Night People
“Night People” is something of an anthology film, in terms of structure, but it only deals with two main stories with a wrap-around framing scene. That scene has two would-be arsonists (Michael Parle and Nigel Brennan) waiting for a signal from an unseen third person before they torch the house they are in for the insurance money. In the interim, the older one (Parle’s Mike) convinces Brennan’s Luke to pass the time by telling stories. The stories they tell make up the bulk of the film, and they have some weird ones.
Writer-director Gerard Lough has a strong sense of style and mood that serves his film well, whether it’s during the framing scene with Mike and Luke or during the stories they tell. Admittedly, those stories go on a little too long, for my taste (a bit of trimming for pacing issues would have helped), but I like the film Lough has put together. If you’re a fan of genre storytelling, and anthology storytelling, this is definitely a good one to check out.
Lough has his characters tell two stories. The first one is Mike, and his story involves experimentation with an object that looks as though it can open a doorway to another dimension when it is happened upon by two people. H.P. Lovecraft is namechecked by one of the characters, but the film has an authenticity, as well as the authority of Mike’s storytelling, behind it that makes it something more than just a standard-issue genre story. This feels more like a part of the “hard sci-fi” and horror tradition than “Creepshow,” and while it feels a bit dry, and it is shot in a way that feels counter to the rest of the film, it’s an interesting look at the perils of dealing with technology you don’t necessarily understand.
The second story is Luke’s to tell, and it starts off seeming to be about a woman (Faustina, played by Claire Blennerhassett) who operates an interesting service from a hotel room for people who have interesting fetishes. She wants away from that life, however, and her interests lie with other creatures of the nightlife, and may, in fact, deal with becoming a creature of the night, in the Gothic horror definition of the phrase. Mike gets the sense that Luke is making the story up as he goes, and we get that sense to, but it actually feels more in tune to the idea of the main characters being “night people,” individuals whose best work is done in the evening, than the first one, and Blennerhassett is a striking presence in the film. This story also features a visual style that’s keeping with what Lough had established with the framing scenes between Mike and Luke, and that’s just another piece of the puzzle in how this film lures you in for the duration.
On the whole, the second story in the film is the best part of the film, although I do enjoy the moments between Mike and Luke, who are very different from one another, and those differences in personality are what make their scenes work. But I would definitely suggest Lough’s film to genre fans who enjoy something unusual and likes to take its time with the unfolding of its story, or stories, in this case. This has been a film in my queue for a while, and I’m grateful to have finally gotten to it.
