Grace Covington (Scout Taylor-Compton, Nashville) and her boyfriend Jack Cabot (Nolan Gerard Funk, The Flight Attendant) live in an apartment in New York City. While Jack grew up in The Hamptons, Grace grew up in foster homes in the South, and doesn’t really know anything about her birth parents. For the past 10 years, she has been searching for information about her parents but has come up empty. She has pretty much given up hope when she receives a call from private investigator Frank Caldwell (King Orba). He has some information for her, and wants to meet at his plantation. So Grace and Jack head out on a road trip down south.

As they get closer to the plantation, there is a sense that something isn’t quite right about this place, with several odd man-made totems placed at the edge of the woods that lines the main roadway. When they arrive at the house, their host is nowhere to be found. Inside, the home has a strange odor, and the walls are lined with the heads, skulls, and bones of animals. While this doesn’t feel out of the ordinary to Grace, who grew up in the south, all of this “hillbilly voodoo” is creepy for Princeton boy Jack. He’s ready to bolt almost immediately, but Grace wants to stay and wait for Frank to return with the information on her parents. However, they soon discover that leaving may not even be an option. Their car won’t start, cell phone reception is spotty—there’s some sort of static causing interference—and strange things start happening both inside and outside the house. And matters get more frightening when they see a black-hooded figure wearing an animal skull on the lawn. Flanking either side of The Master (Deborah Kara Unger) are several more hooded figures holding torches. Jack thinks they’re being catfished by some local rednecks, and yells at the men to go away, but then he receives an ominous phone call from an unknown caller, stating “We don’t want you, give us the girl and we’ll let you go. Otherwise, you won’t live until the sunrise.”

The Long Night starts off promising, setting up this haunting premise of a couple trapped in a creepy house, surrounded by some sort of odd cult members who won’t go away. They don’t know what these people want, but they are relentless and ever-present. The leader of the group, The Master, also appears to have some sort of special powers. She is able to create an electrical interference that messes with their phones, and when she raises her arm, she has this Darth Vader like power she can use to move objects and control people. However, for some reason, The Master and her cult oddly just stand there, instead of advancing on the home.

The film does a great job of amping up the tension and throwing in some fun jump scares, which start to form the basis for a solid horror film. There’s also a lot of humor mixed in, especially coming from Jack. He’s constantly making funny, sarcastic comments, and he has this ridiculous, sometimes pompous nature, acting like he’s better and more cultured than these rednecks, and even feeling the need to casually mention at one point that he went to Princeton. While it’s clear that he loves Grace, sometimes you wonder what she sees in him. However, they are stuck in this scary situation together, and only have each other. That is until Wayne Caldwell (Jeff Fahey) comes to the house looking for his brother Frank. Grace and Jack aren’t quite sure what to make of Wayne—can they trust him, or is he part of this cult?!

The film is broken into 6 stages or steps, which are denoted with title cards on the screen—I. The Invitation, II. The Seduction, III. The Encounter, IV. The Experience, V. The Ritual and VI. The Committal. The first two thirds of the film are pretty solid, setting up this tense situation and spooky tone, and providing some fun scares. However, in the third act, things just go completely off the rails, and not in a good way. The film takes a radical turn going off into a supernatural/demonic direction that really didn’t work for me. If the filmmakers had stuck with something more grounded, I would have found the final act far more satisfying. As a result, I found myself tuning out by the end of the movie. In the commentary track, the director talks about how these more surreal moments in the final act feel more like his own style, however, they certainly weren’t for me (and looking at the film’s IMDb ratings, I don’t think many others cared for them either).

I think a lot of the problems with the movie stem from the script, which doesn’t feel very cohesive. In the opening of the film, Grace and Jack decide that they will stop by The Hamptons on their way South, so that Grace can meet Jack’s parents for the first time. In the next scene, we see them pulling into a gas station, and the assumption is they are gassing up for their trip. However, it turns out that they’ve already spent the entire weekend with his parents, and Grace is upset that Jack didn’t stick up for her in front of them. With this sudden jump in the narrative, it felt like a whole large interesting chunk of the story had been cut out. In the commentary, the filmmakers talk about how they completely rewrote the script, and how their first draft came in 30 minutes too short. So one of the ways they padded the film was to add a scene at the beginning to flesh out the characters’ backstories and talk about their parents. But the way this was done feels very disjointed&mdadh;it introduces an extra stop in their journey that we don’t get to see, and sets up a potential conflict or issue in the relationship that is pretty much forgotten for the rest of the film. Other places where the film feels a bit padded for time can be seen in the long sprawling shots of the forest as the couple drives to the plantation, and the sometime repetitive nature of the things that happen in the house. The final act of the film also feels a bit rushed and something written for a completely different film. I wish that more time had been spent working out the issues with the script as I liked the two main characters, and the start of the movie was very promising, but it ultimately feels a bit disjointed and falls apart by the end.

That said, fans of the film should appreciate Well Go’s Blu-ray release, which features a solid presentation. The picture looks clean and even in the darker sequences, features a nice level of detail. The visual presentation really captures both the beauty and the creepiness of the plantation home and its surrounding land. The audio track provides clear dialogue and makes excellent use of the stereo and surround channels to provide a tense, immersive atmosphere. Whether it’s the crackle of the static affecting the phones, the creepy voice of The Master, or the haunting score, the audio track sounds excellent. The Blu-ray release also contains an entertaining selection of bonus material, including a filmmaker commentary, one of the director’s short films, and three behind-the-scenes featurettes. Despite not being much of a fan of the film overall, I really enjoyed the bonus material. The Blu-ray disc comes packed in a locking HD keepcase, and our review copy did not include a slipcover.

What’s Included:

Film: (1:31:02)

Blu-ray:
• 1080p / Widescreen 2.39:1
• Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Stereo
• Subtitles: English SDH

Extras:
All remaining features lay back-to-back after starting playback for one item.

• Audio Commentary (1:31:02)
  Director Rich Ragsdale, editor Jay Gartland, and screenwriter Rob Sheppe provide an entertaining and informative commentary throughout the film. They discuss how they got involved with the project, with Ragsdale coming onto to it as part of a rescue mission as its third director, needing to rewrite the entire script, and re-work it when their first draft came in too short at about 60 minutes. They share lots of behind-the-scenes stories about the production itself, talking about some of the original title choices, the “oners”/long tracking shots used in the film whenever they got the use of Steadicams, actor Nolan Gerard Funk’s ad-libs to add humor to the film, the filming location, the music needle drops, and more.
• The Loop — Short Film (7:40)
  “The Loop” is set some time in the 1980s. Teenager Mikey wakes up in front of the TV after having a bad dream and sees his older brother Tommy and his girlfriend walk in the door. His brother is holding a VHS copy of “The Loop”, which he says is the scariest movie ever made. As they start to watch the slasher film, the couple quickly get distracted, making out on the couch. However, Mikey soon finds himself sucked into the TV set, being chased around the house, stalked by the killer. He screams for Tommy, but his brother is too distracted playing tonsil hockey to notice.
• Behind The Scenes
  • The Birthing (5:44)
    “Shooting The Birthing Scene” contains raw behind-the scenes footage of cast and crew filming the birthing scene in the final act of the film. This is followed by the final cut of the same scene. There is no narration or interviews, but some folks are identified with on-screen captions, including costume designer Flora Ronzone, actress Erika Stasiuleviciute (“The Master (Flashbacks)”), and make-up FX technician Dan Gilbert.
  • The Look (5:59)
    In “The Look of The Long Night“, cinematographer Pierluigi “Gigi” Malavasi and director Rich Ragsdale talk about the look of the film, including the director’s the three main ingredients: texture, moodiness and anamorphic. They also discuss the use of light sources, filming on a plantation in South Carolina, the use of Steadicam, and more. The featurette also includes footage of the pair planning a shot near the end of the film where Grace finds Jack tied up. This is followed by the final cut of the same scene.
  • The Score (6:41)
    In “Composing the Score”, composer Sherri Chung talks about her previous work with the director, the process of writing the music for this film, and the style she was going for. Includes clips of her song “Let Me Be” from the film Ghost House, some clips from The Long Night with isolated score, and behind-the-scenes footage of a remote recording session with the orchestra in Budapest.
• Trailer (2:05)
• Previews
  • Unwelcome (2:19)
  • 6:45 (1:40)
  • Row 19 (2:08)

Final Thoughts:

The Long Night has the makings for a solid horror film, with a likeable cast and characters, an interesting premise, some fun jump scares, great atmosphere, and some excellent tension-building. However, at times the script feels overly-padded and lacks some cohesion, and the final act sends things in a strange, unwelcome direction. While I really enjoyed the first two-thirds of the movie, the final act ultimately left me disappointed. Well Go’s Blu-ray disc presentation itself is great, with excellent picture and sound, and some solid bonus material. This is an easy recommendation for those who are already fans of the film, but for others I’d suggest a rental before a blind buy.