Survive the Night is a 2020 American home invasion thriller about a disgraced doctor and his family who are held hostage at their home by criminals on the run when a robbery-gone-awry requires them to seek immediate medical attention.
Directed by Matt Eskandari (Hard Kill; Trauma Center; Feet Deep; Game of Assassins) from a screenplay written by Doug Wolfe (The Long Night). Produced by Alana Crow, Randall Emmett, George Furla, Shaun Sanghani and Mark Stewart.
The movie stars Bruce Willis (Apex; Deadlock; Midnight in the Switchgrass; Out of Death; Hard Kill; Cosmic Sin; Breach; Glass; Die Hard franchise).
It also stars Chad Michael Murray (Fortress; Ted Bundy: American Boogeyman; Camp Cold Brook; House of Wax), Shea Buckner, Tyler Jon Olson, Lydia Hull, Riley Wolfe Rach and Jessica Abrams.
Reviews:
“There’s no character development of any kind and the arcs are totally predictable. Of course, father and son will iron out their differences and Frank will finally respect Rich and apologize for being such an @sshole his whole life (“I want you to know that I was always proud of you!”). Survive the Night is utterly inessential even by VOD-era Willis standards, but it’s not the worst he’s done.” Good Efficient Butchery
“Survive the Night can only best express itself in close-ups of Mathias’ impressively nasty wound, or grunts and howls from the men who address their own surprise bullet holes. Willis’ supporting cast does some visible work to sell this frantic course of events, but Doug Wolfe’s script makes obvious its limited emotional range, with roughly a million moments where the brothers comfort each other with fantasies of a beach house in Mexico.” RogerEbert.com
“Since I’m a fan of the home invasion thriller subgenre, I was probably a bit more forgiving of Survive the Night’s shortcomings […] The film is surprisingly effective, reasonably efficient, and solidly entertaining […] Murray does a better than anticipated job in the hero role, and he and Willis make for a fairly solid team.” The Video Vacuum
“Jamie and Matty do speak some really good lines but the repetition of their motivations (a beach house in Mexico) and Matty’s constant reminder to Jamie not to kill any more of the family becomes laughable at times […] the pacing, unpredictability, characters, and unanimously strong performances (especially Buckner and Willis) do more than enough to keep eyes on the screen during Survive the Night.” Voices from the Balcony
“Survive the Night constantly passes up opportunities to build on minor momentum. There’s a narrow chance filmmakers could pull off this subdued approach to a home invasion thriller but, in that case, the film has to have fully fleshed-out characters or tension – the film doesn’t supply either. You’ll stick it out, waiting for the film to serve up a surprise, but Survive the Night only disappoints.” Wylie Writes
Cast and characters (in credits order):
Bruce Willis … Frank
Chad Michael Murray … Rich
Shea Buckner … Jamie
Tyler Jon Olson … Matthias
Lydia Hull … Jan
Riley Wolfe Rach … Riley
Jessica Abrams … Rachel
Ravare Elise Rupert … Alice
Jef Holbrook … Clerk
Charlie Alvarado … Nurse Carter
Natalie DiDonato … Clinic Nurse
Sara Lynn Holbrook … Woman in Store
Trailer:
