The Night Eats the World is a 2018 French horror film directed by Dominique Rocher from a screenplay co-written with Jérémie Guez and Guillaume Lemans, based on Pit Agarmen’s novel La nuit a dévoré le monde. The movie stars Anders Danielsen Lie, Dennis Lavant and Golshifteh Farahani.
Plot:
Sam wakes one morning to find himself living in a nightmare: an army of zombies have invaded the streets of Paris and he the lone survivor. While contemplating his bleak future and how to survive, he learns he may not be alone after all…
Reviews:
“I’m not usually a fan of zombie movies these days as I’ve seen Waaay too many by his point in my horror history, but I dug the absolute hell out of The Night Eats the World. Like writer-director Jeremy Gardner’s knockout feature debut The Battery, this zombie movie is much more concerned with how boring the zombie apocalypse is than with action and chainsaws – and I love this approach.” Arrow in the Head
“While Sam may not have many full conversations wherein he can express how he’s feeling, we can see it in the way his body gradually becomes more gaunt, in the ornate, visually compelling rituals he performs to maintain a sense of normalcy, and in his sheer desperation for companionship. Where The Night Eats the World stumbles in terms of messy dialogue (and some awkward delivery), it regains its footing with its imagery.” Bloody Disgusting
“It looks excellent and Rocher demonstrates a creative sense of structure to be sure. But simplicity stales quickly, drying the movie into a 90-minute apocalyptic redux that doesn’t seem to say much about the human condition, or the inhuman one for that matter.” Culture Crypt
“The film spends plenty of time exploring the minutiae of survival in this world. The plot takes longer to stagnate than one might expect, but it does eventually. The script doesn’t have the poetic gusto that it needs to carry the concept; and the protagonist, considering that we spend the whole film with him, could have been more compelling.” Daily Dead
” …the film is technically very proficient — kudos to production designer Sidney Dubois for artfully messing up all those fabulous Paris apartments — and has the gall to try something outside the known confines of the genre. Yet it ultimately feels too anticlimactic and lethargic.” The Hollywood Reporter
“Often with the quieter zombie movies there are only one or two zombies that are the focus. This one features swarms of them and the twist with these zombies is simple but really very unnerving. Keep an eye out for Alfred (Denis Lavant) as the most featured zombie, he is fantastic.” Horrorscreams Videovault
“Rocher’s approach is admittedly more stylish and cerebral than many zombie films, but he still embraces the core principles of the genre. Rocher also composes some eerie visuals of the de-populated Parisian neighborhood and the ferocious swarms of zombie masses.” J.B. Spins
Main cast and characters:
Anders Danielsen Lie … Sam
Golshifteh Farahani … Sarah
Denis Lavant … Alfred
Sigrid Bouaziz … Fanny
David Kammenos … Mathieu
Technical details:
93 minutes
Aspect ratio: 1.85: 1
