The Long Night will be released on Blu-ray and DVD by Well Go USA on April 5th 2022. Special features:
Audio commentary by director Rich Ragsdale
The Birthing featurette
The Look featurette
The Score featurette
The Loop – 2019 short film directed by Rich Ragsdale
Trailer
Here is our previous coverage of The Long Night:
The Long Night is a 2022 American horror film about a young woman who returns to her childhood home in search of her parents.
Directed by Rich Ragsdale (Ghost House; The Curse of El Charro) from a screenplay co-written by Robert Sheppe (Ghost House 2) and Mark Young (Limbo; Feral; Wicked Blood; Tooth and Nail; Southern Gothic).
The movie stars Scout Taylor-Compton (A Stalker in the House; An Intrusion; Star Light; Halloween 2007), Nolan Gerard Funk (Ghost Light 2018; Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare; House at the End of the Street), Deborah Kara Unger (Jackals; The Hollow; Silent Hill and its sequel) and Jeff Fahey (Locked In; Atomic Shark; Body Parts; Psycho III).
Plot:
While searching for the parents she’s never known, New York transplant Grace (Scout Taylor-Compton) returns to her childhood southern stomping grounds with her boyfriend (Nolan Gerard Funk) to investigate a promising lead on her family’s whereabouts.
Upon arrival, the couple’s weekend takes a bizarre, terrifying turn as a nightmarish cult and their maniacal leader terrorize the pair en route to fulfilling a twisted ancient apocalyptic prophecy…
Our review:
The “it’s a Southern thing” and “good ole boys” cliches are laid on pretty heavily (although some are possibly intended to raise a smile?). Pretentious chapter titling hardly helps. Still, the horror imagery is plentiful, stylish and mostly effective despite a rather obvious plot trajectory.
Despite the lack of originality, at least the plot doesn’t hang about unlike many similar efforts. It’s much better than Rich Ragsdale’s dire Ghost House. That said, it does nothing new and there’s an overall ‘shrug shoulders’ aspect to the proceedings (possibly because there are only two imperilled protagonists and their fate seems inevitable, hence a lack of suspense).
Ultimately, it is a shame that The Long Night goes nowhere because for most of the movie it shows promise and Scout Taylor-Compton’s performance as Grace has some merit. That said, her “this ends, now!” assertion could have come sooner though…
Adrian J Smith, MOVIES & MANIA
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