Nightworld is a 2017 movie about a man, who after losing his wife to suicide, needs a place to go to get away from the nightmares he is having of her and her death. His friend, Alex, sets him up with a job working security for an interesting building.
Brett, the main character, is a former LAPD officer who needs to get away from the house he shares with his wife. He is sent by his friend, Alex, to interview for a security job. As a former police officer he is seen as someone who has the potential for the job. Brett isn’t a character that one might be fond of. While his employers are interesting and very secretive, he is constantly asking questions. After eighteenth question, even I think his inquisitive nature is a little annoying and want him to shut up. After he is there for a while, he finds that not only has he lost time, but he has found a new woman to set himself up with, and he has learned a few things about the building, like the fact that it is empty, instead of full of tenants, which is what he was told. At the end of the movie he has to work to save anyone, and in the end he loses himself.
I did indeed think that the main character, Brett, was a little annoying, I also thought it served his logical personality. As a former police officer he did have to think in the realm of what is real and what is not. The things that he starts seeing in this one room he is never supposed to enter, don’t make sense to him, and he has to push beyond what he believes is reality to what is actuality. And he has to push his own limits of belief fast, within an hour.
The suspense in this movie, trying to figure out what was going on and what was happening or being hidden in the forbidden room was interesting, and I found myself actually wanting to see what was in the room. I didn’t get an otherworldly feel until almost the end of the movie, as for a few moments I thought it was going to be about aliens (it was not). The main female character, Zara, didn’t seem to add anything to the story, but she did have a humanizing effect on Brett. In the end, however, she was a waste of a good character.
Robert Englund was also a character in this movie, Jacob. I feel like he did a great job with his character, but I also feel he was wasted and not as developed as he could have been in this role. I love Englund, especially since my foray into horror and his role in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. I would have liked to see him in a little bit of a stronger position in the role, not a major character who remains static throughout.
This is not a bad movie, good to watch while you are doing other things and need something on in the background. I watched it while grading papers, and I didn’t miss much at all.