Nightwatch - Il guardiano di notte

The stage curtains open ...

"Nightwatch" is one of those dark, brooding horror thrillers that grabs you from the first minute and doesn't let you go. A young Ewan McGregor plays the part of Martin Bells, a college student looking for an easy job where he can spend most of his time studying and reading. What he gets is anything but!

Martin Bells is the new night watchman at a hospital morgue, surrounded by haunting images, pictures and human cadavers. Active at the same time, is a serial killer - who takes his victim's eyes as sort of a trophy, his signature. Unfortunately for Martin, their two paths cross when the killer is looking to pin the murders on someone else - and Martin fits the bill. Nick Nolte plays a morbid, shady detective working the case, and Josh Brolin as Martin's perverted, thrill seeking friend.

The killer, at least to me, wasn't too hard to figure out, but the acting and story was developed very well keeping you engaged and interested. The cinematography was pretty good with striking visuals and dark overtones. The morgue really plays out as a character of its own, having a major role in the film's outcome. I really liked Ewan McGregor in this film. He played the part very convincingly, showing flashes of a great career ahead of him. Also fun to see in this movie, was an early supporting role by John C. Reilly.

I would definitely recommend this one. If you like dark, twisted thrillers, this is a good one for you. It is a bit predictable, but still a good movie. It's not the best of its genre, but you could do a lot worse than spend 90 minutes of your time watching "Nightwatch".

Nightwatch is a 1997 American horror thriller film directed by Ole Bornedal and starring Ewan McGregor as law student Martin Bells, hired as a night watchman at a hospital morgue. Patricia Arquette, Josh Brolin and Nick Nolte also star. It was written by Bornedal and Steven Soderbergh. It is a remake of the Danish film Nattevagten (1994), which was also directed by Bornedal.

Nightwatch is an atmospheric little psycho-thriller from Denmark, although ultimately its far-fetched and the ending is unsatisfying. The director makes excellent use of cinematography and some disturbing sound effects (such as the amplified flapping of moths' wings) to show how our hero is overwhelmed by his cold, spacious workplace. Saddled with a nominally respectable cast, the film is labored in exposition, painting a luridly disturbing portrait of male aggression. And the dialogue contains odd shafts of insight. It's a visually effective and often scary film to watch, but the story is rather leaky so it begins to grow tiresome towards the end and the mystery elements of the film are rather predictable.

If you've seen Nightwatch & you liked it then you should go see the original version called Nattevagten - you'll be nothing less than thrilled! If Nightwatch is a 6 then Nattevagten is 9+!

For those of you who haven't seen either one of them go see Nattevagten first!

• MooseT, 27/06 - '99 (ddmmyy)

College student Martin Bells (Ewan McGregor) is hopefully to make some money for himself by taking a job at the old city morgue. Which Martin thinks it's easy money until his graveyard shift turned into something else. A mysterious serial killer is been murdering unsuspected prostitutes but before he murders them... he makes them play dead. Now this murderer is been stalking Martin on his night shifts by playing sick mind games with the dead corpses.

Directed by Ole Bornedal made an predictable but fairly intriguing suspense-thriller. Which Bornedal remade his own film "Nattevagten" for Dimension Films. McGregor's American accent comes and goes but he is surrounded by a sharp supporting cast like Patricia Arquette as his worried girlfriend, Josh Brolin as Martin's daredevil buddy, Brad Dourif as a doctor and Nick Notle as a police detective. "Nightwatch" was set to release in the fall of 1996 but released instead limited in the spring of 1998. Which the film critics were not kind to it, since the identity of the villain was too easy to guess but the movie is oddly irresistible thanks to some suspense, Bornedal's stylish creepy mood and some light touches of humour. The look on McGregor's face, when his buddy scares him nearly to death in the morgue is priceless. Despite all it's flaws, this is worth a look. Written by the director and Oscar-Winner Steven Soderbergh (The Ocean Trilogy, Erin Brockovich, Solaris "2002"). John C. Reilly appears uncredited. Super 35. (*** 1/2 out of *****).

Well, lets just start of by saying this movie is no way near as good as the original movie "Nattevagten", of which this movie is a remake but it's still being a pretty good and fun whodunit to have a good time with.

Kind of weird to notice how different this movie is in atmosphere and approach, since it actually got directed by the same director who made the original, 3 years prior to this American remake. And it's not just different but also most definitely less effective. There is not as much tension and mystery in this one, also due to some pacing issues (it's too fast paced at times) and a poor buildup to things.

And all while this movie in essence is still being just like the original. Not much had been changed in its story really and I was therefore also quite surprised to find out Steven Soderbergh was involved with the writing. Guess it was an easy paycheck for him, since really not all that much had been changed or added to the movie, when compared to the original movie.

While the original was being a whole lot of different things, this movie is just being a more simple and more straightforward thriller, or rather said whodunit. So really, don't expect this movie to provide you with any horror but as a mystery/thriller, I can still see this movie entertaining a whole bunch of people out there, of course especially those who aren't familiar with the original movie already.

And really, the movie on its own is really being quite good and entertaining for what it is. It really doesn't handle everything well, mainly stuff concerning the earlier mentioned pacing and buildup to things but as a whole it's still being a better movie than just the average genre attempt. There are plenty of thrills and surprises in it, that help to keep you invested in the movie.

It also has a cast to die for. Really an all-star cast, of which some actors are better known now days as back then. Ewan McGregor plays the main lead, while the movie further more stars Patricia Arquette, Nick Nolte, a still very young looking Josh Brolin, Brad Dourif and John C. Reilly. Not that this movie features any of their best or most interesting and challenging performances but still, it's always good to see so many talented people together on screen.

A definitely good enough movie as a straightforward thriller.

7/10

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