Hannah Al Rashid | Through the Shattered Lens

Some of the most inventive action films have been coming out of Southeast Asia these past 20 or so years. It was led by the very entertaining and brutal actions films headlined by martial artist turned action star Tony Jaa from Thailand then followed up by Indonesian action star Iko Uwais from The Raid series by Welsh director Gareth Edwards.

In 2018, Netflix bought the distribution rights for an Indonesian action thriller from director Timo Tjahjanto that starred the aforementioned Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Julie Estelle and a who’s who of Indonesia’s acting scene. At first glance, The Night Comes for Us looked to cash-in o the popularity of Gareth Edwards’ The Raid series, but one would be both mistaken and remiss to think such a thing.

The Night Comes for Us looked at Edwards’ The Raid duology and thought to itself that the action wasn’t brutal and visceral enough so decided to rectify that missed opportunity. Timo Tjahjanto took what he learned from his past work on horror films and decided to add some of those visual storytelling techniques to an action film that one would either have a hard time to sit through while viewing or just gobble with up with glee.

Guilty pleasure doesn’t mean the film has to be cheaply made or seen as being bad it’s good type of thing. I always thought that its something that one enjoyed despite knowing that there’s many out there who would look at someone askance for enjoying such a low-brow affair. The Night Comes for Us is both visually stunning in its production yet still has that low-down, grungy feel to it that harkens back to the hey day of grindhouse films of the 70’s and early 80’s. The only thing missing from this film was film grain imperfections such as film scratches and flaws to give it that 42nd street, NYC movie theater circa 1970’s experience (stale, days old popcorn and sticky floors included).

This film has it all and it has it in such abundance that one might just forgive Timo Tjahjanto for overdoing things when it came to the brutal violence that in years past would’ve earned it the dreaded XXX thus endearing it to the grindhouse crowd. The film actually opens up and ends in one of the few calm and introspective scenes with everything else in-between just straight up violence both hand-to-hand and gun variety. The Night Comes for Us is the film version of that saying “it woke up and chose violence.”

Joe Taslim headlines the film and he gives such a visceral and unhinged performance that one would be forgiven for mistaking his character as the villain if seeing the film in the middle after missing the beginning. Iko Uwais usually plays the reluctant hero in his previous films, but gets to let loose in a more antagonist role that more than matches Taslim when the two finally square off each other. The other stand-out performance to highlight would be Julie Estelle as The Operator who can throw down just as extreme as the men and, in fact, her fight scenes are pretty much the most brutal in the whole film and that is saying a lot.

So yeah, The Night Comes for Us, go see it and be horrified and/or amazed in equal measure. I guarantee that even if you hate the experience you won’t say that it was ever boring or bland.

Previous Guilty Pleasures

Eight “urban explorers,” who have the own streaming show where they film themselves in haunted locations across Britain, try to spend the night at the long abandoned Pelosi Asylum. Pelosi Asylum (and it’s a British film so don’t read too much into the name, as tempting as it may be to do so) is supposed to be one of the most haunted locations in the UK. It’s scheduled to be demolished and the explorers plan to be the last people to spend the night at the Asylum.

None of the supernatural explorers actually believe in the supernatural. Before entering the Asylum, they joke about how everything that they do is just for show and how all of the “supernatural” things that they’ve filmed have actually been created through clever editing. They don’t even plan to actually spend the entire night at the Asylum. Once they do enter the Asylum, they decide to split up to explore and get as much footage as they need to edit something together. That’s when they discover that they are not alone. The Asylum is full of former patients who consider the building to be their home and who did not welcome uninvited guests.

Night Explorers: The Asylum starts out as a found footage film but it quickly abandons that and instead becomes a standard slasher film where people split up for no good reason and get picked off one-by-one. There’s nothing new or surprising about Night Explorers but there are some effective jump scares and fans of gore will find a lot to look at here. The film’s killers are frighteningly ruthless and the violence is not for the squeamish. For the most part, the cast is hampered by undeveloped characters but everyone is convincing enough as the type of moron who would think breaking into an abandoned asylum was a good idea. I’ve definitely seen better than this film but I’ve also seen much worse movies that cost considerably more money to make. What Night Explorers lack in originality, it makes up for in blood and atmosphere.