movie review fear the night

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It’s often hard to know who exactly the joke’s on in “Fear the Night,” an unpleasant home invasion thriller about a break-in at a bachelorette party in the California hills. Maggie Q stars as Tess, a disaffected military vet who must take out some white trash after they break into her family’s farmhouse, where she and her sisters Beth ( Kat Foster ) and Rose ( Highdee Kuan ) have gathered to celebrate Rose before she gets married.

Most of “Fear the Night” dwells on the ambient fear and annoyance that surrounds Tess as she and her fellow partygoers try to escape without being raped and/or killed. Eventually, it becomes hard to tell if the movie and its canned culture clash/battle of the sexes drama is just self-consciously tedious or also hatefully ungenerous (to the viewers, the actors, the characters, you name it). One character tellingly accuses the other of “slumming,” so it’s perhaps worth noting that “Fear the Night” was written and directed by playwright Neal LaBute, whose recent credits include last year’s bloodless erotic vampire pic “ House of Darkness .”

With “Fear the Night,” LaBute clearly aims to push viewers’ buttons, especially using the oft-repeated threat of sexual violence. Some dramatic irony mildly re-casts the movie’s otherwise formulaic conflict in a harsher light, but not much gets complicated by this extra knowledge, especially not LaBute’s tin-eared dialogue nor his indifferent direction.

In theory, Tess and Beth’s relationship underlines the tension of the movie’s primary event: the siege of the family farm by a trio of woman-hating good ol’ boys, led by Bart ( James Carpinello ) and Perry ( Travis Hammer ). These guys raid the house and kill a key guest with a bow and arrow. Meanwhile, Tess tries to save the day while also not murdering her sister, who obviously knows more about why Perry and his friends have targeted their house. Beth is often breathtakingly irritating, whether she’s snippily asking Tess not to curse in front of her daughter or off-handedly telling Tess to relax and have a drink, despite knowing that Tess has been sober for some weeks.

Tess’s wounded warrior schtick suggests that some things are sacred, despite the drama’s prevailing moral relativity. Other character tics and tropes are either sent up and/or negligibly complicated. It’s sometimes hard to see a difference when so many women in this movie reflect LaBute’s disinterest in developing believable characters. Rose’s guests all talk like helpless, horny caricatures, while Perry and the gang only talk about what these women “deserve,” especially rape.

That omnipresent threat isn’t necessarily unrealistic, nor is Beth and her friends’ by-the-numbers sassiness. Rather, a general lack of imagination makes “Fear the Night” a chore to watch, especially given how thin so much of Tess’s dialogue tends to be. Because if she’s the audience’s surrogate, then it’s hard to imagine that there’s a point to this much nudge-nudge genre pandering, not when the bachelorettes lay into an attacker in front of a big “Same Penis Forever” party banner, nor during Perry and Bart’s frequent and empty taunts. At one point, a bad guy asks a bad girl if she’s going to let “a black chick” tell her what to do. The black chick in question, played by Ito Aghayere , somehow doesn’t respond until she flirtatiously and laboriously offers to have oral sex with one of the attackers. Everything is bait in “Fear the Night,” but none of it is worth taking.

“Fear the Night” might have succeeded as a cheap but thrilling work of post-feminist revanchism. Some bloody violence does not, however, add much to the movie’s empty you-go-girl rallying around Tess, which is as deadly serious and unconvincing as "Fear the Night" gets. A lot of dead air and placeholder repartee also suggests that there’s no great distinction to be made between the type of movie that LaBute might be sending up and the one he wound up making.

In a tellingly awkward establishing scene, LaBute struggles to establish that Tess has an edgy sense of humor. She describes herself to Beth’s friends as a teacher, or “Mr. Miyagi with tits.” Silence. Tess continues anyway: “What’s not landing for you, Miyagi or tits?” Because she’s Asian-American, and they’re not, right? This gag’s tone is ostensibly tongue-in-cheek, but that two-part line is flop-sweat clammy.

“Fear the Night” often feels like it was made by artists who understand the type of movie that they’re making but maybe don’t really care enough about making it, either as a by-the-numbers genre exercise or a repudiation of its fans and their need for pseudo-enlightened catharsis. Rather than pick a lane, Labute and the gang cruise down a flat, weirdly empty stretch of well-trod road. Good luck to both the curious and unsuspecting viewers who follow them.

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Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in The New York Times , Vanity Fair , The Village Voice, and elsewhere.

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Film credits.

Fear the Night (2023)

Maggie Q as Tes

Kat Foster as Beth

James Carpinello as Bart

Gia Crovatin as Mia

Travis Hammer as Perry

Ito Aghayere as Noelle

Highdee Kuan as Rose

Kirstin Leigh as Esther

Roshni Shukla as Divya

Neil Labute

Cinematographer

Rogier Stoffers
Vincent F. Welch

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Fear the Night Reviews

Bloody, funny, and cathartic, Fear the Night is a wickedly violent showcase for Maggie Q.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 1, 2024

Shallow and unsatisfying, Fear the Night is an adequate home invasion thriller that could have been so much more...it turns away from interesting choices at every turn, leaving a generic, half-baked thriller behind.

Full Review | Feb 1, 2024

There is actually very little here that you haven’t seen before; the lead performance from Maggie Q is strong, but that really is all it has going for it.

Full Review | Oct 13, 2023

Maggie Q is on good form, both as an actor and as a fighter.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 25, 2023

This is a waste of time and streaming pixels.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 19, 2023

Gets a good performance from Maggie Q to keep it at least almost watchable.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Aug 23, 2023

A production perfect for LaBute’s signature nocturne visors.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 15, 2023

Fear the Night simply doesn’t work, and the only thing left to fear here is the threat of more Neil LaBute movies.

Full Review | Aug 8, 2023

Neil LaBute does his version of You're Next but apart from a reminder that Maggie Q should be an action star it is severely lacking in suspense and terror, all leading to an epilogue that could have been wonderfully satiric instead of painfully strained.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 4, 2023

Fear the Night has all the parts needed for a good thriller, but LaBute fails to ratchet up the tension and thrills to make it a satisfying suspense invasion film.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Jul 30, 2023

Fear the Night finds the once revered auteur in low-budget mode, his misanthropic tendencies couched in genre frameworks that, in theory, should make them feel more organic, but instead merely serve to highlight the misogyny that ultimately fuel them.

Full Review | Jul 27, 2023

Except for a handful of pointed lines of dialogue, there is a gnawing frustration that LaBute cannot elevate the material beyond his perfunctory approach for scene after predictable scene.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Jul 27, 2023

There’s nothing much to the narrative trajectory, instilled with a countdown as the night turns into morning and the bodies of both victims and perpetrators pile up.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jul 25, 2023

Offering little beyond pedestrian action sequences and surface-level observations on female empowerment, Fear the Night is a sad, limp disappointment.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 25, 2023

Though competently made and sufficiently bloody, Fear the Night is a home invasion horror movie as generic as its title.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Jul 24, 2023

Let’s be frank here – Fear the Night is almost exclusively a vehicle for Maggie Q to do Maggie Q stuff, and I can confirm she does.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 24, 2023

It's crafty enough, but it's lacking LaBute's usual acid wit and fearless provocations.

Full Review | Jul 24, 2023

As frustrating and disappointing as Fear the Night is, the worst part is knowing it could have been better with some fine-tuning here and there.

It keeps you on the edge and does work, but it is in a sense just another home invasion thriller.

Full Review | Jul 22, 2023

Bare-bones and somewhat simplistic, Neil LaBute's home-invasion thriller is still sharply effective, touching on themes of violence and female empowerment in a blunt, primal manner.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 21, 2023

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Fear the night, common sense media reviewers.

Blunt, primal home-invasion thriller with powerful women.

Fear the Night Movie Poster: Tess (Maggie Q) looks at the camera defiantly, small scratches on her face and rips in her clothing, while holding some kind of weapon

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The movie is clearly on the side of the women, but

Military trained and hyperalert to anything that s

Eight female main characters are a strong, diverse

Strong, bloody violence, much of it directed again

Racy sex talk during a party game ("hand job," "Mi

Extremely strong, constant language: "f--k," "moth

Various brands visible in background of mini-mart:

Villains sell drugs; mention of meth. Women buy al

Positive Messages

The movie is clearly on the side of the women, but the message seems to boil down to "Be ready at all times, and trust no one." The coda in the police station might add another layer by suggesting that women don't necessarily need to be vigilant and violent, but that they also don't need to be afraid of men or settle for what men are offering.

Positive Role Models

Military trained and hyperalert to anything that seems out of place, Tess heroically leads the charge and saves the day (even though some people are killed). But there are drawbacks. And despite her skill and achievements, Tess doesn't seem very happy. It must be exhausting being constantly on guard and ready for attack, and it doesn't seem like much of a life.

Diverse Representations

Eight female main characters are a strong, diverse bunch. Maggie Q was born in Hawaii to a Vietnamese mother. Mia, played by Gia Crovatin, is queer and admits that she has a "big crush" on Tess; they later hold hands. Kirstin Leigh (Esther) is of Korean descent. Highdee Kuan, who plays Tess's sister, Rose, is Asian. Black actor Ito Aghayere (Noelle) has Nigerian roots. The ethnic background of Roshni Shukla, who plays Divya, isn't specified. Tess works with a Black female lawyer (Treisa Gary). White male characters make racist remarks (e.g., in a mini-mart: "I don't think we got one of them international aisles," or "you're not gonna let some Black chick tell you what to do"). The men here are all one-dimensional brutes, viewing women as inferior objects to terrorize or conquer.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Strong, bloody violence, much of it directed against women. Many characters killed. Dead bodies. Gushing blood, blood spurts, blood spatter, bleeding wounds. Characters shot and killed with arrows. Arrows through eyes, chest, etc. Woman's throat sliced. Man's genitals sliced with potato peeler (nothing graphic shown). Character stabbed with pitchfork. Person struck in the back with ax. Character bashed in head repeatedly with small statue. Character stabbed in neck with knife; others also stabbed. Character killed with plastic bag over head. Brief fighting, kicking, struggling. Sexual threat. Arguing.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Racy sex talk during a party game ("hand job," "Mile High Club," "sex on a carnival ride," "d--ks in my mouth," etc.). A woman wears a large, comic inflatable penis. Male stripper removes clothing down to skimpy underwear. A banner reads "Same Penis Forever" (indicating marriage). Brief, mild flirting and romance. Woman pretends to flirt with and seduce villain to get the upper hand.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Extremely strong, constant language: "f--k," "motherf----r," "s--t," "bulls--t," "t-ts," "c--t," "c--k," "a--hole," "bitch," "goddamn," "dammit," "hell," "piss," "d--k," "idiot," "oh my God."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Various brands visible in background of mini-mart: Coca-Cola, Taki's, Haribo, etc. Character drinks a Corona beer.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Villains sell drugs; mention of meth. Women buy alcohol in a mini-mart and drink during a bachelorette party, though no one seems drunk. Main character is a recovering alcoholic who has just earned her six-month sobriety chip. A character tries to get her to have a drink to "loosen up." She opens a beer but resists drinking it. At the very end, she grabs the beer and takes a gulp.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Fear the Night is a home-invasion thriller about a military-trained woman named Tess ( Maggie Q ) who attends her sister's bachelorette party and leaps into action when crossbow-wielding villains attack. It's bare-bones and simplistic, but it's also brutally effective, tackling themes of violence and female empowerment in a blunt, primal way. Violence includes women in peril and being attacked and killed, plus sexual threat, dead bodies, lots of blood, arrows piercing body parts (including eyes, throats), throat-slicing, stabbing, people being hit with blunt objects and with axes and pitchforks, a man's genitals getting mutilated with a potato peeler (nothing graphic shown), and more. Language is extremely strong and constant ("f--k," "s--t," "t-ts," "c--k," "c--t," etc.), and there's racy sex-related dialogue and sexual imagery. The main character is a recovering alcoholic who's tempted by drinking during the party, and villains sell drugs. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Fear the Night Movie: Tess (Maggie Q, left) eavesdrops on two men seen out-of-focus in the background, in another room

Community Reviews

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What's the Story?

In FEAR THE NIGHT, Iraq war veteran Tess ( Maggie Q ) is invited to her younger sister Rose's ( Highdee Kuan ) bachelorette party. Their other sister, Beth ( Kat Foster ), and Tess are at each other's throats, with Beth worried that the serious, cynical Tess is going to ruin the fun and Tess thinking that Beth is too much of a controlling mother hen. Five other friends -- Mia ( Gia Crovatin ), Esther (Kirstin Leigh), Noelle (Ito Aghayere), Bridget (Brenda Meaney), and Divya (Roshni Shukla) -- join them. Their destination is a remote, unused house that belongs to Rose, Beth, and Tess's parents. After a stop at a mini-mart and a run-in with some unpleasant locals, the party begins. But it's soon interrupted when one of their number is shot with an arrow, and a group of masked men starts demanding entry into the house ... or else.

Is It Any Good?

Bare-bones and somewhat simplistic, Neil LaBute 's home-invasion thriller is still sharply effective, touching on themes of violence and female empowerment in a blunt, primal manner. Since the beginning of his career, LaBute has explored the more toxic side of male-female interactions, but with Fear the Night , as in House of Darkness , he uses genre to make his point with more brute force. He spends a little time setting up the characters' sisterly dynamic, as well as Tess's ever-alert paranoia and hair-trigger defense mechanisms, before the first sudden violence occurs.

The attacks are swift and cruel, never sustained fights meant for thrills. We're meant to feel the brutality here. Maggie Q plays Tess like a coiled spring, but with a hint of weariness. She really wants to relax and be human, but -- like Jamie Lee Curtis's older Laurie Strode in Halloween -- she can't let her guard down. The men here are all one-dimensional brutes, viewing women as inferior objects to terrorize or conquer. One of the most potent scenes is the movie's end coda, in which a male sheriff listens to -- and scornfully disbelieves -- Tess's story. What, the movie seems to be asking, has really changed? Fear the Night isn't subtle, but it packs a punch.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Fear the Night 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

How does the movie portray alcohol dependency? Drinking in general? Is it glamorized? Are there consequences? Why does that matter?

What messages does the movie send about female empowerment? Does it seem to be a positive message? Negative? Mixed? How?

Do you consider Tess a role model ? Why, or why not?

Did you notice any stereotypes in the movie? What about positive diverse representations ?

Movie Details

In theaters : July 21, 2023
On DVD or streaming : July 21, 2023
Cast : Maggie Q , Kat Foster , Gia Crovatin
Director : Neil LaBute
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Asian actors
Studio : Quiver Distribution
Genre : Thriller
Run time : 92 minutes
MPAA rating : NR
Last updated : August 31, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

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‘Fear the Night’ Review: Party Raid

Neil LaBute’s new thriller, starring Maggie Q, feels stapled together from a pile of threadbare tropes.

Share full article

A woman calmly hides down a hallway and around a corner of a home listening to two men speak in the kitchen out of eyeshot.

By Jeannette Catsoulis

One rarely roots for the bad guys in a home-invasion shocker, but, as the majority of the victims in Neil LaBute’s “Fear the Night” are either insufferably stupid or gratingly snippy, their survival is perhaps not the priority it ought to be.

In any event, most of them will be slaughtered before we can tell them apart in a movie that appears not so much written by LaBute as stapled together from a pile of threadbare thriller tropes. The plot could fit on a pistol barrel (or, in this case, an arrowhead): Eight women descend on a remote farmhouse for a bachelorette party, only to find their stripper-and-sex-toy revelries interrupted by leering louts who favor artisanal over mechanical weaponry. Bloody chaos ensues as the ladies bemoan their inability to sprint in high heels and struggle to memorize a three-count knock signal that differentiates friend from foe.

“What is happening to us?” one distraught partygoer inquires, echoing my bewilderment. Like her cohort, she will turn hopefully — and, in the case of Mia (Gia Crovatin), longingly — to the one guest that no one else seems to like: Tess (a valiant Maggie Q), a super-serious military veteran and recovering addict. Tess has suffered. Tess has seen things. Tess will use her very particular skills to rally these nitwits or die trying.

Pausing mid-murders to allow for a touching reconciliation and a romantic confession (not the time, Mia!), the back-of-napkin script stumbles forward. As for LaBute, a once incisive chronicler of male cruelty and ineptitude , his continued dabblings in genre are lamentable. Perhaps the kindest thing to do is pretend this dud never happened; it certainly worked for the Farrelly brothers’ “Dumb and Dumber To.”

Fear the Night Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 32 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on most major platforms .

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Screen Rant

Fear the night review: maggie q rises above a simplistic action-thriller.

The disappointing fact is that the movie would be exponentially better with more substantial writing and more confident directing.

Editor's Note: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes , and the movie covered here would not exist without the labor of the writers and actors in both unions.

When I think of Maggie Q, I think of the word badass. The actress has a long career as an action star, which makes a film like Fear the Night an absolute no-brainer. Do you want to see her destroy the hopes of would-be-robbers by kicking their asses? You will get exactly that with Neil LaBute’s Fear the Night . The disappointing fact is that the movie would be exponentially better with more substantial writing and more confident directing.

The film follows Tess, a war vet who returns home after many years of deployment. She lives with her sister, and they have an estranged relationship, with mistrust and annoyance from both sides. The duo is invited to their younger sister's bachelorette party on their family's farm. As the party kicks off, intruders interrupt the festivities and demand the ladies surrender the house, as something valuable is inside.

After the first interaction between Tess and the obnoxious, sexist group at a convenience store on the way to the party, it is clear what will occur in the ensuing hours. It would have been interesting if these villains weren't blinded by their apparent dislike for women because that inevitably becomes their downfall. Between their flurry of colorful language to describe women and their not-so-veiled threats, there is nothing interesting about these intruders. Their reasoning for attacking the house and their vendetta against Tess is only fueled by stupidity and pride. The movie would have been more engaging if some actual cunning were involved from the intruders and the women.

Maggie Q is an action pro. I would say she deserves better, but let’s be honest, women in the industry aren’t given nearly enough anyway, no matter how talented and deserving they may be. Here, she is stoic, darkly funny, and brazenly effortless. There isn’t anything particularly challenging or new here for Q, which is why it feels like she is sleepwalking through the whole thing. However, that doesn’t negate the fact that she is entertaining to watch and an expert at her craft. If anything, the film doesn’t level up to meet her. By comparison, she is, by far, the most talented actor in this ensemble, and she is given much more to work with. Everyone else modulates between awkward, snarky comments directed at Tess, screaming and crying, then dying rather gruesomely.

Fear the Night's production is overly simplistic, which accentuates how straightforward the narrative is. The setting is not utilized well enough to create suspense or thrills. The villains are comically ineffectual, making Tess’s heroics feel less effective. The action is hardly compelling, often feeling repetitive and uncomplicated. However, the amateur nature of the action reflects a more authentic experience because no one expects these women to be highly trained combatants. But some creative flair would have helped. While the movie moves at a brisk pace, director Neil LaBute draws out the moments of inaction for too long. Despite the bland characterization of the intruders, there is no reason to have them be so feckless and the women so hesitant to fight back. Fear the Night’ s downfall is ultimately the lack of innovation and creativity.

Neil LaBute manages to infuse enough tension between the characters to keep the audience engaged, but with how things stand, many of the people on screen are disposable. Aside from Tess, there is hardly any character worth acknowledging, so very little keeps us hooked on who will survive and who will die. The women, excluding Tess, are not given much to make them worth rooting for despite their antagonism towards Tess, which makes them downright unlikable. However, their unlikability can be attributed to their flimsy characterizations and how little we know about Tess and her relationship with the women. All we know is that she doesn’t like them, and they don’t like her.

The dynamics needed to be defined better, and despite some compelling filmmaking, the flagrant disregard for characterization reduces Fear The Night to a mildly tolerable home invasion horror. It's not worth actively seeking out. Furthermore, the conclusion ends on a sour note, further evoking the “him versus her” mentality the movie cannot shake while alluding to the evolution of some hardly developed relationships. Fear The Night will not inspire rave reactions, but some entertainment will still be gained. Maggie Q is powerful in that regard; she makes the most of what little she is given, making it seem better than it is. There is enough to keep you engaged in the moment, but it's not enough to revisit.

Fear the Night is now playing in theaters, on demand and digital. It is 92 minutes long and not rated.

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Maggie Q looks at two men who are tied to chairs with bags over their heads in Fear the Night

Fear the Night review – Neil LaBute on losing streak with atrocious home invasion thriller

The director of In the Company of Men continues his run of terrible films with this awfully acted, ungripping drama

I n the most dismaying possible way, Neil LaBute has done it again. The dramatist and film-maker who gave us the 90s toxic masculinity classic In the Company of Men and the interesting and undervalued Samuel L Jackson thriller Lakeview Terrace in 2008, seems now to be going through a period of churning out exploitation content like a hack-for-hire. Last year we had the dismal revenge horror House of Darkness ; now it’s this terrible home invasion thriller, with awful acting, clunking dialogue cues and drearily ungripping action and suspense sequences, along with a ChatGPT-ish title.

Maggie Q plays Tess, a military veteran who has seen action in Iraq and is now a recovering alcoholic struggling with a return to civilian life. She agrees to come to her sister’s bachelorette party (despite being out of place with all the girly types), and the bride-to-be has implausibly decreed this should take place in the big old remote house once occupied by her recently deceased parents, a place where there is – in accordance with time-honoured movie tradition – no mobile phone coverage. They all show up and find themselves under attack for a bizarrely elaborate reason. Much later, a gloomy epilogue has a misogynist sheriff disbelieve Tess’s version of events, which is not completely unreasonable of him. It could be a screenwriting way of sneakily conceding how weirdly contrived it has all been.

Maggie Q gives an utterly lifeless, charmless, undirected performance; there are some scenes at the beginning where she is boorish and disagreeable with her other, uptight sister, presumably so we can see the tough, down-to-earth attitude that is going to save these ungrateful whiny-civilian types in the end. But it doesn’t feel as if she has been vindicated in any interesting way. This is a waste of time and streaming pixels.

Neil LaBute

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Fear the Night

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Fear The Night Review: Never Fear, Maggie Q Is Here

Maggie Q ignites Fear The Night with kick-ass spunk in a 1970s throwback from writer-director Neil LaBute.

It’s curious to see writer-director Neil LaBute merge into the 2020s with power plays between genders again, first in House of Darkness and now Fear the Night , which hits theaters and digital platforms July 21. Avid filmgoers no doubt appreciated LaBute’s deep dive into the messiness of human emotion and behaviors in films like The Shape of Things and In the Company of Men back in the 1990s . His work after those two great films never felt quite as elevated, however some have been downright engaging nonetheless.

Fear the Night falls nicely into that slot. It’s a throwback to those 1970s action thrillers that so often filled the screen and, for some reason, have made a resurgence in the early 2020s. Those were B movies, to be sure, and Fear the Night feels like another one. Hey, there’s room for all kinds of “art” on screen. But there’s something compelling about Fear the Night that keeps you invested until the very end.

Maybe it's simply the premise. A spirited bachelorette party at a remote location is interrupted by masked intruders who surround the house and begin shooting arrows inside the house. They want something hidden inside the home, but these women aren’t about to give up so quickly. Mainly because of Tess, played by Maggie Q ( The Protégé, Designated Survivor, Nikita ) doing what, well, Maggie Q does best. Kick ass. Read on.

For the Love of Maggie

Maggie Q is the predominant driving force in Fear the Night. As Tess, she inhabits her brooding military veteran very well. Tess is battling her own addictions and difficulties fitting in with other people. It doesn’t help that she promised to attend her sister Rose's (Highdee Kuan) bachelorette party in the California hills. Her other sister, Beth (Kat Foster) also comes along, much to the displeasure of Tess. The two have unresolved issues, and while LaBute’s execution of that brouhaha never quite feels all that believable, we’re not meant to dwell on it for too long.

Related: Exclusive: Diane Kruger, Ray Nicholson, and Neil Labute Discuss Their Femme Fatale Noir Out of the Blue

You see, it’s all about the battle with the “bro” guys wearing masks and toting arrows who want to break into the house. Tess has the military smarts to at least attempt to thwart the takeover and begins doling out instructions. Some of them work. Others are sketchy. Blood is shed, and often in the way you would find viscera splatter in a 1970s film. It's kitschy yet, dare we say, thrilling.

The goal then becomes getting through the night alive. Rounding out the cast is Gia Crovatin (in a noteworthy turn), Kirstin Leigh, Ito Aghayere, and bad guy Travis Hammer, who keeps his minions on alert, fiercely salivating over the alleged “fortune” hidden in the home. Through it all — and this is not a surprise — Maggie Q delivers a powerful performance and her character’s existential angst begs for as many scenes as LaBute will give her. On that note…

Fear the Night Wants to Dive Deep

Clearly, LaBute is attempting to showcase a battle of the genders here with a touch more bravura. He also wants you know there are underlying themes running through Fear the Night. One of them is that the “terror” is always inside of us. “The call is coming from inside the house,” as it were — figuratively in this case. We are our own worst enemy. But other people can be, too. So there’s that.

Another theme is the fear of the unknown. Tess and the other women don’t know what these brutes are truly capable of, at least until the body count rises. And finally, there’s that feeling of having messed with the wrong people. In this case, women who have been controlled and marginalized, let’s say. LaBute spins the tale in effective fashion, tossing in several big, bold 1970s-style titles; chapter headings, if you will. It’s like an amped-up episode of Police Woman by way of a female Kojak with any kind of female law enforcement flick tossed in for good measure. But in a good way.

Related: House of Darkness Review: Neil LaBute Mines Fun Horror From a One Night Stand

Maggie Q and Travis Hammer and, to some extent, Gia Crovatin, fuel this endeavor. As we enter the final stretches of the film, there’s plenty of gore, action, and thrills to keep people invested. LaBute captures the mood and the raw nerves prevalent pretty well. If you haven’t dipped into LaBute’s previous work, you wouldn’t really know that within him lies something even deeper and deeply moving to bring to the screen. But judging by the number of producers listed in this film's credits — it does appear to outnumber the cast, and even Jeff Sackman of American Psycho is on board — you realize how challenging it can be to get any movie made in Hollywood these days.

There may have been a few too many cooks in the kitchen. The litany of producers may also be a glaring reminder that the current actors’ and writers’ strike — and that near-miss of a potential Broadway strike this week — come at a time when creativity and talent ought to be appreciated on a deeper level. Fear the Night may not be the best Neil LaBute film, but it’s a good one and manages to keep you invested until the very last frame.

From Quiver Distribution, Fear the Night will be released in theaters, on digital, and on demand on July 21.

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Neil LaBute directed “FEAR THE NIGHT” | MOVIE REVIEW

“Fear the Night” is a new action/thriller starring the always watchable Maggie Q as Tess, an alcoholic Iraq War veteran who is forced to battle violent and murderous home invaders.

With its well-worn action genre plot in place, the film becomes (occasionally) something more interesting than it should be thanks to its writer/director Neil LaBute.

LaBute was once a major player in the indie scene. The notoriety began with his well-received 1997 debut “In the Company of Men” and continued through such unique pictures as “Your Friends and Neighbors,” “Nurse Betty,” “Possession,” and “The Shape of Things,” his work drawing comparisons to the style of David Mamet. With his blunt dialogue and creative use of vulgarity, LaBute’s writing had a unique rhythm. His films were colored with a skilled command of character and realistic verbal confrontations. Each work had a unique slant that set the filmmaker apart from most of his era.

Unfortunately, his 2006 remake of “The Wicker Man” failed on phantasmagorical levels. Inviting fire from critics and audiences, the film’s failure led to LaBute becoming a “director for hire” of uninteresting studio fare and episodic television. 2022’s erotic thriller “Out of the Blue” was a good but slight return to form.

Now LaBute tackles a thriller with an action slant. While still “slumming” and his razor-sharp cynicism missing, the filmmaker keeps the interest level up for a good while.

Maggie Qi’s Tess is estranged from her family but has been invited to her sister Rose’s bachelorette party, organized by her other sister, Beth (Kat Foster).

As the party moves to the sisters’ childhood home located remotely (of course), we meet their group of friends Mia (Gia Crovatin), Esther (Kirstin Leigh), Brigette (Brenda Meany), and Noelle (Ito Aghayere), each one ready to party and uneasy about the presence of the troubled Tess.

Soon after the fun begins, the women are attacked by bow and arrow slinging Perry (Travis Hammer) and his men. The villains are trying to get into the house as they believe it holds a fortune in cash. Tess rallies the women and uses her skills to survive the night.

Those seeking a female-driven “Die Hard” will find no treasure here. The film has one or two moments where Maggie Q dispenses the baddies, but the script doesn’t concern itself with action set pieces. This is a character tale baked into a thriller.

Wearing her character’s struggles behind eyes masking a deep pain, Maggie Q is quite good as a woman trying her best to maintain. Tess has survived a war and is trying to overcome alcohol issues and the emotional divide between her sisters. As an actress, Q is constantly better than the material she chooses. Tess gives her something to work with beyond her recent action-heavy roles.

LaBute is lite on the violence. While there are deaths and a few moments of blood, the screenplay focuses on Tess’s sibling relationships and how she must not only overcome her attackers, but also navigate unresolved family issues.

“Fear the Night” is suspenseful and tightly controlled, but this is no “B” movie. LaBute finds his tension in the humanistic aspects of the story and in the conflicts within his main character.

While this is a good film and a surprisingly interesting watch, I hope LaBute finds his way back to the more serious-minded fare in which he excels. Perhaps he can take Maggie Q with him on his journey.

Maggie Q in “FEAR THE NIGHT”

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Fear the Night Ending Explained – Who dies and who survives?

This article contains spoilers for the plot and ending of Fear the Night (2023).

Neil LaBute ’s Fear the Night is a home-invasion thriller attempting to slyly subvert home-invasion thrillers and some of their sillier tropes. It’s only variably successful, mostly thanks to a sturdy Maggie Q performance, but it crams some twists and turns into its 90-minute runtime, delivering a fair number of grisly deaths as well.

Plot-wise, here’s the general idea. Tess, an alcoholic combat veteran, goes with her sister Beth and several of their friends to the middle of nowhere for the bachelorette party of their younger sister, Rose. On the way, they antagonize a group of local hicks who subsequently carry out a siege on the homestead looking for a hidden stash of drug money.

Naturally, Tess takes control and leads the other women, almost all of whom are useless by design, in fighting back against the invaders.

Fear the Night Ending Explained

What are the men looking for.

While it isn’t initially clear what Perry and his gang of miscreants are looking for, it later becomes clear that they’re after a stash of drug money hidden in the property’s attic. This is the proceeds from a meth operation that the place’s “caretakers” set up without – it seems – the knowledge of Tess’s father or her sister, Beth, although more about Beth later.

Perry and his boys tie up the caretakers and set about retrieving the dough from the house, not wanting to leave any witnesses behind. The caretakers told the men that the women were their girlfriends and all in on the operation, a somewhat pathetic twist meant to poke fun at the idea that loser drug dealers need to embellish their own private lives.

Nevertheless, Perry believes them, and it isn’t until the final confrontation with Tess, who he wants revenge on after the convenience store incident, that he realizes his mistake.

Who dies in Fear the Night? Who survives?

Only Tess, Beth, Noelle, and Mia survive Fear the Night .

Needless to say, then, there are many deaths throughout the film, so here’s a rough accounting of all of them for fun. This doesn’t account for all of the goons, since they’re basically all killed off by Tess with one notable exception, listed below.

Rose is the first of the girls to get killed, being shot through the chest with an arrow while she’s sitting on the porch.

The stripper/chef Alfonse gets shot straight through the eye when he’s trying to take control of the situation.

Esther is next to go, killed off-screen when she’s hanging her head out of the upstairs window trying to get a phone signal.

Divya, who frankly was kind of annoying anyway, is shot through the mouth with an arrow while she’s opening the door.

Perry slashes Bridget’s throat after she tries to imply that Tess might have been in on the drug operation. A traitor’s death.

Tess manages to kill one of Perry’s men who is letting air out of the car tyres by stabbing him in the neck. Mia smashes one’s head in with an ornament, Tess kills another with a fire axe, and Beth and Noelle tag-team one particularly unpleasant goon, suffocating him with a pillow and hacking his junk off with a potato peeler.

Tess, finally, kills Perry in a one-on-one knife fight.

Did Beth know about the drugs?

Curiously, Fear the Night spares some time after the attack to make a point of Tess being interrogated by the obviously chauvinist local sheriff.

The sheriff doesn’t believe her story – most of which, to be fair, is lies – and is especially skeptical about the timing of the incident. Throughout the film, it has been repeatedly intimated that perhaps someone in the house knew of the drug operation, and the implication is that it’s Beth. However, this is not specifically addressed and is left a little ambiguous.

After the grilling, Tess does give Beth a sisterly hug, but they don’t really exchange any words, and after, Tess leaves with Mia. The film ends on this rather morbid note with the alcoholic Tess having had a beer, her obvious PTSD still afflicting her, potential legal ramifications for what happened at the house, and a lack of surety around who Tess can really trust.

Not exactly a happy ending, then.

What did you think about the ending of Fear the Night (2023)? Let us know in the comments.

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Movie Review – Fear the Night (2023)

September 30, 2023 by admin

Fear the Night , 2023.

Directed by Neil LaBute. Starring Maggie Q, Ito Aghayere, Philip Burke, James Carpinello, Travis Hammer, Kat Foster, and Highdee Kuan.

Eight women at a bachelorette party in a secluded house are targeted by a gang of rednecks and must try and survive the night.

Fear the Night is a home invasion movie that promises much but fails to deliver, either as a straight thriller or as some sort of commentary on the genre, which is where you would suspect writer/director Neil LaBute would want to go in a sub-genre that is already over-stuffed and relies on either heavy plots or decent characters to make any impact.

Unfortunately, Fear the Night has neither of those two things as LaBute seems content to offer up obvious stereotypes in a plot that could have been more engaging had any of the backstories or character tics that get suggested gone anywhere, but the movie feels like the filmmakers shot the first draft of the script, said “That’ll do” and put it out.

In a workmanlike plot, Tess (Maggie Q) and her sister Beth (Kat Foster) are going to a secluded house in the California hills with a group of friends for a bachelorette party to celebrate their other sister Rose (Highdee Kuan) getting married. It is obvious from the start that Tess and Beth do not get on, mainly due to Tess being a former soldier and suffering the effects of some sort of PTSD that makes her feel alienated from ‘normal’ social gatherings, so there is an uneasy tension between the two women, but thanks to Tess getting into a back-and-forth with three rednecks who see a group of women out partying as something to rudely comment on when the ladies stop at a local store, things escalate when said gentlemen arrive at the house that evening, armed with bows and arrows and demanding to be let in. When one of the party is killed, Tess goes into soldier mode in a fight for survival as the group have to overcome their issues in order to make it through the night.

On paper, the plot is nothing special but there are little details that could have – or should have – been exploited to make the action a little more intense. Sadly, in execution Fear the Night is also nothing special as it offers up nothing that you cannot see coming a mile off and is made in a way that has very little in the way of flair or style, which would have made some of the kills a little more exciting seeing as the narrative elements are a little flat.

Maggie Q is very good as Tess, going full-on action heroine in a group full of clucking female caricatures, which was obviously intended to show us how different she is from her peers but there is nothing beneath the surface here so Tess comes across as aloof while the rest of the group screech and shout at a male stripper; yeah, we get it but what else have you got? Give us more than repeatedly inferring that Tess has issues but not actually making them clear.

If Fear the Night had gone the route of insane, OTT carnage the underwritten plot – the real reason the rednecks are trying to get inside the house is extremely lame and clearly an afterthought – wouldn’t matter as there would be plenty of visual stimulation, but the movie plays it very safe in every department, never getting overly gory to compliment the grindhouse-style story, nor is it clever enough to lend itself any weight as an intelligent thriller, happily languishing in the middle and never playing to either crowd in a satisfying way.

At its best, Fear the Night ticks the boxes for a rental if you really are stuck for something new to watch, but when you break down its content into individual parts there is actually very little here that you haven’t seen before, and when it does feel like it is going to step outside of convention and try something daring, it just doesn’t. For positives, it doesn’t really drag despite being padded out, and the lead performance from Maggie Q is strong, but that really is all it has going for it.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★

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Fear the Night (2023): Movie Ending, Explained – Why Does Tess Cry in the Car?

Fear the Night (2023): What happens when a happy get-together turns into the worst nightmare possible? Fear the Night deals with this blood-curdling proposition. A group of friends who come to a distant farm to celebrate a bachelorette party get ambushed by a bunch of robbers. They scream and yell and go to extremes to survive the night. It is a home invasion movie combined with slasher horror elements.

In this article, I will deconstruct its plot and explain its ending.

Fear The Night (2023) Plots Summary & Movie Synopsis:

A woman appears on a cliffside road, bleeding. We go back 24 hours earlier. The same woman is looking for something in the trunk. Another woman, Beth, confronts her and reprimands her for foraging in her home without her permission. The woman, Tess, comes down to meet Beth’s friends. They have an awkward chat, after which Tess reluctantly agrees to take them to the farm she is going to be with Beth. Three hours later, they stop at a general store where we meet Mia and a girl. They have been friends since high school and have gathered to attend Rose’s bachelorette party on the farm. A group of guys passes comments on them when Tess comes and mocks one of them by revealing her military background. While leaving, she scratches one of the cars in the lot.

When they arrive at the location, Beth and Tess spot two men across the road in front of a red car. They guess they are caretakers and leave with the others inside. The two men gawk at them. Three hours later, they assemble on the lawn to party. Rose, who is Tess and Beth’s sister, greets them and joins them. Subsequently, Beth visits the house across the street where the two men stood earlier. She enters, and a phone starts ringing. The two men arrive and talk about finishing some assignment while Tess hides under the bed. The man talks to her sister on the phone, and Tess escapes, finding an opportunity to do so.

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In the house, Beth catches Tess interrogating the chef. Tess suspects something fishy about those guys, much to Beth’s annoyance. It is their father’s ancestral home, and Beth reassures her about their safety which doesn’t go well with her. At night, the chef brings food and starts stripping for the ladies. Tess sits on the stairs of the porch, drinking alone. Rose comes out and joins Tess, which further angers Beth. She lashes out at Tess for ruining the party she threw for Rose. Suddenly an arrow comes out of nowhere and pierces Rose’s chest. Beth becomes agitated while Tess brings her inside. The stripper gets shot in the eye with an arrow and dies.

They switch off the lights and discuss plans to defend themselves when they realize they don’t have phone signals. They start gathering weapons comprised of home and kitchen appliances. Tess goes upstairs to check on Esther but finds her corpse hanging from the open window. Divya accuses Tess of faulty decision-making. Tess tells her to take charge, which slackens Divya. Then, Tess stealthily walks out and kills one of the attackers, Billy, and comes back in.

Meanwhile, The leader of the assailants arrives and warns the women to surrender or get killed. Tess signals them not to obey him as he could be lying. The other women question Tess and Beth about the thing inside the house they are after. Both of them deny any knowledge of such an item. The leader tells another attacker that he will kill the woman who killed Billy and toy with the other before killing them all. Tess plans to send one of them running toward the house across the road. It has a landline connection. She would follow that person to nab the attacker and reach the toolshed to get some weapons. Mia volunteered for this task as she was a track-field runner in school. Before leaving, she tells Tess she has a longtime crush on her.

Mia reaches the house but finds the landline disconnected. An attacker approaches, but she hits him repeatedly with stone decoration and runs away into the dark. At the party farm, someone knocks at the door. Hoping it’s Tess, Divya opens the door, and instantly an arrow pierces her mouth. The attackers enter and threaten to kill them if they don’t reveal where they stashed money.

Meanwhile, Tess finds the two caretakers tied to the chairs with plastic bags wrapped across their heads. One of them is alive and requests Tess to cut him out. He tells Tess they have been taking drugs on her father’s farm, and these men wanted the money they hid in the attic. When they came here, he told them the women were their girlfriends, who helped in their drug dealing. Hence they raided the home.

Tess agrees to untie him only if he promises to help them. He seems to agree. But when she unties him, he tries to flee. An attacker kills him mid-path and confronts Tess. She kills him and moves toward the home. The attackers ask about the drug money, but one of the women tells him they know nothing about it. They were having a bachelorette party. He asks Tess’s whereabouts, to which she says she is outside. He kills that woman and tells the other men that they can rape the other two remaining after he retrieves the money.

The African American girl offers a blowjob to one of the attackers. Despite the other’s warning to do it later, he agrees to let her pleasure him. Tess hides behind the door while she unzips his pants. Simultaneously, the African American girl attacks the man between the legs with a sharp object, and Tess hits the other with an axe. Beth comes from behind and suffocates the man bleeding between the legs. Tess tells them to leave as soon as he dies. Tess goes upstairs and confronts the leader. She tells him they had nothing to do with the money. They were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. He agrees to let her go if she turns back and walks away in the opposite direction. She reveals her intent to kill him and attacks him. After some struggle, she succeeds in killing him.

At the police station, the sheriff interrogates and behaves rudely with her. He refuses to believe her story and orders her never to step foot in this area. Tess complies and meets Beth and the African American girl in the lobby. Then she moves out, scratches the Sheriff’s car with her keys, sits in Mia’s car, and they drive away.

Fear the Night (2023) Movie Ending, Explained:

Why does tess remain distant from the friend circle.

Tess is an ex-military officer who served in the war. Her experience has made her bitter toward her sister and her friends. She has a deep mistrust of men and suspects everyone she encounters on the journey. Her background has made her a constantly restless figure who is always ready for combat. She smells even the slightest odor of terror and goes all guns blazing.

Why does Sheriff not believe Tess’ testimony?

To save her sister and the remaining survivors from further trauma and assessment, she leaves out some details in the story and fills in with her imagination. She is quite capable of tackling the men herself, but she omits the other’s participation as much as she can, making her story a bit difficult to digest. Her testimony demands a bit more plausibility, which she forsakes in favor of her sister’s and other friends’ dignity. Also, the sheriff is slightly orthodox and chauvinistic in his mannerism and cannot believe the women single-handedly took on the attackers. He suspects them of mischief and orders them never to step foot in this territory ever again.

Why does Tess cry in the car?

Tess reunites with Mia, who has a crush on her. She holds Tess’ hands to comfort her. Tess lost her sister Rose in the previous night’s ambush—her suffering and trauma of war increase after the recent loss of someone so close to her. Last night’s ordeal has taken a toll on her, and she cries to put herself at ease.

Fear the Night (2023) Movie Links: IMDb , Rotten Tomatoes , Wikipedia Cast of Fear the Night (2023) Movie: Maggie Q, Kat Foster, Travis Hammer, Gia Crovatin Fear the Night (2023) Movie Genre – Action/Mystery & Thriller, Runtime – 1h 32m

Where to watch fear the night, trending right now.

Pranjal is a theatre artist and an avid cinephile, he loves to read and write about films from around the world.

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[Movie Review] FEAR THE NIGHT

July 26, 2023 July 26, 2023
Jessica Scott

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, FEAR THE NIGHT being covered here wouldn’t exist.

At their most striking, Neil LaBute ’s films are like obsidian: sharp, brittle, and pitch black. But very little of that style is evident in his new thriller FEAR THE NIGHT . A serviceable but ultimately forgettable home invasion story, the film rests primarily on the shoulders of its star Maggie Q . She can always be counted on to elevate any project she’s in, but she deserves more roles where she doesn’t have to do that kind of heavy lifting. FEAR THE NIGHT leaves her stranded, refusing to go far enough with its ideas to leave a lasting impression.

Q plays Tes, an Iraq war veteran dealing with alcoholism and family strife at her sister’s bachelorette party. Q is always a captivating screen presence, and her portrayal of Tes is no exception: she plays the character with hidden reserves of strength, humor, and intelligence that keep your eyes glued to the screen to see what she does next. When armed men attack the remote farmhouse where the party is being held, Tes must lead the women and try to make sure they all survive the night.

It’s an ostensibly queer and feminist story — several (if not all) of the women are queer, with queer relationships playing a far more important role than heteronormative ones. But all of the relationships feel perfunctory, including the strained bond between Tes and her other sister Mia ( Kat Foster ), which provides most of the film’s tension leading up to the farmhouse attack.

LaBute’s influence

Given LaBute’s reputation (Google his name and the three adjectives that pop up the most frequently are “cynical,” “misanthropic,” and “misogynist”), ascribing feminist intent may seem a fool’s errand. The women band together to fight off the men, and the dialogue pays lip service to the gender dynamics at play during the attack — Noelle ( Ito Aghayere ) gives voice to the very real fear that she and her friends will be raped, and the men’s dialogue later validates that fear in no uncertain terms. But there’s a queasy hollowness to the film’s brand of female empowerment that makes the omnipresent fear of sexual violence disturbing in a way that feels exploitative and cruel rather than simply true-to-life.

It’s ironic, then, that FEAR THE NIGHT is at its best when it leans into LaBute’s twisted sense of humor. A violent home invasion story unfolding with a “SAME PENIS FOREVER” banner hanging in the background is wryly funny, as is the ruthless and immediate death of a character who steps up to save the day. These moments are few and far between, though. There is little in the way of suspense or riveting action, and LaBute can’t quite match his own sensibilities with the mash-up of You’re Next and Revenge that he seems to be aiming for.

Many horror fans likely know LaBute from his remake of The Wicker Man , which is an experience that no amount of screaming Nicolas Cage gifs can truly prepare you for. To me, however, LaBute will always be the writer-director responsible for In the Company of Men , an exploration of gender politics that made a lasting (and nauseating) impression on me at age 14. The biggest shock in FEAR THE NIGHT came, not from anything that happened on screen, but from my decision at about the hour mark to pause the film and look up the name of its writer.

FEAR THE NIGHT barely explores the surface

Mia (Gia Crovatin) is planning to make a run for it, and she asks the other women if anyone has a hair tie. It immediately reminded me of a similar moment in Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) , when Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) cheerfully offers Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett) a hair tie during a fight. At the time, many female critics pointed to that small beat as an example of the lived-in authenticity you get when a female writer and director (Christina Hodson and Cathy Yan, respectively) helm a movie about female superheroes.

But it feels jarring and, once again, perfunctory in FEAR THE NIGHT , as if the script were trying to hit a quota of Genuine Female Experiences™ rather than presenting fully realized characters. So I paused to see who had written it, and to my shock, LaBute’s name popped up.

His film makes overtures toward being queer and feminist in nature, but it never commits. Likewise, it starts to explore an intriguing idea that has always nagged me about stories like this, but it backs away before it actually does anything interesting. The film tiptoes up to the fear that most women (especially women of color like Tes and Noelle) would have in situations like this: will the police believe my story when I have to explain what happened? Will they recognize that I am a victim who needs protection and support, or will I be unfairly punished for defending myself? Unfortunately, FEAR THE NIGHT is content merely to acknowledge the existence of such agonizing questions without offering anything else in the way of commentary or narrative.

Shallow and unsatisfying, FEAR THE NIGHT is an adequate home invasion thriller that could have been so much more. With a magnetic lead in Maggie Q and fascinating questions on its mind, LaBute’s film has the potential to be a tight genre exercise that delves into issues of gender, sexuality, violence, and power. But it turns away from interesting choices at every turn, leaving a generic, half-baked thriller behind.

FEAR THE NIGHT is now in theaters and available on demand and Digital.

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'the beast' jumps from 1910, to 2014, to 2044, tracking fear through the ages.

Justin Chang

Gabrielle and Louis (Léa Seydoux and George MacKay) meet in 1910 Paris, 2014 Los Angeles and again in 2044 in The Beast . Carole Bethuel/Kinology hide caption

Gabrielle and Louis (Léa Seydoux and George MacKay) meet in 1910 Paris, 2014 Los Angeles and again in 2044 in The Beast .

There's no easy way to sum up the work of the brilliant and maddening French writer-director Bertrand Bonello. In recent years, he's made a zombie thriller rooted in Haitian voodoo lore and an unconventional biopic of Yves Saint-Laurent. His most controversial title, Nocturama , is a hangout movie about a group of French youth carrying out terrorist attacks around Paris. Bonello's films have a unique way of blurring the intellectual and the aesthetic: Their gorgeous surfaces are often loaded with troubling and provocative ideas.

His latest movie is called The Beast , and it's one of the best and least classifiable things he's ever done. It's a wildly original adaptation of the 1903 Henry James novella The Beast in the Jungle , about a man who dwells in a constant state of fear.

James' story is a cautionary tale about the dangers of being too cautious, of not embracing life and love to the fullest. Bonello takes this premise and spins it in several unexpected directions. First, he recasts the hesitant protagonist as a woman, named Gabrielle, played by the wonderful Léa Seydoux. Then he positions her in three different stories, set in three time frames, and suffused with elements of horror, mystery and science fiction. It's easier to follow than it sounds: Even when it's not entirely clear where or when we are, Bonello's filmmaking is so hypnotic, and Seydoux's performance so subtly mesmerizing, that you can't help getting caught up in the flow.

'Zombi Child': When The Real Horror Is Colonialism

The first story is the one that most closely resembles the novella. It's 1910, and Gabrielle is a renowned pianist who has a run-in at a Paris salon with a gentleman named Louis, played by the English actor George MacKay. In a setup that evokes the confounding 1961 classic Last Year at Marienbad , Gabrielle and Louis seem to vaguely recall having met before. There's a clear attraction between them, but Gabrielle, who's married, resists pursuing it. Her restraint will cost her in a climax that coincides with a real-life Parisian catastrophe, the Great Flood of 1910.

'Saint Laurent,' A Radical Man Of Fashion

The second story takes place in Los Angeles in 2014, and has some of the eerie menace of David Lynch 's masterpiece Mulholland Dr. Gabrielle is now an aspiring model and actor who's been housesitting for a wealthy Angeleno. Rattled by a violent earthquake one morning, she steps outside and runs into Louis, who's now a deeply disturbed incel who's been posting misogynist video rants online.

MacKay is utterly terrifying as this Louis, who's modeled on a man who killed six people in 2014 in Isla Vista, Calif. What makes this second segment so chilling is that, unlike in the novella, the protagonist's fear is not unfounded. The beast stalking Gabrielle is all too real.

The third story is the most elusive and intriguing. It's set in 2044, when the world is run by AI. Gabrielle plays a human who, to join the work force, must undergo a process that will rid her of her emotions. This segment, with its shades of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , explains the framework of the entire movie: It turns out that the 1910 and 2014 sections are remnants of Gabrielle's past lives, now being purged from her subconscious.

Bonello doesn't tell the stories one at a time; he jumps around and among them. He's tracking the sources of human alienation and anxiety through the ages, asking why, in every era, we find ways to disengage from life and the people around us. The movie is especially insightful about how technology evolves. Each chapter features an artificial human companion of sorts: a line of baby dolls in 1910, a talking doll in 2014, a robot friend in 2044. Along the way, Bonello also asks questions about the future of movies, a medium so overrun with CGI that it's become harder to tell what's real from what isn't.

As grim as The Beast sounds, it isn't entirely pessimistic about the state of the world. I left the movie feeling disturbed but also enthralled, and strangely reassured by Seydoux's presence in all three stories. The futuristic Gabrielle may have to divest herself of her feelings, but Seydoux's emotions are always within reach. The more unreal her surroundings become, the more hauntingly human her performance feels.

Late Night with the Devil invites a demon onto a 70s talk show, with disastrous consequences

On a TV set, a young girl is strapped to a chair. Her nose is blleding, and three people look on concerned.

Lights. Camera. Possession. In Late Night with the Devil, a 1970s talk show host hungry for number one ratings invites a set of paranormal oddities onto a Halloween-themed episode: What could possibly go wrong?

Night Owls is hosted by Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian, Oppenheimer ), a quick-witted, affable talent facing cancellation after rough years of declining numbers and personal tragedy, with his wife dying of lung cancer despite never smoking. Eager to take Johnny Carson's No.1 ratings spot, desperation sees Jack take on increasingly outlandish segments.

Hence the doomed 1977 Halloween episode with a psychic (Fayssal Bazzi), sceptic (Ian Bliss), and a parapsychologist (Laura Gordon), as well as her subject/adopted daughter Lily (Ingrid Torelli), the lone survivor of a cult's mass suicide who may or may not be possessed by a demon she calls Mr Wriggles.

A tilted close up of a man screaming, with a spiralling hypnotising board behind him.

We learn this context via Late Night's mockumentary opening, a montage of Jack's stunts combined with archival footage of the Vietnam War and the Jonestown massacre, alongside footage of Jack attending The Grove, a shadowy, possibly occultist woodland gathering for America's elite, based off the very real Bohemian Grove Club.

As the narrator (horror legend Michael Ironside) surmises with a generalisation usually reserved for Netflix true crime documentaries: the 70s was "a time of fear and violence".

It's a succinct framing that sets up Late Night's action as a long-lost tape of Night Owls' infamous, deadly episode, now presented to the public with BTS footage between ad breaks.

An inventive riff on found-footage horrors — popularised by the Blair Witch Project and turned into blockbuster franchises by Paranormal Activity and V/H/S — Late Night has a lot of fun with its 70s setting and tropes.

While not as outright frightening as the above found-footage films, Late Night is unsettling as the tension rises and rises. Best of all, it's 87 minutes — a trim, suspenseful watch where every moment builds to the bloody end.

Written and directed by Australian brothers Colin and Cameron Cairnes (Scare Campaign; 100 Bloody Acres), it's as much an ode to late night TV's quirks as to horror kingpins Brian De Palma, Cronenberg and Friedkin.

A man rests his right arm on a clunky TV camera. He's wearing a light brown suit, looking concerned.

The Cairnes say the film was inspired by a moment from Australia's 1970s late night program The Don Lane Show, where the host stormed off-stage when a magic sceptic ruined a spoon-bending trick.

You don't need the devil for late night to feel dangerous; the electricity and chaos of live television is a perfect setting for demonic disruption.

The set, tinted with warm browns and oranges, is a wonderful time-piece, complimented by the camera's 70s fuzz.

These are contrasted with the high-definition, black-and-white BTS shots, where Jack shrugs off concerns as his producer informs him of their high ratings and someone shouts "Where's my sacrificial dagger? We're on in 60 seconds!".

Black bars surround a low-light TV image of a woman holding a relic up in protection from a girl strapped in a chair.

Late Night doesn't forget that Night Owls is, even during a Halloween episode, ultimately a comedy show. Jack's pop-references may be dated, but his banter with right-hand band leader Gus (Rhys Auteri) can be genuinely funny – same with the awkward pauses during audience interactions or mistakes. It's a shame that Late Night used AI-generated imagery to create three of Night Owl's logos and interstitials, as using technology that rips from artist's original works goes against the film's evident care and consideration in its world-building.

Those tempted to boycott the film, as a small group of artists and film lovers have done, are missing out on an otherwise exciting, unique horror, at a time where the box office doesn't always reward innovation. The film hasn't suffered as a result, having already made $US10 million ($15.5 million) globally.

Besides, nobody watches Seth Meyers for the set. A Late Night show is only as good as its host, and Dastmalchian, typically cast in small, unnerving roles (The Dark Knight; Suicide Squad; The Boogeyman), excels.

Jack is constantly at risk of letting his television persona slip — Dastmalchian's smile rarely fades, but his black eyes dart back and forth as if trying to escape their own emptiness. A deep, uncomfortable hunger lurks beneath his faux warmth, likely the exact reason he can't best Carson without cheap tricks. He's the type of celebrity you can't help but strongly distrust, despite their fun and friendly airs.

This film was made in Melbourne, and Dastmalchian is matched by Late Night's otherwise all-Australian cast. In particular, Ingrid Torelli (Bloom; The Dry 2 ) as Lily is completely unnerving as we see both the girl underneath, terrified, and the demon within, terrifying, in the same beats.

Black bars surround an image of four people in chairs on set of a talk show. A young girl looks directly into the camera.

Once she's introduced, Late Night trades in tension building for action, speeding up to the inevitable end but offering a few surprises along the way — including a body horror moment straight from Existenz.

Not shying away from its influences, Late Night with the Devil jumbles together familiar tropes and figures – the Faustian bargain for fame meets The Exorcist meets Letterman – with a great understanding of their respective appeals.

While the final scenes might slightly over-explain its ending, overall this is clever filmmaking that doesn't announce its cleverness, instead focusing on fun, spooky entertainment. In a way, it achieves exactly what Jack wanted.

Late Night with the Devil is in cinemas now

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'Really productive and cathartic psychological work': Is our love of horror good for us?

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Kirsten Dunst says 'there's never been a movie' like Civil War

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Critic’s notebook: the compellingly packaged cowardice of ‘civil war’.

Despite its sheen of boldness, Alex Garland’s film cowers in fear from the divisions that surely inspired the movie in the first place, missing an opportunity to say something important.

By Eisa Nefertari Ulen

Eisa Nefertari Ulen

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Kirstin Dunst in Alex Garland's 'Civil War.'

Tense, disturbing, riveting, Alex Garland’s dystopian film Civil War examines an existential threat preying on the American sub-conscious: What would happen if the political and social divisions cleaving the United States ultimately collapse the nation into the abyss? What if the wars of rhetoric, of culture, of values, cause a series of irreparable breaks, whole states secede and we descend into an actual war?

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2024: The Year Religious Horror Took Center Stage

2024 has emerged as a standout year for religious horror films, with titles like Immaculate , Late Night With the Devil , and The First Omen receiving largely positive reviews. These films delve into deep-rooted traditions and beliefs to weave terrifying tales that resonate with audiences and critics alike. This genre, already rich with lore and depth, taps into the universal themes of faith and fear to create compelling narratives.

By Sadie Watkins

The Witch : Colonial Superstitions Meet Modern Fears

The Witch , directed by Robert Eggers, set in 17th-century New England, follows a Puritan family exiled over a religious dispute. Isolated and vulnerable, they face malevolent forces in the surrounding woods. The film is a psychological thriller that intertwines colonial fears with contemporary horror elements. Anya Taylor-Joy’s breakout role as the family’s eldest daughter, Thomasin, alongside the sinister antics of the demonic goat Black Phillip, anchors the film’s haunting atmosphere.

The Omen: A Religious Horror Classic

Richard Donner’s The Omen from 1976 remains a monumental film in the religious horror category. The plot centers around American diplomat Robert Thorn, played by Gregory Peck, who unknowingly adopts the Antichrist — a child named Damien. The horror unfolds as Thorn discovers the true origins of his son, culminating in a narrative rich with suspense and terror. The film’s influence is extensive, spawning remakes, sequels, and a prequel, The First Omen , which explores the sinister conspiracies leading to Damien’s birth.

The Wailing: Mystery and Spiritual Quest

The Wailing , a South Korean film by Na Hong-jin, blends religious themes with thriller elements to explore a mysterious illness that sweeps through a rural village, causing the afflicted to turn violently against their loved ones. The film starts with a biblical quote and evolves into a deep investigation of faith, superstition, and ethics. Director Na Hong-jin crafted this story following personal tragedies, questioning the reasons behind innocent suffering, which adds a profound layer to the narrative.

Frailty: Southern Gothic Biblical Horror

Bill Paxton’s Frailty , released in 2002 , presents a narrative centered around a man convinced he has been divinely tasked to destroy demons masquerading as humans. This sleeper hit combines biblical horror with Southern Gothic elements, exploring themes of divine justice and the terror of an unpredictable deity. The film’s chilling storyline and atmospheric tension offer a unique take on the religious horror genre.

These films showcase the complexity and depth of religious horror, intertwining supernatural frights with serious questions about faith and morality. They entertain while also provoking thought, merging traditional beliefs with modern horror elements to create an intense and unforgettable cinematic experience. 2024 has proven that religious horror remains a potent and evocative genre, capable of drawing both new audiences and seasoned aficionados.

Based on content from www.time.com

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COMMENTS

Fear the Night movie review & film summary (2023)
With "Fear the Night," LaBute clearly aims to push viewers' buttons, especially using the oft-repeated threat of sexual violence. Some dramatic irony mildly re-casts the movie's otherwise formulaic conflict in a harsher light, but not much gets complicated by this extra knowledge, especially not LaBute's tin-eared dialogue nor his indifferent direction.
Fear the Night
Rated: 1/4 Jul 21, 2023 Full Review Chad Collins Dread Central Bloody, funny, and cathartic, Fear the Night is a wickedly violent showcase for Maggie Q. Rated: 4/5 Apr 1, 2024 Full Review Jessica ...
Fear the Night
Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 1, 2024. Jessica Scott Nightmarish Conjurings. Shallow and unsatisfying, Fear the Night is an adequate home invasion thriller that could have been so much ...
Fear the Night Movie Review
The movie is clearly on the side of the women, but. Positive Role Models. Military trained and hyperalert to anything that s. Diverse Representations. Eight female main characters are a strong, diverse. Violence & Scariness. Strong, bloody violence, much of it directed again. Sex, Romance & Nudity. Racy sex talk during a party game ("hand job ...
'Fear the Night' Review: Party Raid
Perhaps the kindest thing to do is pretend this dud never happened; it certainly worked for the Farrelly brothers' "Dumb and Dumber To.". Fear the Night. Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 32 ...
Fear The Night Review: Maggie Q Rises Above A Simplistic Action-Thriller
Fear the Night's production is overly simplistic, which accentuates how straightforward the narrative is. The setting is not utilized well enough to create suspense or thrills. The villains are comically ineffectual, making Tess's heroics feel less effective. The action is hardly compelling, often feeling repetitive and uncomplicated.
Fear the Night Review
Fear the Night Review - Maggie Q can't save a so-so home invasion thriller. Fear the Night often threatens to become the type of movie it's trying to slyly subvert, but a solid Maggie Q performance and some fun-ish surprises help it along. This review of Fear the Night (2023) does not contain spoilers. Fear the Night is the kind of bad ...
Fear the Night (2023)
Fear the Night: Directed by Neil LaBute. With Maggie Q, Ito Aghayere, Philip Burke, James Carpinello. Follows Iraqi war veteran Tess, as she prepares to strike back after a group of home invaders attack during her sister's bachelorette party, and she discovers that they are hellbent on not leaving any witnesses behind.
Fear the Night review
Movies. This article is more than 6 months old. Review. Fear the Night review - Neil LaBute on losing streak with atrocious home invasion thriller. This article is more than 6 months old.
Fear the Night (2023)
Fear the Night, 2023. Written and Directed by Neil LaBute. Starring Maggie Q, Kat Foster, James Carpinello, Gia Crovatin, Travis Hammer, Ito Aghayere, Highdee Kuan, Kirstin Leigh, Laith ...
Fear the Night
Release Date Jul 21, 2023. Duration 1 h 32 m. Genres. Action. Horror. Thriller. Eight women attend a bachelorette party at a remote farmhouse in the California hills. They are interrupted by the arrival of masked intruders who surround the place and begin shooting arrows at the home and the guests. One partygoer—Tess, a military veteran who ...
Fear the Night Review
Fear The Night Review: Never Fear, Maggie Q Is Here ... Those were B movies, to be sure, and Fear the Night feels like another one. Hey, there's room for all kinds of "art" on screen.
Neil LaBute directed "FEAR THE NIGHT"
"Fear the Night" is a new action/thriller starring the always watchable Maggie Q as Tess, an alcoholic Iraq War veteran who is forced to battle violent and murderous home invaders. With its well-worn action genre plot in place, the film becomes (occasionally) something more interesting than it should be thanks to its writer/director Neil LaBute.
Fear the Night (2023) Review
Jim Morazzini. Fear the Night opens with a confrontation, though not the kind you might expect from a home invasion thriller. Tes (Maggie Q, The Protégé, Death of Me) is going through a trunk full of scrapbooks in the attic when her sister Beth (Kat Foster, A Spoonful of Sugar, Gasoline Alley) appears and snaps at her for going through her stuff.
Fear the Night (film)
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 30% of 30 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 4.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "Despite typically strong work from Maggie Q, Fear the Night is a fairly generic and disappointingly tension-free thriller from writer-director Neil LaBute."
Fear the Night Review: A Thriller with Missed Potential
Neil LaBute's Fear the Night delivers a tense and suspenseful narrative centered around a nightmarish bachelorette party. With a promising setup and an intriguing protagonist, the film initially keeps viewers on the edge of their seats. However, as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the movie suffers from a lack of direction, uneven pacing, and unresolved plotlines.
Fear the Night Ending Explained
Neil LaBute's Fear the Night is a home-invasion thriller attempting to slyly subvert home-invasion thrillers and some of their sillier tropes. It's only variably successful, mostly thanks to a sturdy Maggie Q performance, but it crams some twists and turns into its 90-minute runtime, delivering a fair number of grisly deaths as well.. Plot-wise, here's the general idea.
Fear the Night (2023)
Fear the Night, 2023. Directed by Neil LaBute. Starring Maggie Q, Ito Aghayere, Philip Burke, James Carpinello, Travis Hammer, Kat Foster, and Highdee Kuan. SYNOPSIS: Eight women at a bachelorette ...
Fear the Night (2023): Movie Ending, Explained
Fear The Night (2023) Plots Summary & Movie Synopsis: A woman appears on a cliffside road, bleeding. We go back 24 hours earlier. The same woman is looking for something in the trunk. Another woman, Beth, confronts her and reprimands her for foraging in her home without her permission. The woman, Tess, comes down to meet Beth's friends.
Fear the Night Review
Arrow in the Head reviews Fear the Night, a home invasion thriller starring Maggie Q and directed by Neil LaBute. By Cody Hamman. July 18th 2023, 11:30am. PLOT: A bachelorette party being held in ...
[Movie Review] FEAR THE NIGHT
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, FEAR THE NIGHT being covered here wouldn't exist. At their most striking, Neil LaBute 's films are like obsidian: sharp, brittle, and pitch black. But very little of that style is evident in his new thriller ...
Movie Review
Read the original post here: Flickering Myth Fear the Night, 2023. Directed by Neil Labute. Starring Maggie Q, Ito Aghayere, Philip Burke, James Carpinello, Travis Hammer, Kat Foster, and Highdee Kuan. Synopsis: Eight women at a bachelorette party in a secluded house are targeted by a gang of rednecks and must try and survive the night. Fear the Night is a home invasion movie that promises ...
Movie Review
Read the original post here: Flickering Myth Fear the Night, 2023. Written and Directed by Neil Labute. Starring Maggie Q, Kat Foster, James Carpinello, Gia Crovatin, Travis Hammer, Ito Aghayere, Highdee Kuan, Kirstin Leigh, Laith Wallschleger, KeiLyn Durrel Jones, Treisa Gary, Roshni Shukla, and William Roth. Synopsis: Follows Iraqi war veteran Tes, as she prepares to strike back after a ...
'Abigail' review: Melissa Barrera and 'Scream' directors find clever
A dual attempt to breathe life into the vampire and haunted-house genres, "Abigail" could have been called "Don't Tell Mom the Kid I'm Babysitting's Dead." The simple premise ...
'The Beast' review: A wildly original adaptation of a Henry James ...
The movie is especially insightful about how technology evolves. Each chapter features an artificial human companion of sorts: a line of baby dolls in 1910, a talking doll in 2014, a robot friend ...
Horror movie 'Late Night With the Devil' earns eerie amount ...
The film, which hit theaters March 22, earned a total of $2.8 million during its entire opening weekend. In doing so, it also gave IFC Films its biggest opening weekend ever, shattering the ...
Late Night with the Devil
October 31, 1977. Johnny Carson rival Jack Delroy hosts a syndicated late night talk show 'Night Owls' that has long been a trusted companion to insomniacs around the country. A year after the tragic death of Jack's wife, ratings have plummeted.
Late Night with the Devil invites a demon onto a 70s talk show, with
What: Australian horror where demonic forces are invited onto a 70s talk show, broadcast live. Starring: David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Fayssal Bazzi, Ingrid Torelli. When: In cinemas now ...
The Cowardice of Alex Garland's 'Civil War': Critic's Notebook
Despite its sheen of boldness, Alex Garland's film cowers in fear from the divisions that surely inspired the movie in the first place, missing an opportunity to say something important. By Eisa ...
2024: The Year Religious Horror Took Center Stage
2024 has emerged as a standout year for religious horror films, with titles like Immaculate, Late Night With the Devil, and The First Omen receiving largely positive reviews. These films delve ...

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