Directed by: Timur Bekmambetov
Writers: Timur Bekmambetov (screenplay) and Laeta Kalogridis (screenplay)
Cast: Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov, Valeri Zolotukhin, Mariya Poroshina
Night Watch is an incredible Russian horror-fantasy. Stylized beyond anything American filmgoers are used to, its wonderful and complex plot doesn’t suffer for the sake of visuals. With superb editing and solid acting, it’s a shame the writing effectively died in the last twenty minutes.
The film starts-as all good fantasy films should-with a legend that establishes the basic premise. A truce exists between the forces of good and evil—so-called Others, who war on the fringes of humanity. During the night, the forces of light—the Night Watch—enforce the treaty, and vice versa.
Flash forward a few hundred years when a young man named Anton Gorodetsky goes to a witch to get his lost love back and agrees to a magical spell that will reclaim her heart. And in so doing, abort the child she is carrying. When Night Watch thwarts the witch, Anton realizes he can see these people who weren’t there before, and thus realizes he is an Other.
Twelve years later, Anton has become an officer of Night Watch and is on a case where a vampire is trying to prey on a young boy. The vampire calls the boy to her, and Anton has to follow him in order to find her. On the way, he bumps into a woman and has a premonition. The woman is the herald of a Vortex, which signals the apocalypse.
This is all well and good. The plot progresses, and there are some wonderful horror and action scenes. Even the necessary plot exposition is done in a visually appealing style. Much of this can be credited to Dimitri Kiselyov’s stylistic editing style, but also to the incredibly strange camera techniques director Timur Bekmambetov consistently uses. Even the subtitles—for this is a subtitled film—are done artistically. Outside of the fantasy or the horror genre, this film might be considered visually obnoxious, but in the context of an urban fantasy, the strange visual techniques work.
Konstantin Khabensky portrays Anton with a solid mixture of seriousness and humor. His supporting cast is equally strong, though it is hard, as someone who doesn’t speak Russian, to adequately review Russian-speaking actors.
The movie runs into problems when it falls flat on its face just before reaching what should have been an astounding climax. The Vortex plotline—and it does turn out to be just a subplot—is resolved anticlimactically. The real climax of the film is not only rushed, but it doesn’t quite make sense, at least not at first viewing. Perhaps this is one of those films where further viewings will reveal that every shot is calculated, but films should make sense on face value before delving into deeper meaning.
All together, Night Watch is fully enjoyable. It has a unique style, an interesting story built on an equally interesting premise, and enough action to keep fans of the genre intrigued. Unfortunately, the writing flounders at the end. Still, the film is interesting enough to merit seeing the two upcoming sequels.
Casey Cosker lives, reads, writes, and occasionally studies at Pratt Institute in New York City. He spends his free time and money buying comic books and novels he can’t afford. He has been a self-proclaimed geek for several months now, and has no intention of changing his ways. He also has a hat.