Rent Nocturne (2016)

Nocturne review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

Teenage girls perform a seance. The demon is in the seance. Their demon. We’re going to need a bigger budget. It’s a blessing and a benefit that horror films are relatively cheap to produce and yet the limitations force a more creative struggle within the realm of the supernatural. Nocturne is one such film that tries its best to churn out as much spooky and demonic horror that can be oozed out on a handful of nickel and dimes.

It’s a familiar horror scenario with a batch of teenage girls having a slumber party that is about to get horrific. And from that very base description, what do you fathom will happen next? If you guessed they play with a Ouja board and end up summoning evil spirits, you are right. If you guessed that the evil spirits have a connection to one of the girls and their dark past, you are also right. If you said to yourself this seems like a cheaply slapped together version of the horror film Ouija which came out around the same time, you’re right again. If you guessed the film was abysmal, you’re...half-right.

Sure, Nocturne is so devoid of originality that spans more than just its bland title which I swear has been used every two years for some horror or action film. The slasher format is present is as the teenagers slowly find themselves being picked off one by one as the paranormal forces close in around them. And, yes, the frights are fairly cheap. But credit should be given where it’s due and I can’t exactly fault Nocturne for trying to make lemonade out of rocks. It’s gritty and doesn’t quite taste like lemonade but it’s a valiant effort to be sure.

This is a film that shines more from the technical than the thematic elements. Because, let’s face it, the themes are so broad as though they were perfectly built for an investor to pick up on familiar traits and horror movies that make money. The photography is not too shabby with a great staging of shots and perfectly dark lighting to set just the right mood. The seance is well presented to insinuate that something sinister is about to go down. The build is also quite progressive where the tension mounts leading up to the semi-chaotic climax.

However, there’s a lot of faults holding back this film. Faked deaths prove to be predictable for not-so-surprising twists. Dialogue often repeats itself to make sure all characters are on the same page, coming off more as the croutons of a lacking script. And while the scares are brilliantly presented, the majority seem random in their intent. There’s possession at one point that feels so forced it’s more confusing than unexpected.

Nocturne is an admirable effort of cheap horror that does scurry a rung above the lesser knock-offs of the genre but rarely makes that bigger leap into something more. It’s a decent horror in need of some trimming here and script improvement there so that it doesn’t just mindlessly mesh into the endless ocean of stock horror films. It’s a tragedy that it never quite floats to the top when I know it’s just a few inches below surface.