Rent Nightlight (2015)

When our heroes are more horrible than the monsters ... - Nightlight review by NP

A group of stupid, beautiful, arrogant, shouting, grinning idiots get lost in the woods whilst filming themselves. Yep, it’s another found footage film – a genre just as legitimate as any other in my view.

There is much high speed gibbering. There’s a nerdy girl who wants to fit in with the cool pretty kids … but no-one notices she is cool and pretty herself! That’s lucky! No matter how terrifying and other-worldly things get, she’s still preoccupied with the boy she fancies. Ah, the priorities of the in-crowd wannabe.

I often say this in my reviews, but it continues to amaze me how one simple rule is ignored: make the characters likeable, or at least relatable. That doesn’t mean they can’t have flaws, or be bland and uninteresting; if you care about them, you care about what happens to them. Not so much here – there are a number of false endings, and the film outstays its welcome somewhat because the audience is never invited to invest in this bunch of twits.

I sound more scathing of ‘Nightlight’ than I mean to be, because there are a few nicely sinister moments; chiefly, when the ubiquitous camera seems to become momentarily operated by a mysterious third party. Sadly, this is never really elaborated upon, other than more proof that ‘something is out there watching them.’

When we finally reach the end, it is quietly effective, and if I’m ever tempted to re-watch, it will be because of such moments, and not because of the characters, who are, after all, supposed to be the heart of the story. My score is 5 out of 10.