Have I become more jaded in my older age? It was only last month that I gave the mostly dull cult horror The Long Night a six out of ten, and now, with Eric Boccio's similar cult horror Night of the B*stard (director of Brutal Reality, Inc, Night Terrorizer) I have planned to give it an even lower score, despite probably finding it that little bit more entertaining. I did have issues with this one though, which I shall go into more detail about later.
In the seventies a man and his heavily pregnant wife find themselves captured by a crazed devil worshipping cult, with both killed, but not before the cult leader cuts out the baby from the woman to take as her own. Forty years later and oddball recluse Reed (London May - Verotika - segment 'Change of Face', The Dark Knight Rises) has just chased a trio of partying young adults off his remote land out in the desert. This trio, who includes among them Kiera (Mya Hudson) soon stumble across an eclectic collection of cultists (led by Claire - Hannah Pierce) who promptly attack her and her friends. Kiera, sole survivor and heavily injured, but alive, flees back to Reed's property hoping the hermit can assist her, but is dismayed to discover he lives off grid and so can't call for help. Soon the two find Reed's home under siege by the cultists, who are determined to capture them both.
My biggest problem with this movie was both the poor script and the bizarre direction the actors seemed to have received. Firstly, the script is mostly bad, with characters having some really silly unnatural lines. This was compounded by the direction the actors were told to go with. Maybe scenes were filmed out of order, but the two protagonists seemed to be wildly different emotionally throughout. One scene you have Reed calmly showing Kiera his beloved pet terrapin, to which she reacts with pleasure at seeing, then the very next scene seemingly following immediately afterwards has Kiera screaming and crying saying that they are both going to die. Both characters flip-flop between camaraderie, anger, sadness and determination apparently on a whim. It made it hard to really get a grasp on the type of people they were meant to be when their emotions are all over the place. One moment they will be working together well as a team, next shot they will be bickering with each other, nothing remained static and it made for an off-kilter feel in a bad way.
In theory the bad guys were a lot better, the arrogant Claire was one of the highlights of the movie, her cohorts a little more strange. For a cult they didn't have a unified look, sure during their magical rituals they are all robed, but outside of that they are a varied bunch. You have a guy who looks like an eighties punk, a long haired perpetually grinning Texas Chainsaw Massacre style hick, a muscle man, an old hag and a constantly self-pleasuring simpleton.
With the cultists not using guns the action was mostly more close combat. The protagonists find various plot devices for them to try to sneak out of the house, whether to retrieve a gun from Reed's shed, or for Kiera to try and make a run for her car. These moments always felt believable enough, and resulted in a few decent enough looking fight scenes. The gun does get used at times and leads to some fun looking effects. There is plenty of blood and a decent enough body count,and the story, while not anything amazing, managed to survive mainly with the hook of knowing that the present day section was somehow related to the prologue scene set forty years earlier. That was answered in a late plot twist which wasn't that revolutionary, but slightly different to what I figured it would be.
Night of the B*stard always felt it couldn't quite settle on a particular tone, with moments of comedy not fitting in well with the more horror based parts. Ignore the weird mood swings of the protagonists, and the somewhat unimaginative script and there is enjoyment to be found here. Night of the B*stard is due for release on May 15th from High Fliers Films.
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