Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever

I absolutely cannot understand the low ratings. This is well filmed, well acted, and keeps the heart pumping. To give it a 2 or a 1 is not sincere and that makes it akin to a D-Grade basement exploitation flick. I'm sorry you didn't like the story, but give me a break- a 2/10 for the movie as a whole? Ridiculous. If all of your ratings on IMDb are to the extreme, then maybe no more reviews for you?

The feeling of watching an over-confident protagonist let their guard down and you're filled with dread? The feeling of relief when life is put on pause and you're living in the moment? A semi-plot twist that makes you question yourself? All here.

If you don't mind subtitles, this is a good movie if you're into horror thrillers with suspense.

Martin's (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) daughter, Emma (Fanny Leander Bornedal, daughter of director Bornedal), takes up a night watch job to find out what happened to her parents almost thirty years ago. A meeting with Wörmer (Ulf Pilgaard) in his cell pulls the serial killer out of his coma and sets in motion a chain of fateful events. Emma, like your father 30 years before, moonlights as a nightwatchman at the city's hospital morgue, and once again a series killer is stalking the streets and the hospital. She has barely started his new job when one victim is brought in and laid out between the serried ranks of corpses. Prepare to be scared!. Se's the prime suspect in a terrifying mystery !. In the mind of the police, she's the prime suspect, in the eyes of a killer, she's the next victim !.

Inferior sequel with similar ingedients to the previous one, containing thrills, chiller, a lot of killings, twists and turns. ¨Nightwatch (Nattevagten, 1994)¨ was a classy psychological thriller, but this late sequel results to be really mediocre. Tighly scripted , with just a drop of wicked black humor, the picture delivers eerie hints of necrophilia, visceral shocks and heart-racing intrigue. There's an unconvincing parallel between ¨Nightwatch¨ and ¨Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever¨, but no getting to convince the simple viewer due to too inexplicable coincidences and unlikely happenings.

The original Danish movie ¨Nattevagten (Nightwatch)¨ (1994) had a remake and a sequel. The director of the Danish original, Ole Bornedal, also directed the remake, ¨Nightwatch¨ (1997). After the original ¨Nightwatch¨ (1994) found critical acclaim in 1994, director Ole Bornedal was hired by Dimension Films (who had recently purchased the distribution rights for Nattevagten) to come to the United States and remake the film. The remake was intended to be the first of three films Bornedal would direct for Miramax, the parent company of Dimension. The American remake starring Ewan McGregor, Nick Nolte, Erich Anderson, Josh Brolin, Lauren Graham. Thirty years later, Bornedal made the follow-up: this ¨Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever¨ (2023) or ¨Nattevagten - Dæmoner går i arv¨.

Danish writer/director Bornedal exploits the peculiarly terrifying and portentous atmosphere of a hospital mortuary to the full, accompanying the thrilling and suspenseful musical score, as well as appropriately sinister and atmospheric cinematography. The motion picture was uneven but professionally directed by Ole Bornedal, but it has nothing special compared to what we have often seen before and better. Ole has a long and successful career as Denmark as USA. Directing the American remake of his Danish hit, Nightwatch (1994). Miramax/Dimension brought him in as a co-producer on Guillermo Del Toro's first American movie, ¨Mimic¨ (1997) along with the Weinsteins and worked for a couple of years as a script supervisor. Bornedal's movies have been critically acclaimed all over the world and is acknowledged as one of the most influential creators of "The New Danish Cinema¨. He is good craftsman who has directed a few films , such as : The suspense thriller "Just Another Love Story", Sci Fi for kids: "The Substitute" and "Deliver us from Evil", ¨Dina¨, ¨The Substitute¨ and "Deep Water" mini-series for television and other TV series as ¨1864¨. Rating : 5/10. Average terror movie, neither extraordinary, not notable, but passable. The flick will appeal to horror/thriller genre enthusiasts.

A 30 year later sequel is a strange thing, but probably what's even more strange is that it took 30 years at all considering how successful the original was. I didn't even have to check if 'Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever' was made by the same writer/director as the original. I could tell by the chaotic structuring that both films possess. If you enjoyed the original then I'm sure you can at least find some enjoyment in this film.

Again, just like the first, for the first 40-50 minutes of the film I really had no idea where it was headed or what it was even about. Then out of nowhere, just like the first, it straightens the wheel and puts itself on course for a pretty entertaining and well done final hour or so.

Most of the original cast are back, which is a great effort all this time later. Considering the success Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has had in the meantime I'm a little surprised they were able to entice him, particularly considering they made his character a shell of his former self. There is one scene where he interrupts his daughter at the school that really should've been left on the cutting room floor.

In a lot of ways this is going to come across as a strange sequel. But considering how much later it is and that they were able to work the entire original cast into and still make a somewhat creepy and coherent story out of it, I think it is an impressive effort. 7/10.

I saw this directly after seeing it's predecessor.

In this sequel we have Martin's daughter Emma who conveniently takes a job as a night watch in the same forensic department where her parents were traumatized by a psycho.

She finds out that the psycho is alive at a nearby asylum. She becomes obsessed to see him.

At the same time we have a copycat killer on the prowl.

The movie is very predictable but it is atmospheric n an effective thriller.

It takes more than 40 mins before the first kill.

One of the best part is that they have included many new characters, not just so that they can be killed off.

How Brent gets to get out on weekends inspite of him being a brutal killer was beyond me.

First of all I have to say that I never saw the original movie, so if you are here to see if this would compare to that movie, then this review might not be the one for you.

But since I write a review to every new horror movie I see, I won't make an exception for this one. I read a plot synopsis of the original one so I had some idea what the past of this movie would be. I found my way around the plot pretty quickly and it didn't take long to see how the characters worked and what type of people they were.

In the intro sequence there's a scene where a young man bashes his head against a unidirectional perspective glass in an interrogation room and the effects looked a little wonky which made me skeptical at first. However since the movie barely uses any CGI, that was the only time that I noticed flaws with the effects. The movie is written by the same writer and there are some characters coming back from the 1994 original which will definitely please some fans.

However the movie is rather slow and with almost two hours of runtime I think it really dragged. This could have been a 90-minute movie and it would be equally as enjoyable if not more. Also the movie introduces a really generic twist which felt unoriginal and lazy. I think if you are a big fan of the original movie you might get something from this sequel, however if you have never seen it like me, this movie doesn't provide much entertainment and therefore doesn't manage to stand on it's own. [5,1/10]