User reviews

For a low budget modern horror movie, the production quality is great, the acting is good enough, and the premise works.

Where does it go wrong then?

First, it's not scary. There is no suspense and the movie takes itself seriously, so there should be some.

Second, the death sequences are dry and lame. The screen will go black and someone will randomly go missing. That's it. No payoff, no terror.

Third, they rely on the found footage aspect when it's not needed. The a/v is well done otherwise and this does not make it more effective. The majority of the movie ends up being a plain black screen about 25 minutes in.

This could have been successful, but falls completely flat.

Was drawn into seeing 'Against the Night', with a cool poster/cover, a somewhat intriguing if very derivative premise and as someone with a general appreciation for the genre it fits under. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there (though there are decent to good ones as well), made me though apprehensive.

It is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws present in those films are here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. 'Against the Night' is really quite abominable, with so many huge flaws and doesn't do anything with any potential it had. There is nothing good here in 'Against the Night' apart from the eerie-looking setting that is wasted by the rest of the production values, just amateur hour all round.

Going on to the negatives, the story does feel over-stretched and some of it comes over as vague and under-explained in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less unsettled and never gaining momentum. All the characters are too sketchy and with cardboard thin and colourless personalities and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates. The chemistry is bland and unfocused.

The sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions), the effects are laughable and all of the acting is lacking severely on the whole, that's actually an understatement as the worst of it is horrendous. There is no sense of horror or engagement with the awful predicament they're in, and no connecting with the character, it just reeks of indifference which makes the viewer not care less too.

Dialogue can be stilted and rambling while the pace and film drags on forever, apparent from the very start, never recovering that interest is lost fast. The ending has no build-up and just ends ridiculously. Found too many of the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense. Thrills are none, thanks to stodginess and excessive over-familiarity, and found myself never invested in the drama, which tended to be indifferently acted, interminably paced and statically directed.

A lot of 'Against the Night' has really dull and going nowhere plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you shocked are far from creative or unsettling. It all feels rather tame while the threat completely lacks menace and looks terrible.

Nothing freaky or interesting with some shoddy effects, no development and too derivative, while everything is unimaginative and are more odd than scary, completely failing to show any sense of dread. There is nothing interesting or illuminating with what the film was trying to do and the drama is overwrought with no momentum and a lot of weirdness. The direction is leaden, got the sense their heart was not in it, and the music is ill-fitting. 'Against the Night' is very amateurish visually, too drearily lit and shows no care in the way it's shot, severely compromising any coherence. The editing has more continuity errors than one can count.

Altogether, irredeemably terrible. 1/10 Bethany Cox

From the beginning the acting was so forced and cheesy I could barely get through half of the movie. It was like a really bad graveyard encounters knock off except not scary at all.

It's a bunch of college kids running around in the dark screaming. It was filmed in total darkness so there's not much to see for most of the movie. . There's some t & a but you can see that anywhere so there's no point in wasting an hour and a half watching this pile of garbage.

But this film is a real stinker. Nothing redeeming whatsoever about any of the characters. Directionless. Took me multiple attempts to watch it all the way through. Don't waste your time. As the other reviewer mentioned it comes across as a terrible Grave Encounters ripoff.

This could have been a good film, the location was terrific. Unfortunately it felt like the writer had too many ideas, and decided to use all of them.

Stars are given based on my personal enjoyment of the film and plot.

2 - Terrible in both plot and production. I was either left wanting my time back or wondering what just happened.

I love horror movies of every kind, even "bad" ones for entertainment value. What makes "bad" horror movies good is the fact that the people involved KNOW they're making a movie that's so horrible it's funny. Against The Night had no clue. A script/plot similar to something I wrote in 6th grade, really REALLY bad acting, overused cliches so bad that you can tell what's going to happen to who after 10 minutes...the list of negatives goes on & on. Don't waste your time, it's unbearable no matter what angle you try to view it from.

Watch if you dare, you won't get the wasted minutes back in your life. Sometimes bad is good, this is not one of those times. Stupid people in abandon jail, you know what's going to happen. The twists all through the movie couldn't save it.....it's bad. You've been warned.

Another reviewer wrote , 'irredeemably terrible.' Well that's a verdict I kind've agree with so I'm not going to spend any amount of time expounding on that review. Let's just say it's definitely not good and it's far from being the absolute worst out there that there is.

This movie is just an awful mess,It doesnt make any sense ,its not scary,the acting is horrible ( there are scenes the acting is so bad you laugh) ,Just terrible ,dont waste your time watching ,one of the worst movies i have ever had the misfortune to see

Look, I watch a lot of horror movies with low budgets, concepts outside of their skill set, actors that can't really pull off what they're tasked to do, and there's usually at the very least a tiny grain of something great.

This is not that. 80% of the dialogue is questions, and stupid questions at that. It's as if they knew they couldn't build tension with their plot so they just inserted a bunch of fake paranoia and questions to hopefully create it out of nothing.

The set is great, or I think it is but you can see basically none of it. The special effects are almost non-existent. The camera work and editing is basic and flat.

The characters? There are no characters. There were never characters. No one is likable, no one is worth rooting for, and none of them are so unpleasant that you enjoy the possibility of them dying.

And the plot and its twist? Eh.

Sometimes a horror movie has, at the very least, a feel that it was so well loved by its creators that they just had to share. This doesn't have that, and because of how utterly terrible it is without that feeling of love this just feels like I was cheated out of time.

And notwithstanding the "circle jerk" that the user review forum usually is this is a decent movie. It starts of annoyingly enough but gets good in the second half had has a BAM ending.