Dead Night, which debuted at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema’s Fantastic Fest in September of 2017, is the debut feature from Brad Baruh.  Baruh, who wrote, directed, and produced the film now works on various Star Wars and Marvel Cinematic Universe projects for Disney. Take that last piece of information as you will. Dead Night hit VOD and home video in 2018 courtesy of Dark Sky Films and (as of the time of this writing) is currently available to watch on multiple streaming sites such as Tubi, Prime Video, Plex, Fandango, and Fawesome. For what it’s worth, the film was co-produced by Phantasm creator Don Coscarelli, which I’m sure helped give the film a bit of horror cred upon its initial release.

That said, I really can’t say that I recall hearing about this film or its initial VOD and home video release. As I was much more active in following horror news and at least somewhat more on top of upcoming horror movie releases (which has never been up to the level it probably should be, if we’re being honest) in past years than I am now, there’s certainly some chance that I briefly read about the film upon its impending release or that I received a marketing/promotional email regarding the film at some point. However, for whatever reason, I just had no recollection of the film until I stumbled across it while searching Tubi late one night. I then waited another five months to actually watch the film… because that’s just how I do.

It’s somewhat difficult for me to discuss Dead Night without spoiling what I consider to be important aspects of the plot. This is primarily because these key moments happen quite early in the film and do form the central plot. So, if you wish to know as little as possible about Dead Night before watching the film (which I would highly recommend), please stop reading this now. Yeah, I probably should have put this disclaimer at the start of the review, preferably in big bold lettering, but this review is being written fairly “stream of consciousness”, so sorry or something. Besides, making you read this far counts as a post “hit”, and us bloggers live for those. Unfortunately, the plot descriptors provided on all the sites streaming the film (as well as IMDb) also tend to reveal the same key plot elements. So, maybe they aren’t “spoilers” after all? Either way, you were warned.

As the film opens, wife and mother Casey (Brea Grant, RZ’s Halloween II, 2016’s Beyond the Gates) is driving her husband and two teenaged children into the wilderness of Oregon for a quiet weekend stay at a secluded cabin. Joining the family for the trip is the daughter’s friend, Becky (Elise Luthmann, who’s appeared in 2021’s Death Link and on Nickelodeon’s “Harvey Danger”). Casey has rented this particular cabin due to its allegedly being located atop an iron bed, which she has been informed from some not-so-reliable sources provide regenerative properties. She’s hoping that there’s at least marginal truth to these claims as she’s desperate to find any means of curing or slowing down her husband’s terminal cancer diagnosis.  While I don’t believe it actually matters if the woods surrounding the cabin actually feature any mystical healing powers, it does play home to a small band of what appear to be deformed freaks shrouded in dirty, tattered sheets as they silently watch from the cover of shadow.

While out looking for firewood in the dense, snow-draped hills surrounding the cabin, the husband comes across a seemingly unconscious woman laying in the snow. Attempting to help, the husband drags her back to the cabin where his wife, a nurse, may be able to resuscitate the woman and provide first aid. However, thanks to a sequence just before this, we learn that the woman, a Leslie Bison (Barbara Crampton of Re-Animator and From Beyond fame), is anything but injured, having laid in wait expecting such an outcome. Claiming to need warmth, Leslie invites herself inside the cabin. Once inside, she also invites herself to a seat for dinner.

At somewhere around this point (actually, just before Leslie is found), the film shifts approach, veering away from the events beginning to unfold at the cabin and shifting to a broadcast of a cable-network “true crime”/”forensic investigation” (aka “murder porn”) show similar to the ones found airing around the clock on ID (Investigation Discovery)… and that my wife insists on leaving playing on our hotel room TV whenever we go on vacation. Daniel Roebuck (TV’s “Matlock”, River’s Edge) portrays the show’s host. This particular episode focuses on Casey… and the gruesome, sadistic murder of her family at her own hands. See? I told you three paragraphs ago that you might want to stop reading.

With it revealed that our supporting cast are about to die horrible deaths, things resume back at the cabin. After some rude and unappreciative behavior that includes mocking the terminally ill, Leslie is asked to leave the house and to wait outside for the paramedics that had been called to assist her when it was believed that she was still injured. She begrudgingly agrees, but not before killing Casey’s daughter by stabbing her in the base of the skull with what looks to be a beetle-like creature with a spike-like carapace. This creature bores its way into the young girl’s brain, turning her into a Deadite-like creature intent on killing her mother.

Casey attacks Leslie, which only leads to the death of the next member of the family. Although somewhat hinted at previously, Leslie exposes herself to be a being of supernatural power, seemingly with abilities to control the dead, cause hallucinations, and possibly even teleport. She uses her dark powers to turn the other deceased family member into a ghoul as well, setting it out to track down the remaining relatives. Sounds interesting enough so far, right?

Dead Night is just that. Interesting. However, as all the events that have taken place so far occur within the film’s first 30 minutes, that leaves Dead Night with over an hour of run time to kill, nearly half the cast depleted, a concept that seeks resolution, and absolutely nothing in the way of real surprises left to throw at us. Instead, the remaining hour feels like a slow search for answers, most of which seem underdeveloped, a tad cliched, and at times contradictory. Once the film reached its conclusion and Leslie’s end goal was fully revealed, I was left with the notion that the character had spent years developing an overly elaborate scheme just to pull off something that really seems like it should have taken minimal work and, at most, a weekend’s worth of planning.

For better or worse, I found the “crime show” aspects of the film to be better thought out and executed, which is not really a surprise, as this  storytelling approach is clearly the film’s key selling point. While I do think that Roebuck steals the show here, that’s not to dismiss the performance of the other actors, which I found to be generally respectable, if not standout. Crampton clearly appears to be relishing her role as the villain, often going a bit hammy with the part, but never obnoxiously so. Gore, while decently handled, was surprisingly lighter than what I had expected and possibly hoped for, and may disappoint those expecting something closer to the bloody mayhem found in the Evil Dead films, particularly the 1981 original or newer reboot films.

As mentioned, Dead Night has some interesting ideas. Unfortunately, most of those ideas just aren’t strong enough or developed enough to carry the film from start to finish, with the end result being somewhat confusing and a little convoluted. There’s a minor subplot about Leslie’s political aspirations that feel tacked on and unnecessary and takes the film a little further into B-grade territory than it need traverse, as well as a superfluous “post-credit” sequence that adds nothing to the film, but seems quite befitting of someone who would go on to work on projects for Marvel.

Overall, Dead Night is far from what I would call a “bad” film, but I ultimately still found myself somewhat disappointed. At least it was free to watch.