The Long Night review by Bobby Blakey
Outside of martial arts films Well Go USA has delivered a wide variety of horror flicks. Their latest The Long Night features a good cast including Scout Taylor-Compton, Nolan Gerard Funk, Deborah Cara Unger and Jeff Fahey with director Rich Ragsdale at the helm. Could this flick bring the expected terror or will it fail to find the curse needed top stand out?
The Long Night follows New York transplant Grace who returns to her childhood southern stomping grounds with her boyfriend while searching for the parents she’s never known, to investigate a promising lead on her family’s whereabouts. Upon arrival, the couple’s weekend takes a bizarre, terrifying turn as a nightmarish cult and their maniacal leader terrorize the pair en route to fulfilling a twisted ancient apocalyptic prophecy.
I love horror, but always on the fence with these cult possession style flicks. This one is pretty by the numbers on most elements with you not really knowing the level of true supernatural elements or just crazy people until the end. The story is simple enough and works fine, but it just never does much to stand out. There are aspects that felt rushed or just glossed over in setting things up and never really comes back around, but it does still find its footing to get on point.
Like most of these sorts of films there are lots of bad decisions made by the characters, but I give it props for making an element be a catalyst to some of these behaviors. Sure it was predictable, but for a lower budget horror flick they made some good choices to make it more impactful when it needed to be. I am
always a fan of the crazy characters in animal skull masks and this film offered them up in abundance. The scenes with them were shot cool and helped to elevate the horror visual.
In the end the film is fine, but not that memorable and fails to offer up any real scares. I have no doubt it will hit better with some so decide for yourself and check out The Long Night when it hits Blu-ray and DVD on April 5th from Well Go USA.