The Long Night is not going to knock anyone’s socks off, but it also doesn’t waste much of one’s time. Directed and composed by Rich Ragsdale (Eight Legged Freaks), with a script by Robert Sheppe (Ghost House 2) and Mark Young (Lost In Paradise), the horror flick is at times better than it looks. And while it’s occasionally worse than it looks, the average scene is somewhere in between. There are some comparisons that make you wonder if all horror movies subconsciously share the same DNA or if this is half Midsommar and half Get Out. And though leads Scout Taylor-Compton (The Runaways) and Nolan Gerard Funk (The Flight Attendant) offer little in the way of stellar acting, there is nonetheless one performance worth talking about. When one thinks The Long Night is walking in circles, it breaks off from the beaten path just in time to give viewers exactly the movie that was sold.
When Grace (Taylor-Compton) takes her boyfriend Jack (Funk) on a road trip to discover more about her lineage, they find themselves on an abandoned plantation in the south. Jack has no patience for this part of America but, seeing as Grace just wants to meet her parents, he can hardly object to the trip. Just when the couple is at each other’s throats, their host arrives. It’s not the man on the phone who said the house they are currently in is his, but instead a dead cat and a half dozen hooded figures wearing black robes and ram skulls. Grace soon finds exactly what she was looking for in a group of cult members that just might be her undoing.
The Long Night definitely deserves credit. Twenty minutes into any horror film, someone is either knee-deep in an investigation of some sort or their hand is being held so that it can be chopped off. Art house horror especially leans into that type of introduction. But just when it seems like The Long Night is taking too much time to get to the point, the movie takes off down a road full of untrustworthy characters and mysticism. It’s this kind of respect for audiences’ time that excuses the fact that the evil cult bad guys pretty much have superpowers. There is only one exposition dump in the entire film and it succinctly explains the cult’s history and motives.
If The Long Night did not do audiences the courtesy of getting straight to business, the antagonist’s unexplained strength would be more noticeable and chunks of backstory would feel more force-fed. The cherry on top is the utilization of the principal cast in relation to a movie this size. The production really made the most out of what was essentially one set, a gas station, a car, and an apartment. There are about six actors with speaking lines. The main characters takes up most of that time, but every other actor enters and leaves the movie with the confidence that they need to be there. Even the creepy gas station attendant who barely speaks is absolutely essential to setting up the tone.
The Master, played by Deborah Kara Kruger (The Game) is the lone unmasked villain in a herd of murderers. She delivers a monologue so good that it directly gives gravitas to the film’s climax. But Sheppe and Young are not totally off the hook. The plot is eerily similar to Get Out. The liberal couple travels to see the girlfriend’s unknown parents on a literal plantation. The Midsommar comparisons are more blatant, to say the least — The Long Night is in reference to the vernal equinox, there are wide shots of landscapes superimposed on one another, and a couple that meets a cult on a road trip. That being said, The Long Night isn’t living in the shadow of contemporary horror, but slashing a creepy lane of its own.
The Long Night released in select theaters and on demand on February 4. The film is 98 minutes long and is rated R for violence, language, some disturbing images, and nudity.
Key Release Dates
The Long Night
Release Date:2022-02-04
