides Out", and "Hack-O-Lantern", along with "siege"-films like "The Hills Have Eyes" and "Assault On Precinct 13"!

Reed plays a troubled loner living in isolation in the desert, who gets pulled into a mess of epic consequences when a wounded camper-lady forces her way into his home, following the Slaughter of her friends by the zealot demon-worshipping cult, now hot on her heels and determined to "include" her in their ritual,.. For Worse!

Led by the vivacious and hopelessly mad Claire, the cultists aren't the most competent or Intimidating, but make up for it with sheer fixated determination! What follows is a harrowing night of violence and hopelessness, with a surprising (but not ultimately unexpected) revelation and display of mad depravity, and a bleak but ironically humorous finale.

This was a surprisingly impressive feature directorial debut, with great performances and a ton of gory practical effects! Highly recommended!

Yeah, right to the point. Flat out hated this thing.

The first time I tried to watch it, I turned it off with irritation within the first 10 minutes and gave it a 1. Months passed and I went back over every movie on Shudder trying to find something-anything-I hadn't seen and decided to attempt another watch. Gosh it was hard getting all the way to the end...but I did give it one extra star for the final shot.

So it starts off with a nice young couple in, I assume, the 1960s who are expecting a baby and stop at a friend's house where they are attacked and sacrificed by a weird satanic-ish group in the desert who cut out the woman's abdomen for her almost born. Cut to 40years later and a hermit who now lives on the same land approaches three privileged young, impossibly annoying 20-somethings who are camping at night on his property with shotgun in hand, threatening them to leave. One in the trio is reasonable but the couple with him are rude, confrontational and you hope they will die quickly and painfully. Instead they leave to go find someone else to annoy.

The group then comes across a satanic-ish group having some kind of ceremony. I don't know if it's the same people from 40 years earlier because I'm already distracted by the really poor acting and laughable script. So the trio of course crashes the ceremony and the couple behaves like asses while the reasonable one is still reasonable. Things go south quickly but unfortunately the girl gets away. She ends up at the hermit's house for help as she is injured.

Now, instead of saying things like please and thank you, she is just as irritating and rude as she was the first time they met. Soon after, the satanic-ish people track her down and it is now an us against them fight where the two people in the house who hate each other must now work together to stay alive.

Here's the thing: I never for a moment believed the relationship between the two. There was zero chemistry and the incredibly bad acting and script couldn't sell it. The girl's exasperating screaming and bitchiness caused me to yell, "Shut UP!" numerous times at the TV. The worst actor was the head lady of the satanic-ish people, but honestly, the ridiculous words she had to speak were laughable.

Yes this is low budget, but the special effects were fine and I don't have much to complain about the film quality, considering. Perhaps with a more talented writer and definitely more talented actors, this might have been a little better. But I was absolutely angry during the entire thing. The only likable character was the turtle.

I went into this without knowing one thing about it.

And it turned out to be pretty good fun.

Ok, it's not the biggest surprise. But the movie kept me entertained the whole time.

The anti hero Reed had his heart in the right place.

Starting of as a grumpy, lonely, alcoholic nobody somewhere in a dessert. With fresh reluctance he's going to help the damsel in distress Kierra.

Trying to save her, and himself, from some sort of cult with strange rituals (who don't believe in guns)...

The story isn't flawless and the members of the coven/cult are indeed pretty dumb. But the story kept the pace going. With a little bit of humor sprinkled into it.

I wish they did more with Creed's OCD... The practical fx are alright And the last scene gave me a big smile, all though pretty grimm.

You go Marlon!!!

What. A. Load. Of. Crap. There are only a few critics that I usual trust, and Jim Morrazini of Voices From The Balcony is one of them. Except...he gave this steaming pile of trash 4.5 stars out of 5. It's the only reason I watched this movie. I want my hour and twenty some minutes of life back that I wasted on this horribly written, amateurishly directed, poorly acted mess. London May should stick to playing drums for washed up metal bands, for an actor he is not. There is not a single second of this that isn't bad. I admire what the filmmakers were trying to do, but they failed miserably. Possibly the worst movie I've seen this year.

I recently watched Night of the B@stard (2022) on Shudder. The story follows a young woman who barely survives a brutal attack by a cult. She stumbles upon the remote home of a strange, reclusive man who offers her shelter-and despite his odd demeanor, he's willing to protect her. Together, they must fight to survive as the cult closes in.

Directed by Erik Boccio (The West Files), the film stars London May (Hunting Games), Kaikane (The Last Podcast), Hannah Pierce (The Hunted), and Henry Mortensen (Crimson Tide).

This is one of those films that tries to do a bit of everything, but doesn't quite succeed at any of it. The opening birth scene is wild, well-executed, and genuinely hard to watch-in a good way. Some of the horror elements work, and there's a fair amount of blood splatter for gore fans. However, the acting and dialogue are mediocre, feeling more like made-for-TV quality. The villain is striking, and there's some nudity-especially in the final act.

In conclusion, Night of the B@stard has a few attention-grabbing moments, but not enough to make it worthwhile. I'd give it a 4/10 and recommend skipping it-unless you're specifically looking for something offbeat.