By Night’s End (2020)

“You’re a sergeant, it’s your job to lead people and to move us forward.” – Mark

Number of Times Seen – 1 (30 Sep 2020)

Brief Synopsis – A couple trying to get their marriage in order, discover an intruder in their house who is searching for a hidden fortune. After killing him in self defense, they decide to spend an hour searching for the treasure before calling the police.

My Take on it – This is a film that is able to take elements from other thrillers and blend them together in a fascinating way which helps make it so intriguing to watch unfold because it works on numerous levels.

Love the way that things start off from a point where these characters are all blank slates and they slowly develop them to a point where we can really care about what happens.

The way that they leave breadcrumbs of information for the viewer along the way helps pave the path for some of the things that happen later on in the story.

The pacing is done really well and they manage to keep things interesting and enjoyable to watch the whole way through.

The choice to use relatively unknown actors in these roles helps add a more realistic edge to the story because we can easily believe that these are typical people caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The one drawback of this film are the fight scenes which come across looking a bit too fake.

They are choreographed nicely, but it’s easy to see how rehearsed it all is. The fact that many of the punches look as if they don;t make contact is a bit problematic, but it can be expected from a low budget film.

The plot has some really fun twists and turns that pop up along the way and let us keep guessing how things will eventually play out while still keeping the suspense level quite high.

The plot is able to explore some really powerful philosophical psychological and mroal issues which constantly make the viewer wonder what they would do if they were ever in this kind of situation.

Bottom Line – Really fascinating story that works on numerous levels. The characters start off completely undeveloped but as the story unfolds, we get to learn some very insightful things about their lives that help with the tings that they need to do later on. The story unfolds in a very intriguing way and manages to stay quite interesting throughout. The choice to use unfamiliar actors helps make things feel more realistic. The fight scenes are the film’s biggest problem since they don’t look real enough and instead look too choreographed but that can be expected in a low budget film like this one. There are some very clever twists in the plot that help keep things quite thrilling throughout. The story explores some really poignant philosophical and moral issues and makes the viewer wonder what they might do in similar circumstances. Recommended!

Is set to be available on numerous streaming platforms on 6 Oct.

Rating – Globe Worthy (7/10)