No. 62 Night’s End (2022) 88 of 100

 

In the future there will be a whole genre of films that were made during lock down restrictions. Some are less obvious than other but this one is your poster boy for COVID. It’s more ‘crappy corona’ than ‘pumping pandemic’ however, and even at 80 odd minutes it was a struggle to get through it.

If you have filming limitations what better central character to have than a recluse who never leaves his flat? We meet our protagonist Ken as he goes through his daily routine. He has identical bottles of drink and all his food is unlabelled apart from a tag noting what it is. He’s clearly OCD and also has a hobby of stuffing dead birds, which he receives through the post, strangely enough.

He is a fledgling content creator too and we see him make several videos that give us an insight into his life, not least that he’s a divorced Dad. He’s not getting the hits however, but during a web chat with a friend he’s told that one of his dead birds fell off his shelf during a video. It’s hardly the excitement of a man eating at 18 Greggs in a day, but he decides to exploit the moment to get into the lucrative world of haunting videos. HUGE mistake.

He gets a book on the subject and later connects with its author who suggests he gets a spirit jar to capture the potential ghost in his apartment. Some online research tells him that there was a murder there before with someone being shoved out of a window.

Ken also calls some other friends including Michael Shannon’s Isaac and his real life wife Kate Arrington, who plays Kelsey. The two feature in a few scenes, but always on webcam and I get the sense that there performances were ‘phoned in’ in more ways than one.

Ken’s videos gain some traction and the attention of a chap called Dark Corners who is a big name in hauntings. He invites Ken to come on his live webcast with all the other characters from the film also participating in a sort of horror Teams call – aren’t they all?

As the webcast gets underway we wonder if the ghost will appear and if all the participants are being honest about their intentions.

This was a terrible film that looked for all the world like a film school project with a few favours being called in. It was made for the Shudder Channel so you can’t expect too much in the way of budget but this was mainly a one set affair with a few video calls thrown in to break the monotony.

Everyone did play it straight, to be fair, but no one shouted ‘horse shit’ as the ridiculous events unfolded and things just got dafter and dafter until the end.

Shannon and his wife looked like they were going through the motions although he did put some effort into his screaming. I think this film is of its time and will be rightfully forgotten in due course – already in my case!

When is Shannon-On? - 31.13

Outcome? Possessed with glowy eyes

Film 2/5

Shannon Stars 2/5