MovieChat Forums > When Night Falls (2010) Discussion > what worked, what didn't... (SPOILERS)

what worked, what didn't... (SPOILERS)


i decided to check this film out after discovering the new zealand television series "this it not my life," which features tania nolan in a starring role.

there were a lot of things that i liked about this film: the locations, the slow pacing, ms. nolan's acting, the moody lighting, the sound design, some of the low camera angles...

for a film shot on digicam, it really looked good for the most part.

however, there were a lot of issues as well. the soundtrack was over-saturated with that silly theme. also, all the cut-away shots of the surrounding country side really took me out of the moment.

then, of course, there's your typical inexperienced film-maker with a digicam folly: close-ups using a wide-angle lens. i counted at least 4 of such close-ups that were warped, almost fish-eyed, because the wrong lens was used. i didn't mind it too much when ms. nolan's character locked herself in the bathroom, as it ws an intense moment and called for something expressionistic; however, in the other instances, it was merely a glaring amateurish mistake.

the biggest weakness, though, has to be the script. i found the first "twist" to be cliche. not only that, but i found it hard to believe that the nurses fought for so long before one of them decided to pick up the knife that was right beside them on the floor.

the second "twist," involving the accomplice, well, was that a twist? it was well established throughout the film that the killer was a doctor and that the nurse needed assistance to pull off some of the scare tactics (such as turning on the music).

i didn't mind the dialogue, as i found it to be believable; however, as someone with a background in medicine, i assure you that those nurses didn't have the faintest clue what they were doing. the writer-director probably should've done more research for the scenes involving the patient. there's more to nursing someone with a severe respiratory problem than feeling their pulse.

reply

I agree with you about what you liked, but I do disagree with you about what you didn't. Don't get me wrong, I don't feel that this is a masterpiece or anything [sorry Mr. Galvin :( ] But, I didn't have any real serious complaints about it.

I totally loved the moody atmospheric outdoor shots interspersed throughout the film; it added badly needed atmosphere. And, I did not in any way see the first 'twist' coming at all; I thought that was a great idea and was done quite well.

My ONLY real complaint, and it is more my personal thing, really; I'm sure that NO ONE else probably would be bothered by it, but I ABSOLUTELY HATE it when the sound design person feels that EVERY bloody sound that is made needs to be at full volume. GOD I hate that!!! Sorry, but when a person is pouring a drink across the bloody room you do NOT hear the liquid hitting the glass at full bloody volume! Also if a cat is purring on the floor, or in this case more obvious and GREATLY annoying (to me anyway) is when the cat is clear across the room, on the floor, you do NOT hear his chewing at frigg'n 100 decibels, at the same sound level at people talking and such. Man, as you likely can tell, I frigg'n HATE that. Now THAT takes me out of the film because you KNOW that those sounds are NOT at a NATURAL level in any way shape or form. I will say though, that most sound people that make these grating, unnatural sounding mistakes usually also make everyone's footsteps stupidly loud too so that you hear each and every step amplified. Fortunately, they did NOT fall into that at least in this film.

And, of course, throwing up into the camera...? Geez, do we always, Always, bloody frigg'n ALWAYS have to see that?!!! I mean, YES... THAT is grossly cliched and completely unnecessary, mainly because almost EVERY damn director feels that he has to put that in somewhere. Very tiresome. VERY distracting from the film.

But, other than these two neuroses on my part, I thought he did a very good job over all with such a simple story and setting. Regardless of money...

4000+ films! RARE trades. OOP '3rd MAN' & 'BIRD w/CRYSTAL PL' Blu-rays, etc Please ask!

reply

[deleted]

Ooh, sorry...

Thanks though!



I have over 4000 films, many of them very rare and OOP. I LOVE to trade. PLEASE ASK!

reply

[deleted]