Night

Independent cinema doesn’t get much more independent than Nicholas Michael Jacobs’ Night; a single-location, two-person character piece about a young girl and her sadistic balaclava-wearing kidnapper.

Abducted off the street at night, Judy (Gianna Jacobs) is tied to a chair and her mouth taped shut; forced to sit helplessly while kidnapper Adam (Mister Jacobs himself) confers with his live stream subscribers as to what he should do with her. She should be grateful for the film’s lack of a Special Effects budget – while Night is a grim, nasty little movie, it is restricted by an inability to show any real gore or dismemberment.

Still, Hostel-level splatter isn’t something that the film even really needs. Gianna Jacobs is so young that her situation and palpable fear is already discomforting enough for the audience, the sense of tension at fever point long before Adam breaks out the knives.

As such, the film plays to its strengths, keeping to a brisk 65 minute runtime (which, even then, is padded out with long, Funny Games-esque takes of nothing much happening at all) with minimal action or moving pieces. Shot entirely from the perspective of Adam’s webcam, it’s pure found footage and sticks with the conceit to the end.

Its flaws are somewhat inevitable then, including the dodgy acting and regrettable dialogue (it’s probably for the best that Judy’s mouth is taped up for most of the film), but entirely worth powering through for the impressive mood and atmosphere cultivated throughout the night.