Review #280: Night Shift (2023)

Gabe's Supplemental Horror Review #3 - Night Shift (2023)

I found this movie while browsing various "Best Horror Films of 2023" lists looking for something to watch with my wife, and this one caught my eye instantly because of the setting and premise: Gwen, a girl in need of a fresh start, takes a last-minute job at a rundown roadside motel. As she makes her way through her first night, she finds out the hotel may be haunted- but are they ghosts of her past, or just ghosts?

I'm a sucker for a good ghost story, doubly so if it's specifically a haunted building. And as a person who's spent a not-insignificant amount of time working at a hotel, I know how spooky things can get on a night shift when business is slow! So this one definitely grabbed me right from the start. I'll try not to give any direct spoilers, but I'll say that the premise unfortunately didn't carry the entire movie. The first half of it was fantastic- all of the scary scenes were adequately scary, there were plenty of background details and foreshadowing that I noticed that enhanced the experience, and the performances from all of the actors were right where they needed to be- but the last thirty minutes or so really lost my interest. 

There's a big subplot involving the main character's backstory that gets introduced past the halfway point that didn't really interest me as much as the filmmakers probably thought it would, and then a big twist happens near the end that I thought was actively worse than the initial premise of the movie. The twist would have been fine if it was a last-five-minutes reveal that takes us right into the end credits, but instead of just being a quick stinger to close out the film, it's basically the entire third act of the movie and it just wasn't compelling enough to merit so much screentime. We basically watch the logical progression of the twist play out, in excruciating detail, with one event going to the next event and then the next event and then the conclusion, and THEN we get a short stinger to close out the film that didn't really make any sense. (Do I just not understand the law side of business ownership? If the owner of a business dies can a random drifter just take control of the business by virtue of being last one on the premises? And is a literal fresh coat of paint all it takes to save a failing motel? I'm pretty sure the answer to these questions is "no" but what do I know, I'm just an unfrozen caveman lawyer.) 

There's also a character that I spent most of the film assuming was going to turn out to not be real (either a ghost, or a figment of someone's imagination, or something) and I really feel like the story was pointing hard in that direction, but if that was the case at one point, it must have been changed halfway through production because the last thirty minutes make it clear that is not the case (which then makes some of the "clues" I had been following really strange, borderline plot hole-ish, in the grand scheme).

I really felt this movie had promise, and like I said the first half of the film definitely grabbed me and was incredibly spooky, but then it just went off in a new direction that I simply didn't care for. This was the directorial debut of the China Brothers, so I would definitely want to follow their progress and see what their next film turns out to be, but taken on its own this one isn't as good as I wish it was.

Overall Rating: 5/10 Pho Deliveries to the Rescue

Rat Magic: These filmmakers would have us think that if you get pet rats wet, they magically look like feral sewer rats. It's not true! They're still adorable pet rats, they're just adorable WET pet rats!