‘Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever’ Review: A Slick, Tension-Packed But Too Familiar Exploration of Generational Trauma

*WARNING: This review contains a spoiler for 1994’s Nightwatch*

Suppose you’ve seen the spine-tingling, unnerving 1994 Nightwatch by writer/director Ole Bornedal (The Bombardment, Small Town Killers). In that case, you’ll be very pleased to hear that the long-awaited sequel to this cult horror classic has finally arrived. Bornedal decides once again to team up with his familiar cast, including Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones, Oblivion) and Ulf Pilgaard (Body Switch, Kandidaten), as well as working together with new cast members and integrating more temporary elements. If you haven’t watched the 1994 feature, don’t worry. You don’t need any pre-knowledge of the Nightwatch universe to enjoy this slick, tension-packed, but too-familiar exploration of generational trauma.

The plot of the movie is actually in the title. Thirty years after working as a nightwatch in a morgue and finding himself in the middle of a horrific murder investigation in which ordinary humans meet extraordinary blood-thirsty people, Martin (Coster-Waldau) is about to relive every single second of it. His 22-year-old daughter Emma, portrayed by Fanny Leander Bornedal (daughter of), takes on the same job he had back in the day. Emma is a new addition to the Nightwatch family, alongside her on-screen lover Frederik (Alex Høgh Andersen) and friends Maria and Sofus (Nina Rask and Sonny Lindberg, respectively). While Bornedal (The Bombardment, Carmer Curlers) brings her character to life beautifully, Rask (Lovers, Sex) gives the standout performance. We wish we could have seen much more of her character, but this movie is about Emma.

Speaking of which, you would think that she would have taken a different job after finding out her dark, shadowy family history. Still, no, the mysterious and quite distressing circumstances in which her mother died back then led her to want to unravel what happened during that unfortunate night. While Emma’s employment in the morgue is a curse for the family (you’ll find out a little about the ‘why’ when reading this review and a lot about it when watching the feature); it’s a blessing for this movie.

It gives Bornedal and cinematographer Lasse Frank Johannessen (Tolkien, The Bombardment) the chance to roam around once again in the isolated and chilling morgue and the dark, secretive mental asylum. By doing so, they can create the tension, electrifying atmosphere and darkness a horror feature like this need. The story will take them away from that spooking setting more than in the first film as Bornedal wants to make a thought-provoking work that positions itself between being a full-on psychological thriller and an over-the-top gory horror feature.

That duality in genre becomes very clear when Emma fully starts her job at the infamous Forensic Institute. While she took on the role in the search for answers and to overcome drama (and frankly also because she needs the money), she’s about to conflict even more drama upon herself, her father, family members and close friends. After visiting police inspector-turned-serial killer Peter Wörmer (Pilgaard), who back in the day set his sight on murdering Emma’s parents, she opens Pandora’s box, which leads to much more bloodshed, mysterious and shocking deaths, and even a copycat killer Bent (Casper Kjær Jensen).

Jensen (The Bombardment, Moonfire) is the cast’s final addition. His unstable character is frightening to watch right from the start. You meet him when he’s sitting in an empty interrogation room, and how he looks at the camera will certainly make your hair rise. The way he moves also adds much more creepiness to his character. The scene in which he out-of-focus follows Emma in the background is undoubtedly one of the most impressive scenes involving the young cast.

Jensen and his new cast members are certainly among the aspects to attract a new generation of Nightwatch viewers, but Bornedal also isn’t afraid to stick with the original characters and a narrative structure that resembles one of the first features as closely as possible. The original movie was a hit, so why not make another one that is based on that fool-proof formula? While the first instalment was hailed as a groundbreaking feature that shook the audience and put Denmark on the horror map, we can’t fully say the same about Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever.

Because the 1994 film was such a hit (it still holds up firmly in the modern day and age), Bornedal wants to take us back to those times in many flashbacks as possible to make the audience fall in love with it all over again. However, that overwhelming amount of flashbacks doesn’t do this movie any good. Every time the sequel is about to find its ground and become the outstanding horror film it could have been, the tense atmosphere and the slow (which is a good thing) narrative are disrupted by an unnecessary flashback. If the filmmakers had left out many of those trips down memory lane and just let this sequel flow much more naturally, it would have become a much grittier work than it is now.

While repeating its own tricks – and a few borrowed ones from The Silence of the Lambs and Halloween – isn’t favourable for the film’s narrative, it’s an advantage for the acting, though. Coster-Waldau’s return as Martin adds both a standout performance and much complexity, as well as a sense of familiarity to this movie. At first, his acting might not be as strong as in the first feature. Still, when Martin decides to finally become much more than just an emotionless pill addict, Coster-Waldau’s acting rises to a higher level as we see a Martin much closer to the person he was in the previous feature. Without saying too much about how dark the elderly Wörmer has become after being incarcerated in the asylum for years, we do want to mention what a terrific performance Pilgaard puts on with the little work he’s been giving.

Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever might not cause a shockwave through the horror film industry, but Bornedal still succeeds in creating a compelling sequel. The Danish filmmaker opts one more again for the original, accomplished cast while combining them with equally talented new cast members, terrifying cinematography and also a sinister score (including the very fitting I Fink U Freeky by Die Antwoord).

Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever is out on Shudder from the 17th of May courtesy of Shudder