NIGHTWATCH (DEMONS ARE FOREVER) Key Art | ©2024 Shudder

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Fanny Leander Bornedal, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Ulf Pilgaard, Sonja Richter, Casper Kjær Jensen, Paprika Steen, Alex Høgh Andersen, Nina Rask, Sonny Lindberg, Kim Bodnia
Writer: Ole Bornedal
Director: Ole Bornedal
Distributor: Shudder
Release Date: May 17, 2024

NIGHTWATCH: DEMONS ARE FOREVER (NATTEVAGTEN: DÆMONER GÅR I ARV) is filmmaker Ole Bornedal’s third go-round with this premise and these characters. Bornedal first wrote and directed the original NIGHTWATCH (NATTEVAGTEN) in 1994 in his native Denmark. Then he directed and co-wrote (with Steven Soderbergh) the English-language adaptation in 1997. Now he’s back with a thirty-years-later sequel, which has its U.S. streaming premiere May 17 on Shudder.

To be clear, both the original NIGHTWATCH and the new NIGHTWATCH: DEMONS ARE FOREVER are straight slasher films; the “demons” of the sequel’s title are strictly the psychological kind.

In the original NIGHTWATCH, Nicolaj Coster-Waldau (looking shockingly young for those just checking it out now) starred as law student Martin Borck, who took a night watchman job at a hospital morgue. Martin’s best friend Jens (Kim Bodnia) convinced him to take on some truly bad dares, which led to them both crossing paths with the serial killer Peter Wörmer (Ulf Pilgaard).

It cost Jens a thumb, but he ultimately rescued Martin and Martin’s girlfriend Katinka (Sofie Gråbøl) from Wörmer, who appeared dead at the time. Martin, Katinka, Jens and Jens’s girlfriend Lotte (Lotte Andersen) all seemed perfectly happy at their double wedding.

But, as we soon discover in NIGHTWATCH: DEMONS ARE FOREVER, Martin, Katinka and Jens were all traumatized by their experiences. Thirty years on, Katinka has committed suicide, leaving a drug-addicted Martin (Coster-Waldau, reprising his role) alone with their med student daughter Emma (Fanny Leander Bornedal).

Emma, understandably frustrated and worried by Martin’s emotional state, seeks to learn about exactly what happened in the past. This leads Emma to follow in her father’s footsteps, taking the night watch job at the same morgue.

Once NIGHTWATCH: DEMONS ARE FOREVER actually gets going, it has some good scenes, including a grace note between Coster-Waldau and Bodnia (also returning) that is wonderfully wistful, even if it is not necessary for the story. There’s also actual tension in some sequences, although others suggest solutions even before the characters realize what these are.

But it’s almost fifty minutes into the movie before there’s an actual kill. We also have to suspend our disbelief that it’s taken this long for Emma to uncover family secrets that were heavily publicized by the news media at the time, and exactly how she reacts. Likewise, a certain type of horror movie logic is required to accept the super-lax security at both the morgue and the mental hospital.

Then there’s a matter of whether we’ve got mistranslated subtitles, missing exposition, or just confusion. In any event, Wörmer (Pilgaard is back as well) is described as being in a coma. He is able to sit up, speak, and he’s light-sensitive. It’s not as though this is news to the psychiatric hospital staff where he’s confined, so why mention a coma at all?

Actor Bornedal (the daughter of writer/director Bornedal) is natural and engaging as the central character, with an expressive face that registers terror and anguish effectively. Coster-Waldau is admirably self-effacing as the tormented Martin. Casper Kjær Jensen is truly creepy as a disturbed young man. Sonja Richter as an empathetic psychiatrist and Paprika Steen as a cynical detective are both effective.

NIGHTWATCH: DEMONS ARE FOREVER feels like its predecessor, which in turn felt like a throwback to ‘70s indie horror, when we didn’t expect shocks at regular intervals and the main draw was that everybody involved clearly cared about what they were doing. It’s definitely not perfect, but it’s decent enough to watch.

In Danish, with English subtitles.

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