Film

Nightwatch (1997)

Director: Ole Bornedal

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Ewan McGregor straight to video shocker! Danish director Bornedal was tempted by Miramax to remake his stylish 1994 chiller with American accents, and despite a screenplay credit to Steven Soderbergh, that's just what he's done. If it isn't shot-for-shot, it's near as makes no odds. McGregor is the law student who takes a job working nights as a guard in the city morgue, just as a psycho killer starts terrorising the community, and falls suspect himself. Creepy atmospherics and lots of dead meat make for a tense opening, but significant problems soon surface: McGregor's friendship with misogynist daredevil Brolin is not only a glaringly contrived red herring, but also effectively precludes our sympathy. Nice guys just don't allow themselves to be jerked off by hookers in public - not in America; and there's a nasty whiff about the treatment of women - dead or alive - that goes beyond grisly genre requirements.

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