Director Rich Ragsdale reunites with Ghost House star Scout Taylor-Compton for another horror film in The Long Night from Vertical Entertainment. While searching for the parents she is never known, New York transplant Grace (Scout Taylor-Compton) returns to her childhood southern stomping grounds with her boyfriend Jack (Nolan Gerard Funk) to investigate a promising lead on her family’s whereabouts.
Upon arrival, the couple’s weekend takes a bizarre, terrifying turn as a nightmarish cult and their maniacal leader terrorize the pair en route to fulfilling a twisted ancient apocalyptic prophecy.
Robert Sheppe and Mark Young write the script for the film, which features many horror tropes that fans of the genre will recognize. The duo opens their movie, showing us Grace and Jack in a seemingly stable relationship before cutting away to a scene later in the film. From the film’s initial opening, I thought the film would be an enjoyable romp. Sadly, The Long Night may earn its way into my worst of 2022.
Elements of the home invasion thriller and a world-ending demonic plot carry The Long Night. Ragsdale tries his best to keep the film together, but the script does not know its angle to take the narrative ultimately. The moments of the film that echo home invasion are tense, and I would have preferred that is the route they go for the entire movie. When the film shifted to an unnatural angle, I lost interest.
Scream queen Scout Taylor-Compton tries her best to make the film work, but even her presence cannot save the film from turning into pointless mumbo jumbo. In the film’s third act, when genre actress Debora Kara Unger shows up with a connection to Scout Taylor-Compton ‘s character, I no longer cared about anyone’s motivation in the film.
As I always say, check out the film for yourself; however, I, for one, did not like The Long Night.
Final Grade : D-
The Long Night is available to stream now
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