Review: ‘Against The Night’… Not As Predictable As We Thought

Against The Night

Theatrical Release: September 15, 2017

Guest review from Reel Reviews Over Brews

Against The Night is a thriller that follows nine friends into an abandoned prison to film a ghost hunting video. Hank (Luke Persiani), is a filmmaker who set up this whole adventure. It is his idea to film the ghost hunting video so he can hit the fast track to becoming a big director. When Hank (Luke Persiani) disappears, everyone is pointing fingers and placing blame on one another. They work together to try to uncover the truth and quickly realize that they may not be alone.

Going into this we thought it was going to be another lame attempt at a Blair Witch Project type movie… well, we were kind right. Against The Night has its hits and misses. More misses than hits, but it really wasn’t far away from being a good movie. Seeing as though we are from just outside of Philadelphia, we found it pretty cool that the prison they were filming in was Holmesburg Prison. Director, Brian Cavallaro certainly did his research on the prison because they implemented a lot of factual knowledge about it into Against The Night. The biggest miss to us, however, was the acting. It just made the movie feel more like a teen comedy. We couldn’t relate to any of the actors. They were all too stiff and goofy. With better acting, Against The Night gets a higher rating from us for sure. We did like how the they made Sean (Tim Torre) and Rachel (Hannah Kleeman) work together even though they were ex lovers. That’s always a nice spin to put on thrillers. Our favorite part about this movie was the fact that the entire time we kept telling ourselves, “this movie is wayyyyyyy too predictable.” Well, guess what? Once the ending came around, it wasn’t very predictable at all and when we can’t predict an ending to a movie it makes us love it that much more! Go into this with an open mind and try look past the acting, we think you just may like it!

Reel ROB Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Post Credits Scene: No

We want to thank our friends at Reel News Daily for allowing us to do this guest review for them!

Review: ‘Against The Night” has one big winner…

presents

AGAINST THE NIGHT

AGAINST THE NIGHT is a psychological thriller that tests the boundaries of trust as nine friends sneak into an abandoned prison to film a ghost hunting video. When their friend, Hank, disappears, everyone is pointing fingers and placing blame until they realize they may not be alone.

Against the Night has a plot we’ve seen before… until it doesn’t. I have to admit, this film tries really hard to be unique but ultimately ends up being totally convoluted. There are moments in the script that are so far out in left field I literally said, “What?!” out loud as I watched. The practical effects don’t help, and the majority of the acting is pretty blah and even ventures into the downright atrocious. Oftentimes, the cast’s reactions, (mostly the girls) are completely unbelievable and frankly, don’t lend you to care about them. The chemistry is humming along one moment and nonexistent the next. The tropes seem forced and cobbled together without any flow to the story. While I did enjoy the opening setup and the use of multiple camera styles, Against the Night just didn’t work for me as a whole. The one saving grace in this film is actor Josh Cahn. Playing what feels akin to Jaimie Kennedy‘s role in SCREAM, Cahn is funny, likeable, and I wanted more of him on screen. I would watch an entire stand alone film with him as the lead, any day. This kid is a gem. If you do catch the film, he and the appearance of Frank Whaley as Detective Ramsey are worth their short amount of screen time. Check out the trailer below. As always, we want to know what you think, so those of you heading to the theater this weekend, tell us how Against the Night played out for you!

AGAINST THE NIGHT will be released theatrically in LA, NY and additional select markets on September 15.  The film has a running time of 86 minutes and will not be rated by the MPAA.