Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Brandon Christensen
Starring: Jessica Clement, Summer H. Howell, Ryan Robbins, Keegan Connor Tracy
With his low budget supernatural thrillers Still/Born and Z, Brandon Christensen established himself as one of the more interesting filmmakers working in the current indie horror sphere. His latest, Night of the Reaper, eschews any supernatural elements for a thriller that calls back to the slashers of the 1980s while also drawing on the sort of twisty plotting that was the trademark of the Scream series and its '90s clones.
Set in the late '80s, the movie opens with a prologue that, much like the opening of When a Stranger Calls, could function as a standalone short. Charged with babysitting a pair of bratty kids, teenager Emily (Summer H. Howell) initially thinks the kids are pranking her, only to realise to her horror that an intruder has made their way into the house. Christensen displays his skill at crafting suspense and building tension in this fabulously crafted opening sequence that climaxes with a figure clad in what looks like the skull mask from Halloween III appearing out of the darkness.
The narrative then jumps forward to some time later and splits off into two distinct but ultimately interconnecting subplots. In the same town Sheriff Rod (Ryan Robbins) receives a series of VHS recordings of both Emily's murder and that of a camper whose death had previously been dismissed as an accident in the woods. He immediately suspects Chad (Ben Cockell) and Willis (Bryn Samuel), a pair of unruly teens known for making videos with their VHS camcorder.
Meanwhile, teenager Deena (Jessica Clement) has returned home from college for the Halloween break and finds herself tasked with babysitting Max (Max Christensen, who I'm guessing is the director's son), the young son of Sheriff Rod. When things start to go bump in the night around the sheriff's house, it seems Deena is the latest target of our mysterious masked killer.
Save for an opening dance sequence set to Pat Benatar, Christensen refrains from overegging his '80 settings. You suspect he chose the era to dispense with cellphones and the internet, the bane of the modern thriller writer, rather than cashing in on any Stranger Things-inspired nostalgia. Despite its setting, Night of the Reaper resembles the sort of thrillers that were popular in the '70s prior to the slasher era, and if you removed a couple of gory moments it could have been an ABC movie of the week back in the day. It's a stretch to call Night of the Reaper a slasher as it's less concerned with staging elaborate kills and more invested in unravelling a mystery plot. That's not to say that gorehounds are ill-served here, with one shocking moment that paints the walls red in unexpected and spectacular fashion.
But it's primarily about the mystery, and for the most part the director and his sibling co-writer Ryan Christensen do a fine job of slowly teasing out the details and throwing red herrings in our way. The odd reaction of Chad and Willis to being arrested keeps us guessing as to just how they might be involved in all of this, if they are indeed involved. The dual subplots means viewers have both an intriguing mystery to get wrapped up in and also a tense and suspenseful scenario playing out around the targeting of Deena.
A final act twist is one you certainly won't see coming, but I'm not sure it holds up to much scrutiny. It leaves us with a couple of inconvenient questions regarding how certain characters came to their conclusions, along with the motivation of the antagonist. But Christensen ups the intensity to ensure that we don't have time to ask such questions until the credits roll. When the killer is unmasked, the actor playing the role gives a genuinely unhinged performance that makes them even more intimidating than when they were decked out in their Silver Shamrock mask. And in Clement's Deena we have one of the more likeable and resourceful final girls of recent horror.
Night of the Reaper is on Shudder from September 19th.
