The horror genre has been fascinated with cults for decades. An important element in folk horror, they examine collective fears and provide a window into legends and lore from around the world. The latest film in this long tradition is Rich Ragsdale’s THE LONG NIGHT. Written by Robert Sheppe and Mark Young, the film follows a young couple tormented by a Southern cult with an apocalyptic mission. It’s an exciting premise, complete with villains that are striking in their devilish iconography. However, THE LONG NIGHT barely scratches the surface of its mystery’s potential. Though the cult itself is intriguing, uneven pacing and a lack of compelling characters make for a frustratingly vague story. There are moments of pure terror and the film’s climax is unsettling, but THE LONG NIGHT ultimately lacks the substance needed to make it a truly horrifying film.
Grace (Scout Taylor-Compton) is a New York transplant preparing to travel down South. Having grown up in foster care, she’s desperate to learn about her family’s origins and hopes this trip will shed some light on her mysterious past. She’s joined by her boyfriend Jack (Nolan Gerard Funk), a young but powerful businessman from a wealthy background. He seems to genuinely love Grace though he struggles to connect with her Southern roots. The couple finds themselves at odds after a stressful trip to the Hamptons to meet Jack’s parents, but vow to move past it in order to focus on Grace’s search for answers. Their trip takes a nasty turn shortly after they arrive at the sprawling but deserted plantation, when they’re besieged by cloaked figures intent on using Grace for their deadly ritual.
THE LONG NIGHT has all the right ingredients for a wonderfully frightening spell: the setting is gorgeous, the villains are creepy, and their mysterious motivations are both ominous and intriguing. But the story never quite clicks into place, suffering from a frustrating lack of details and long stretches without any interesting action. Grace makes much of her Southern heritage, but other than occasionally adopting an exaggerated accent and loving the rural scenery, she seems to have no meaningful connection to the region. We learn that she suffered trauma as a result of growing up in the foster care system, but never get even a hint of what those experiences might entail. She is an ingenue without a backstory, leaving her with little to do but scream and run for most of the film’s runtime. Taylor-Compton is no stranger to final girls, having played Laurie Strode, one of horror’s most beloved heroines in Rob Zombie’s HALLOWEEN and HALLOWEEN II, but Ragsdale gives her little to do until the film’s final act and by then, it’s difficult to care much about her fate.
With his waspish arrogance, Jack is the more interesting character though we still learn little about his past. We’re told that the all-important “Meet the Parents” weekend has not gone well because Jack refuses to stand up for his girlfriend, but we learn frustratingly few details about the drama. This low moment in their relationship never really resurfaces and doesn’t seem to matter much to the story, providing a scant introduction to a relationship that never feels quite real. The larger problem is that Taylor-Compton and Funk don’t have much chemistry, removing any spark that might bridge the gaps in their flat characterization. The relationship has little grounding in reality. It’s not so much that Jack and Grace don’t seem to have much in common, but that they don’t really seem like real people at all, merely stock characters and generalizations akin to photos of couples in department store picture frames. There’s no weight to the emotional core of the film leading to low stakes once the danger kicks off.
While this sparse writing might work well in a film where the cult takes center stage, THE LONG NIGHT’s villains are equally vague. With masks made from the skulls of animals and long dark cloaks, the creature design is admittedly terrifying. They are effectively menacing while standing silently outside the house in which Jack and Grace find themselves trapped and the moments they do invade the home are shocking and scary. But they don’t really do much else and the creepy visuals begin to wear thin as the film progresses. Though dangerous, their powers are inconsistent and vaguely defined. An over-reliance on telekinesis translates to a lot of standing and pointing while an ominous score and distorted camera angles do the heavy lifting of their villainous portrayal.
Also inconsistent is Grace’s response to the terror unfolding around her. She resists leaving at a logical point in the story, but the answer she gives when asked why she wants to stay is ridiculous. She occasionally unleashes brutal stints of unhinged violence in defense of herself and Jack, but they seem to come out of nowhere, then disappear again as she reverts back to a stagnant final girl. The story picks up in the final act, once the cult’s motivations come into focus, but this exposition feels rushed and heavy handed, literally coming out of nowhere. There are shocking scenes of brutality and a satisfying payoff, but they really only serve to highlight the emptiness of earlier acts. Taylor-Compton finally comes alive once she’s given something interesting to do, but given the lack of character development earlier in the film, what should be a devastating conclusion feels relatively empty.
THE LONG NIGHT takes a similarly vague approach to its Southern setting. Grace constantly explains away ominous occurrences with “It’s a Southern thing,” but this feels odd given her lack of connection to the culture. The South is treated as a monolith, with Jack making constant quips and assumptions meant to highlight his elite upbringing. Grace is always quick to point out his offensive generalizations, but she doesn’t seem to really understand what “the south” refers to either. We never even find out what part of the South the majority of the film is set in. Cultural touchstones like totems meant to ward away evil spirits feel ill-defined, and this Southerner has never seen or heard of them in the rural or urban South. This combined with dated references to “Indians” who protect the land and the fact that the majority of the film takes place on a plantation leave a sour aftertaste. The South has a long history and a painful past, neither of which are treated with sensitivity or understanding. Efforts to humanize Southerners by noting Gracie’s heritage fall flat once it becomes clear that no one involved with the film seems to know what that actually means.
Films focused on cults are at their best when offering a lived-in feel and authentic examination of cultural norms. Though THE LONG NIGHT is an interesting concept with a terrifying premise, its poorly-developed plot and thin characters leave much to be desired. The few instances of interesting action feel like they come out of nowhere and vanish into the night just as quickly as they appeared. Despite a thrilling climax, the movie trudges along, seeming to stop and start at frustrating intervals. Once it becomes clear that the villains have few tricks up their sleeves, the stakes implode and the tension grinds to a halt. Though it has all the makings of a horrific film, the story never really comes together, leaving THE LONG NIGHT feeling more like a collection of intriguing visuals rather than a fully fleshed-out horror film.
THE LONG NIGHT will be released on Blu-Ray on April 5th, 2022.
Tags: Blu-ray, Deborah Kara Unger, Horror, Jeff Fahey, Mark Young, Nolan Gerard Funk, Rich Ragsdale, Robert Sheppe, Scout Taylor-Compton, The South, Well Go USA Entertainment
No Comments