Night's End

 Night's End is a pretty cool low-budget horror movie that goes off in a pleasingly batshit tangent; I've got a soft spot for those.

 Ken (Geno Walker) is trying to rebuild his life after having some sort of breakdown - one so bad it ended his marriage and practically left him agoraphobic. He spends his days as a shut-in in a newly rented, fairly spacious flat, following a carefully delineated daily routine (exercise, coffee, tomato soup, gardening)  in between putting up videos on Youtube to see if one of them gets big enough to earn a following. Tips for divorced dads, keeping lawns and hedges, that sort of thing - write what you know, I guess.

 While on a video chat, a friend (comedian Felonius Munk) asks him about a detail in the background Ken didn't even notice: a taxidermized bird falls off a ledge, as if pushed by an invisible hand.

 Intrigued, he mentions the incident to his ex-wife and her new husband (Kate Arrington and her real-life husband Michael Shannon). Anyhow: both of them are hooked on ghost-hunting shows, so they prod Ken into investigating his possible haunting.

 The movie alternates between observing Ken's daily life, following his amateur paranormal investigation, and seeing how the two mix with catastrophic results. The haunting itself is a little cheesy, but the movie is thick with atmosphere, and Ken's an interesting character - instead of the expected bundle of nerves, Walker plays him as an anxious but soft-spoken, mellow man who internalizes just about everything before putting on a brave face to conference with his loved ones. He sells his character's fragile state while still being really good company.

 Director Jennifer Reeder keeps the supernatural very low-key - banging on doors, footsteps echoing throughout the apartment, and vague figures in the background (which Ken sometimes doesn't even get to see). She anchors the film with Ken's routines and uses them throughout as a pretty cool visual shorthand to show the toll the haunting it's taking on his mental health.

 As events develop Ken's relationships get strained, but with the aid of a dodgy parapsychologist Colin Albertson (Lawrence Grimm) he develops a following big enough to attract the attention of a popular ghost-hunting website. At some point along the line a second, much more dangerous presence inserts itself in the haunting.

 The script (Brett Neveu) is slow, methodical and pretty clever, though the supernatural side of things is a little too standard-issue to become really interesting. Luckily the characters are empathetic, likeable and interesting enough to pick up the slack until the film swerves in a... let's call it fairly unexpected direction. There's a very appealing wry sense of humour running throughout the whole thing.

 Visually, it looks great - especially for a film of this budget, shot within the pandemic. Reeder and cinematographer Christopher Rejano fill Ken's apartment with lurid lighting, and all the shots that come to signify the passing of time in Ken's isolated life - Orchids in the foreground while night falls outside his newspaper-covered windows, tomato soup slowly bubbling over - look great.

 The videoconferencing conceit suffers a little from the Dragonball Z syndrome by the end (each and every person in the peanut gallery has to chip in and get a little comment in as they watch from afar), but it's the only time where it doesn't feel natural. 

 The acting is very enjoyable, in the sense that it's just nice spending some time with these people. Shannon plays a self-described cheeseball and he's great as always; So is everyone else. Lawrence Grimm, especially, is clearly having a blast as the occult expert who seems to be modelling himself at least a little bit after Dr. Strange. 

 It isn't, sadly, very scary; the ghost stuff is too familiar,  and while what comes afterwards is certainly bold, it's unlikely to make anyone lose any sleep. It is a lot of fun, though - think of it as an extremely deadpan horror comedy.