Plot: Gwen starts a job at a motel and on her first night, experiences what she believes to be a haunting.
There's something about twists that can be a compelling watch when viewers are teased about it.
The twist can save a movie especially if there isn't riveting content in the first half. But if the twist is good and it fits, then the whole movie is touted as an excellent watch.
But if the twist falters, then the whole story falls apart.
Night Shift tries hard to land its clever twist but unfortunately the pacing is a little too fast for the story and characters to actually set and find their place in the story.
The rushed storyline also makes it harder to focus on the movie and you will find your attention wavering even though for a thriller that isn't exactly a good thing.
NIGHT SHIFT Plot
Gwen drives to a motel in the middle of nowhere. The motel is called ALL TUCKED IN.
At first there is no one around but soon she meets Teddy Miles, the owner and manager who wants to open a chain of motels all across the country. He even has a drawing and everything of his chain.
Gwen isn't too impressed. In fact she makes faces a lot especially when Teddy shows her around and she spots the cockroaches. She even shows him that she knows about the French bed roll. Teddy is impressed especially when she states that her mother used to work in motels too.
Teddy then leaves her on her night shift and tells him that he's going.
He asks if she has eaten and she thinks that he is asking her to have dinner with him. But nope. He leaves her a Vietnamese restaurant menu.
Gwen wants to know how she is going to protect herself and Teddy assures her nothing violent has ever happened around here. There is a camera in the front but should she need help, she can call him.
Gwen does not look relieved until he reveals there is a gun he keeps for in case.
Before he leaves, Gwen also notices that he has been heavily discounting room 13. He says it is because no one want to stay in there which is why it is available at half price.
Teddy leaves and Gwen is left on her own in a motel that doesn't even have a swimming pool but a sinkhole in its place.
Gwen goes about her duties and is disgusted about how unclean the motel is. She is also careful about going into the laundry room where the door needs to be kept open with a brick.
She finds that only one of the rooms is occupied and goes to meet the guest staying there.
The woman inside doesn't open the door but tells Gwen she doesn't need anything from her.
Gwen returns to the reception area when she thinks she heard someone call for her but it is no one. Just then the telephone rings. She picks it up but there is no one on the other end. She puts it down only for the phone to ring again. This time she notices that the call is coming from room 13. She turns around and notices that the key is still there. That means that room 13 wasn't given to anyone.
When she continues to receive calls, she inspects the room with a knife but doesn't find anything. She does find what she thinks are ghosts, entering the room.
Gwen then runs into Alice who needs her help. They go into the laundry room and of course Alice accidentally pulls the brick away, locking them both.
Both of them are panicking when the delivery guy pops by. He opens the door and gets the women out. However, he also got the wrong order so there is enough food for both Alice and Gwen.
Gwen has a history where she is always nervous about a stalker. Some years ago, an intruder had broken into her home and killed her mother and sister. Since Gwen survived, she believes that the killer may try to find her to finish the job.
Alice tells her about how her own mother is overbearing and she left after a fight with her.
Gwen advises her to make up with her mother since she still misses her family but cannot ever see them again because they are dead.
Alice takes it into consideration.
Later, Gwen keeps seeing what she believes to be a ghost. There's a woman in a blood night gown and a little girl roaming about the premises to provide jump scares but are not so effective.
Gwen calls up Teddy and pretty much scolds him for not telling her about the hauntings. Teddy tells her there has never been a haunting but that he will come to see her to put her mind at ease.
Eventually, Gwen spots a car outside and suspects the intruder who had killed her family and escaped institution a couple of days ago, is following her.
Soon after a man comes into the motel and the truth is revealed.
NIGHT SHIFT Ending Explained with Spoilers
The man wants a room and Gwen's nervous disposition suggests he may be the man Gwen fears.
She gives him Room 8 and leads him there. Once inside, she stabs him with scissors which is when he reveals that he is actually her doctor.
Turns out the person who escaped institution was Gwen herself. The murderer? Gwen.
The ghosts she had been seeing? Quite possibly her victims, her mother and sister.
The doctor explains that he has been trying to find her ever since she escaped and she needs serious help for her mental health.
Gwen cannot bear to hear the truth and so cuts out his tongue. Alice comes in to check on the ruckus and now has to run for her own life after she realizes Gwen wants to hurt her.
There's some running about before Gwen manages to attack her with an axe.
Gwen then drags her doctor and Alice to the sinkhole.
Outside, the doctor's assistants are wondering where the doctor is.
Teddy comes by to see what Gwen is doing near the sinkhole which was supposed to be a pool. His expression changes and when the film cuts to an year later, we have to assume Teddy didn't make it either.
There goes his dream of running a chain of motels.
A year later, a college going man is heading on a lonely road. He's on the phone with his mother who tells him to be careful.
He assures her by saying he has just spotted a motel. A tacky looking one but he doesn't say so.
There are pink flamingos everywhere and even the walls look like it came out of a Barbie set.
He checks out the pool when Gwen comes to see him. She is in a uniform and all, smiling like a deranged maniac.
But the young man thinks its a friendly smile.
He decides to live in this tacky, nauseatingly decorated motel. Gwen gives him the key to Room 8. Her favorite one of all, she says. The young man doesn't care.
We don't either because we know he's just going to join Gwen's other victims. She did say they were five under the pool as a joke.
So there's the doctor, Alice, Teddy..
And the two doctor's assistants as well?
Anyway, the last scene shows Gwen is still a little jumpy about the hallucinations of her victims but doesn't let it get in the way of her murder spree.
The movie ends.
Night Shift could have been a proper thriller or a proper slasher. Instead, it tries to play it too safe. We don't even see the killings and at least three of them happened off screen.
There's never a sense of dread that is essential in thrillers. We don't get to the edge of our seats, anticipating something bad might happen to the protagonist. The reveal isn't shocking either.
In fact, the reveal scene is written in a dull manner that doesn't do anything to the movie.
Night Shift could have used better direction and maybe better acting as well.
All in all, it is a bland thriller you will feel like you have watched many like this before.
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