MicroCinema Scene

As has been mentioned in previous reviews, horror anthologies tend to be a mixed bag.  Some stories will tickle the fancy, others leave the viewer cold.  Nightwalkers follows the trend, although the folks at Gallows Hill Productions do their best to keep things interesting.

The movie begins with an introduction by Brinke Stevens.*

The narrative begins with a young man (Ronny Macomber) trying to buy a car from an odd fellow named Mr. Damoan (Tom Harris).  The idea is that the car Damoan is trying to sell has been tied to a series of odd and bloody stories, and that whoever owns it is cursed.  But how can our intrepid young buyer resist such a great deal?

The bookends let us know what we’re in for:  a shot-on-video horror flick that will try for some stylish shots and do its best to cover up the acting abilities of its cast with a good amount of gore.  In same cases it succeeds, and in others it falls a bit short.  The concept of a car linking each of the stories is interesting, but it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in the context of some of the shorts.  But at least the filmmakers made an effort to bring the three main stories together.  And those tales are:

The Initiative:  When a fraternity hazing goes wrong, three friends (Danny Jimenez, Nicky Terry, and Kenny Lockwood) do everything they can to cover their tracks.  But when they return to the scene of the crime months later, things aren’t as covered up as they thought.

Thoughts:  The short follows a pretty typical accident/revenge plotline, unfortunately not offering much in the way of characterization.  The three leads do a commendable job acting like typical frat boys, and their personality comes out even if the script hampers them a bit.  The effects are well done and the lighting (for the most part) is very atmospheric.  The biggest weakness of the piece:  why would they return to the scene of the crime?

The Family Friend:  Three drug runners (Jaime Vazquez, Mark McGee, Niles Aguilar) take a family hostage, not knowing that the scarecrow outside is there to do more than just scare off birds.

Thoughts:  This segment works on another level from the other shorts, primarily because it deals more with the terror of having someone break into your house and do what they please because they’ve got guns.  It’s nasty, and since it’s closer to reality it’s harder to sit through.  The opening and closing are effective, and there’s a good effort to include a number of stylish shots.  The scarecrow has a great look, although I wish it had been used a bit more effectively (to say much more would spoil things).  The only real hang up is that a few scenes seem to have been shot with natural indoor light, making for some dark images.

Nia:  Undying Love:  Young Nia (Nydia Ramos) vows to love her boyfriend (Brandon Carney) forever, and even after a bad break up (and an even worse tragedy), she continues to keep her promise.

Thoughts:  What hurts this short most is what comes after the tragic accident.  Nia basically follows the same storyline as The Initiative, right down to including the digging of a grave and a body wrapped in plastic.  There’s a tragic death, a cover up, and revenge dished out to the guilty.  Another flaw is when a tarot card reader lays out what the undead can and can’t do - and in the very next scene they break one of the rules.  There’s a nice twist ending, but after seeing nearly the same story only minutes before it was robbed of its impact.  The effects are again as good as anything else on this level, but the acting does waver at times.

Overall, Nightwalkers is a decent genre offering that suffers from the same weaknesses as other microbudget horror anthologies.  There is an effort to tell complete stories while delivering what viewers have come to expect, and in general the video, audio, and editing are done pretty well - even if there are quite a few dissolves.  Hopefully next time we’ll be able to see what writer/director Carney can do with a feature - although at the end of the credits it says to look for Nightwalkers 2 in 2005.

* In regards to the introduction and close by Brinke Stevens:  even though she’s prominently featured on the cover, her role as the Town Historian isn’t really a role at all.  It seems to be an attempt to capitalize on her name to get more attention, which is understandable - but ultimately she’s on-screen for maybe a minute, if that.  I could understand if she had somehow been tied into the bookends with the man selling the car, but instead the movie feels like it has an introduction, and then another introduction which is the actual movie.  It’s a bit jarring, and a bit of a letdown when the realization hits that Stevens isn’t really a part of the cast.

Two and a half stars.

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