It’s a disappointment to have to report this Gone in the night it is a great disappointment. You would think that a film directed by Eli Horowitz, starring Winona Ryder, Owen Teague and John Ghallager Jr., and which will premiere in the midnight section at SXSW, would be a place for a good time in movies. But none of these elements come together in a way that makes sense.
Ryder has certainly proven his ability to amaze audiences when he is in the right project. But while it’s great here, the idea of using her as a troubled, self-conscious woman who cares about her appearance isn’t exactly a good one. I mean, it looks like Winona Ryder. The same can be said of Ghallager, hardly a veteran actor, but one who showed real depth in 10 Cloverfield Lane. His role as a distant lover is so complicated that it is unpleasant and it is not fun to see him wasting his talents in an unpleasant part. As for director Horowitz (The homecoming), he has created a messy scenario that has more twists and turns than a Colorado River and has none of the emotions that would make such a trip worthwhile.
The combination of all these elements is a horror movie that seems like a simple idea, but it’s actually just a brainless horror movie. From the moment we set our eyes on Kath (Ryder), we can realize that something is wrong with her and the script, which has her face to interpret Ryder as a “woman past her age. Kath is a middle-aged botanist who likes to drink with her friends, while her partner, Max (Ghallager), likes to go to rock concerts with her friends. A weekend vacation should do them some good; however, things take a turn once they get to the cabin.
Once I arrive, I find another car parked in the alley. Before anyone can say “double reservation”, a guy named Al (Teauge) comes out of the shadows, tells them to retreat, and then spits an orange peel in front of Kath. While most people would leave when a guy spits an orange peel in their face, they are characters from horror movies, so the couple decides to stay when Al’s girlfriend asks them to spend the night. The next morning, Kath wakes up in an empty house. She goes into the woods where a drunken Al tells her that Max ran away with his girlfriend, probably because it was a younger option. Since Khat is struggling with her age, she needs to find out if Max really left because of her seniority and asks for help from cottage owner Nicholas (Dermot Mulroney).
The whole thing is a wild concept, which depends on the plausibility of the motivations of each character, which are all a little thin. Why would Max want to leave Kath? And why would Nicholas want to go on a trip to find him? The public is asked to accept these questions so that the story can be folded around them. The two eventually go into hiding, of course, but they end up spending more time bonding with each other than they do in dangerous situations … until the twists start coming.
The tone of Gone In The Night, which goes from slow to tense to comedy to stupid, never fixes. Some characters are abandoned for the upheaval of the plot and the story reveals that they are so wild that they make no sense, although Ryder has fun with them, giving an increasingly disoriented performance against Mulroney, who mutters slowly. Although the cast members suggest prestige, this is really just a film of a lifetime dressed in a costume and the sooner the audience realizes that, the better, because anyone with high expectations will be disappointed from the first frame . 2.5 / 5
