A Sombra do Mal

What starts as an intriguing horror with dark woods, abandoned castles and mysterious murders sadly becomes a mediocre thriller with too many loose ends. While the first half of "The Nightman" attracts us with establishing some gripping plot details, e.g. An old legend, problematic relationships in the protagonists family, odd suspicious neighbours, strange sleepwalking etc., the second half completely forgets about all of the above and goes with a bland and plain denouement of the whole story. It felt like Mélanie Delloye, the director, wanted to combine some classical horror tropes (like I said - dark forests, old castles etc.) but didn't know how to properly tie them together. As a result what appeared as a complex mystery in the beginning became just another below-average horror flick.

I had not heard about the 2023 Irish horror movie "Nightman" prior to stumbling upon it here in 2025. And with it being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I had to watch the movie, given my love of all things horror.

But talk about a swing and a miss of a movie from writers Elsa Marpeau and Mélanie Delloye. The storyline in the movie was seriously one of the most boring ones I've sat through in a long, long, long time. I managed to suffer through, and I mean that literally, 46 minutes out of the 101 minutes that the movie ran for. But nothing, and I kid you not, had happened in the narrative in that time, and thus I just tossed the towel in the ring and gave up on the dumpster fire that is "Nightman".

The cast ensemble in the movie were all new and unfamiliar faces and talents to me. And while that is usually something that I enjoy, I have to admit that it was not the case in "Nightman", because the movie was a flaming heap of rubbish with zero appeal that failed utterly to deliver anything of any worth.

As for this being a horror movie, well not in the 46 minutes of pure boredom that I suffered through. There wasn't a shred of horror elements to be seen anywhere, unless you consider absolutely nothing of anything to be a scary thing.

If you enjoy horror movies, do yourself a favor and stay well clear of "Nightman".

My rating of director Mélanie Delloye's 2023 movie "Nightman" lands on a generous one out of ten stars.

No pun intended - the movie done by a director who got inspired by the Fantasy Filmfest ... and watched at that Festival! If that is not destiny, I ask you: what is? More of a rhetorical question I have to admit. And while we as viewers may be privy or more aware of character developments, than the main female character of this ... it doesn't make her weaker. It makes her more realistic.

This touches upon difficult subject matters (relationship wise, but also on a personal note, see summary line) ... not easy to toggle and play with. But the actors are really good and the direction is spot on too. If you like dramas to have a dark touch and go into the thriller territory (no pun intended here either) ... well you could do worse than this one ...

Once again, Shudder offers us an exclusive that no one asked for and few will remember. The Nightman is not a horror movie, and it barely qualifies as a thriller. It is a muddled mess of a drama that wants to be more and thinks it is a lot more clever than it is. It is long, slow, and in spite of its attempts at misdirection predictable. The characters- other than the female lead - are impossible to care about. They are either stereotypes or so poorly developed that we do not care who they even are. Offerings like this make it hard to justify paying for Shudder, but somehow I keep doing it. It HAS to improve, right?