Nightwatch

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.