VOD Review: Nightlight (2015)

For us, Found Footage flicks have evolved to the point where we go into them expecting them to suck, mainly because most POV flicks are sub-par efforts that do little more than re-tread the same ground that far better movies have already covered.

Once in a while though, a good one comes along that does it's job and scares us, or even better, gives us something worthy of spending 90 minutes of our time on. For that reason, we keep watching them, and hoping for the best.

In the case of Nightlight, we get a movie that tries its best to make the most out of its unique premise, but it never really maximizes its potential like it could have.

The Covington Forest is a place of local legend where a bunch of teenagers go to commit suicide. It's said that if you die there, that your spirit becomes a part of the woods, and you haunt the living for eternity, or something. Also, if you carve your name in a tree, the spirits kill you.There's also a church that you're not supposed to enter, because that's where the angry spirits live. All in all, it sounds like a great place to hang out and party at, especially in the middle of the night.

THERE'S ALSO A CHURCH, JUST IN CASE YOU FEEL LIKE PRAYING. 

After her good friend commits suicide, Robin heads into the very same woods where he took his life, to play a bunch of "flashlight games" with a group of cool kids from school. You see, she wants to be pretty and popular, so sitting around grieving for the loss of someone who killed themselves because he wasn't cool enough for her to hang with is just counterproductive to her goals, so off she goes!

ENJOY YOUR POPULARITY.

While in the woods, the thrill-seekers dodge trains, play tag, have a butter orgy, defile some graves, and eventually end up playing a game called Nightlight, which is just like hide-and-seek but for retarded people who are way too old to be playing hide-and-seek. It's not long though before they start showing the signs of possession, and dying off one by one, all while we're checking our watches wondering just how much longer it will be before the credits roll. Shaky Cam craziness ensues.

YEP, SHE'S STILL AWAKE.

Early on, Nightlight was a fairly watchable flick. We liked the way that the filmmakers set up the haunted lore of the Covington Woods, and the idea of a group of kids heading into them to play what essentially amounts to hide-and-seek with flashlights had a lot of creepy promise. We also have to say that having the flashlight provide the movie's POV was pretty neat too; it's always a good thing when the whole "Why are they still recording?!?" issue is absent from a Found Footage flick, so kudos to the producers for that bit.

The movie also has its share of intense moments, and Shelby Young was solid in the lead role.  

SHE'S A QT.

The main problem with Nightlight however is that it's a confused movie. People wander through the woods; shadowy creatures skulk around in the trees; people fall off of cliffs; a wolf pops out of nowhere and mean-mugs the camera; people are in one place, but then they're suddenly somewhere else in the forest; people get drowsy and fall asleep; bats attack; jarring and mysterious noises sound at random times; there's plenty of Shaky Cam; lights turn on and off; wolves howl; snakes lunge...

Obviously it's all supposed to be disorienting by design, but none of it never seems to fit together to make any sort of a coherent point. What exactly are the rules of this movie and its supernatural forces, and why couldn't it just make a tiny bit more straightforward sense? Was it the spirit of Robin's dead friend that was out to get them? And if they were keeping things vague and confused on purpose, then what was the point of the scene where two characters find a backpack with a paper inside that conveniently details the symptoms of possession, or the "I just wanted to feel pretty!" monologue?

AND WHY WOULD THIS DEMON WOLF STARE INTO A FLASHLIGHT TO BEGIN WITH?

Nightlight quickly goes from "this could be good" territory, to an all too familiar, jump scare, Shaky Cam-fueled mess in which kids run through the forest, pass out, and then die, because the tree ghosts are apparently mad. The dog, Hunter, or Hamper, or whatever the hell its name was, was the only living being in the forest with any sort of sense whatsoever, and no one listened to him when he was barking like mad. He knew what was going on. He knew.

HAMPER KNOWS SOMETHING'S UP, BUT EVERYONE ELSE IS JUST TOO BLIND TO SEE!

In concept, Nightlight is an interesting effort filled with some effective scenes and all sorts of potential. In execution however, it really all just feels like a bunch of random shit that was thrown together without much thought or care. If you scare easy, and if you don't mind movies that don't make a terrible amount of sense, you might just like this one. If so, rock on. If not, maybe wait until this one hits Netflix before giving it a go.

D+

Nightlight is available now on VOD.

Shelby Young, Chloe Bridges, and Taylor Murphy definitely lit up the darkness of Nightlight with their beauty.