Nightworld

I found "Nightworld" by sheer luck, and seeing that Robert Englund was in it and it being a horror movie, of course this was something I had to watch.

Normally, I am not a fan of the London brothers, but I will say that Brandon London actually did handle himself quite well in the movie and carried it quite well. Robert Englund, well he is Robert Englund after all, but this was hardly a memorable performance from him and not one of his better movies.

The storyline in "Nightworld", while it definitely did sound enticing on the synopsis on the back of the movie, then it did not come to fruition on the screen. The whole movie was unfathomably slow paced and nothing much of any interest - I kid you not - happened throughout the entire course of the movie. Once the movie can to an end my first thought was 'was that actually it?'

There is nothing scary about the movie, and there are no build ups to anything grand. And once it becomes revealed what is actually going on, you are so far past caring that it hardly mattered.

The movie had potential, for sure, but it wasn't utilized and the movie was unfathomably montone and mundane. To the point where it was becoming a struggle to keep being interested in watching the movie. I managed to endure this ordeal to the very end, and I can in all honesty say that I am never returning to watch this a second time around.

Oh, and you might want to bring a pillow along when you travel to "Nightworld", just a friendly heads up...

A retired LA cop gets a job on security at an old Bulgarian apartment block, which turns out to be built on one of the seven gateways to the other side. So many movies are filmed in Bulgaria but set in the USA these days, it's nice to see a film actually set in Bulgaria. As my headline says this is a slow burn but the story held my interest. That is until the final 20 minutes or so where it all became rather predictable and disappointing. The obvious similarity to me was Lucio Fulci's The Beyond, a FAR superior movie. The character played by Gianni Capaldi could not decide if he was Scottish or a Londoner judging by his varying accents. Good to see Robert Englund though - he's been in some real turkeys since his Elm St days but this is not one of them. Overall this is a reasonably creepy but forgettable movie. Could have been better. Could have been worse.

The story in general is interesting, and the setting perfect - but there is something missing in this film - or some things.

First is the acting. Why they chose Jason London to play the main character I really don't know. He just isn't a very convincing actor in this role (not that I remember ever hearing of him before) which means the character became unbelievable. The other actors were fine with good performances.

The second thing is either the script or editing. Some of the reactions and things that happen in the film are just so unbelievable and unnatural that they break the flow of the story to such an extent that it becomes annoying to watch.

Such a shame for a film that had potential.

While this is not the best movie by any means it is pretty good. Better than I thought it would be, at least.

The best part is the mystery of the weird building. It reminded me of the Peter Clines novel 14, in that it involves a mysterious apartment where not everything is as it seems.

The ending and explanation are pretty good. I was somehow expecting to feel let down by the reveal and that wasn't the case.

The acting is pretty good, or maybe I should say its really good for this type of movie. The characters seemed nuanced and not just 2D cutouts are can be often found in these lower budget movies.

Plus I liked that the setting was somewhere other than the US, that added a little bit of extra charm to the movie.

Recommended, honestly this movie is better than I thought it would be and I was entertained for the whole 1.5 hours it took to watch.

I agree with a number of other reviews of this film: it started off really well. The acting was good, the premise strong, and the direction was deliberate and moody. However, where it should have kicked into high gear, it actually sort of fell apart. The last act could have stood at least one more good pass at the script, and the low budget really didn't help there either.

Overall I would say that you should know that the ending won't be as satisfying as you might like, and armed with that information you might enjoy it more. Unfortunately the movie must be thought of as a lost opportunity.