By Night’s End!
Cast: Michelle Rose, Kurt Yue, Michael Aaron Milligan, Carlos Aviles
Critics Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5
Director/Writer: Walker Whited
Duration: 1 hour, 25 minutes
Genre: Thriller
Release Details: Released in US market via Tricoast Entertainment. TVOD – 10/6/2020
AVOD – Freevee, Redbox, Tubi, Vudu
SVOD – 2021 Prime
OTT – 2022 – Xumo, Local Now
Story
A couple wakes up in the night to a man searching for something in their home. After they are forced to kill him in self-defense, they decide to take one hour before calling the police to search for what they hope is a hidden fortune.
Review
Right from the start, director and co-writer Walker Whited makes sure you’re in the house on a night when whatever can go wrong, will. And that’s the crux of this one night saga when a couple struggling with a personal loss and professional issues, face an intruder situation. But unlike a regular American couple, these two decide to tackle it by taking the matters in their own hands. So, one wrong decision leads to another and soon the body count starts mounting in the house where a hidden booty is at the centre of all the mess.
Now, thrillers really have to loop logic in their story, but this one has a major flaw in the logic department. While it’s an exciting premise of an intruder versus two seemingly regular Americans trying to defend themselves, we cannot help but wonder as to why would they wait with a dead body in the house to look for the ‘stash of cash’? They could simply get the police in and then peacefully rummage through their own house till they find what they are looking for. But we would like to give Whited the benefit of the doubt and assume that he has left this part open to interpretation because other than that this one’s quite a thrilling experience.
The makers unravel the layers of its central characters and their story quite nicely, keeping us mostly on the edge of our seat. Michelle Rose and Kurt Yue play the oddball couple as Heather and Mark, respectively. As audience, you’d constantly be expected to take sides and choose whose decision you want to go with. Ultimately, both are in a doomed situation but it’s fun to watch the night fall apart with a series of thrilling and chaotic events. Rest of the cast is adequately good.
If you’re looking for an unusual crime thriller then this one checks most of the boxes. Watch it the genre fans on a cold night and thank us later!
ReviewRon 