PLOT SUMMARY: When a shut-in, Ken notices something odd happening in one of his videos, he realizes he may be haunted.
It seems that when the pandemic hit, everyone was forced to stay indoors as much as possible to curb the spread. The only means for interaction became through video calls and chats. The movie makers took advantage of this setback to center movies around video conferences and surprisingly a few of them worked effectively.
I would imagine some of them even met their budget considering the costs were reduced, which is why the storyline is expected to be pacy and really scary in the case of horror movies.
Night's End very cleverly utilizes the constraints of shooting during the pandemic by showing the protagonist as a shut-in who keeps in touch with his friends via video chat. Now this theme alone should have ensured that we get a chilling, fast-paced haunted horror movie. The running time of 1 hour and 21 minutes is an indication of that.
However, what is delivered is a staggering plot about a shut-in whose backstory isn't made clear nor interesting enough to hold attention and sympathize.
All said and done though, the climax does add just the right elements to this horror movie and salvages it. Although the very last scene immediately spoils the mood by delivering on clichés.
NIGHT'S END Movie Plot
Ken Barber lives all alone in an apartment. He's coping with stress and sticks to a regular routine of exercising, drinking coffee and pepto-bismol together, and having perhaps only one meal a day which is tomato soup from a can.
The rest of the day, Ken makes YouTube videos giving off life tips. When he's discussing his uploads with his friend Terry, his friend mentions an odd moment in his video. Now, Ken also dabbles as an amateur taxidermist and has several stuffed birds in his room and frozen ones in his freezer, right next to his food. That alone should have given the protagonist am eerie vibe. But somehow the scene is so fleeting and there is nothing added to it that it becomes forgettable.
Terry advises Ken to look at his video again and that is when he sees it. While Ken was droning about the negative aspects of life, one of his stuffed birds from the shelf moves towards the edge and topples. Considering the bird was not near the edge, there was little chance it could have fallen the way it did.
Terry is intrigued and asks Ken to look into it. Ken begins to wonder if his apartment is haunted and sets about to conduct an amateur investigation. He finds that there was indeed a murder in the apartment a long time ago. A woman had killed her father with an axe and then committed suicide.
Ken relays this information to not only his friend but also his ex wife Kelsey and her husband Isaac. Clearly the three of them share a warm and friendly camaraderie.
Terry tells Ken about a spirit jar that he could make to trap the spirit. He even sends him links to the symbols he must draw on them. But Ken goes one step ahead and uses a book written by famed paranormal expert Colin Albertson.
Terry isn't too thrilled to find that Ken uses a mishmash of the symbols but then again none of them entirely believe they are witnessing a true haunting.
Ken performs the ritual in front of Terry and uses the words from Colin's book. One of the incantations pretty much states to bring the evil to him but both Ken and Terry think nothing of it.
Lights flash, the room turns orange, a woman screams and Ken disappears from view. Terry grows concerned concerned when he can't find his friend.
But then Ken gets up from the floor and both friends are certain they have captured a spirit in the jar.
When Ken later talks to Kelsey and Isaac, they are intrigued by what happen and suggest he send his videos to a popular channel Dark Corners that specialises in spooky videos.
Sure enough, Ken gets a call but he can't help but feel that something is off. He gets nightmares and nosebleeds a plenty. At times he begins to stop mixing pepto bismol with his coffee and simply drinks the medicine only.
To show that Ken is over his head with all the haunting thing, the soup on the stove boils over. Does Ken clean up the mess? We've never even seen him eat the soup. But then Ken doesn't exactly look emaciated and someone who survives only on soup. He looks like he spends more time lifting weights than giving Lawn Life Tips.
Ken finally contacts Colin who takes one look at the jar and pretty much suppresses his laughter., who looks at the jar and Clearly he doesn't think much about the shoddy spirit jar and assures Ken that there is no spirit in the jar because he didn't leave an offering for the spirit.
Ken opens the jar and the lights don't flash and there's no screaming so he is almost relieved that there is no spirit.
But Colin says that there is a spirit and that he would send in his spirit jar.
NIGHT'S END Ending Explained with Spoilers!
D.C. the guy who runs the Dark Corners channel sets up a livestream of Ken banishing the spirit. It is also sort of an unboxing video.
Terry, Kelsey and Isaac are interviewed. Colin too makes an appearance on the chat. Another paranormal expert Lyden also participates. Ken opens the package and displays the spirit jar with the right symbols.
There is also an accompanying packet along with it. Ken removes items one by one and puts them in the jar as offering.
But when he sees the last item, the rest of them get shocked. It is Colin's thumb. Colin laughs maniacally but the others still don't find anything off.
Lyden points out that Colin's research was wrong. According to Colin, the daughter who had killed her father was then pushed out the window by her enraged mother. Lyden states that she didn't find any one by the name Colin had suggested and no record of the incident.
Colin shrugs it off and Ken begins the ritual. There is screaming, flashes of lights and red glowing eyes behind Ken. Lyden points out that the entity behind him doesn't seem like the people who were supposed to have lived and died there, and that he appears dangerous.
In the next instant, Ken disappears, and everyone else who was participating experiences orange light in their own homes. Colin laughs maniacally as his eyes turns red.
Ken finally gets up and comes into view but something has already entered his house, a being with long fingers and talons.
Ken manages to run away while the rest of the participants are possessed. He has finally gotten over his fear of staying indoors. Outside, the orange lights come on at every house in the neighborhood.
Ken got over his fear of staying indoors. Well done! Congrats, Ken!
Except of course, for that to happen, everyone in the neighborhood and all of his friends and family had to get possessed.
But it's a win for Ken, right?
The movie ends.
Considering the topic of the movie, all of it could have been condensed in less time as even the 1 hour 20 minutes seems to drag on.
Scare Scale: 3/5
Comments
Post a Comment