Watch the Night as the creatures come out. (Night Watch (DVD))

Name: Ailran

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Product:	Night Watch (DVD)
Date:	05/11/05 (232 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Dark, stylish, moody. First part of a trilogy.

Disadvantages: In russian, first part of a trilogy.

Night Watch, or Nochnoy Dozor, a Russian fantasy thriller, burrows into you, nestling inside you as you watch rapt with attention. Your eyes not wanting to leave the screen as you ponder every fact you can glean about what is occurring in front of you.

Starting with a battle scene in 1342 between The Warriors of Light and The Warriors of Darkness that leads to a stalemate, and an agreement, Night Watch creates a world where Good and Evil manifestly exist. Where they acknowledge their opposites’ existence and recruit ‘others’, people with superhuman abilities of some kind, to their side, The Daywatch policing the forces of Good and The Night Watch policing the forces of Evil each awaiting the arrival of the great other, the one prophesised to break the stalemate and bring victory to whichever side they decide to join, and making sure that neither side breaks the agreement and keeps the status quo.

Jumping forward to a modern day Russia that is a dark, dreary place, the only light seemingly coming from failing streetlights and lamps, we see a nerdy looking guy turn up at a flat. An old woman lets him in and questions him, it seems that he is annoyed at being dumped and wants to punish his ex by making her lose her child. The woman tells him that she can do it but it will cost him more than he thinks!

She begins the spell, for yes she is a witch of some kind, and is nearing the end of her incantation when two men break in… this is our first sighting of The Night Watch, as they attempt to stop this illegal use of magic any way they can.

Once this set up scene has finished we move forward slightly in time again, this time we see a gaunt man, preparing to head out into the night. Searching for something, is he Night Watch, Daywatch or something else entirely? Watching we are not sure and this makes this whole section very eerie. We see him as he wheels and deals, and the scene on the subway train is superb, dark lighting again with a sudden burst of light as he spots a woman amongst the crowd. The light surrounding her as he stares, who is she and why does he want to get to her?

The Night Watch are a ragtag bunch, heroes for our time dressed in overalls and jeans and driving a massive big yellow van, their confrontation with a Vampire Hairdresser is a stylish tour de force. The direction and the lighting enhancing the appearance and disappearance of the Vampire, heightening the tension, leaving you on the edge of your seat as superior strength and power overwhelms our hero. Will the newest member of Night Watch live long enough for his team to arrive and help?

For once though style doesn’t take the place of substance. Night Watch may be full of smart stylish touches but they add to the film rather than working against the overall story, as is more and more the norm in Hollywood movies these days. You can tell that this is based on a book (books?), the story in complex, full of depth and more than once hints that there is a lot more story to be told than, or that could be encompassed in one film.

In fact Night Watch is the first in a planned trilogy of films, exploring the world. A world that is very close to our own but has those subtle differences that makes things intriguing and exciting. The Russia we see is very believable and that also makes Night Watch all the more watchable. This is an extremely good film, there has been very few good Russian films in recent years, and those that were good were certainly of very limited appeal. Night Watch though has a big crossover appeal, as long as you don’t mind subtitles, something that Fox Searchlight obviously agree with as they have been promoting it heavily for quite a while now.

What Night Watch also shows is that you don’t need loads of money to make a good sci fi/fantasy film. Originality, invention and use of locations makes up for what Hollywood films would just spend money on. They use a good script, fantastic lighting and great locations to bring us a film that matches anything that Hollywood can, and will, bring us.

I saw this on a Russian DVD, about 5 months ago now, before the rights were bought up by Fox, since they have got hold of it they have done their own subtitles, a good idea as the Russian made English ones do have some amusing translation errors, and supposedly made them very stylish. Different colours, wavy rather than straight and placed all over the screen instead of just at the bottom, by all accounts this just adds to the whole feel of the film.

Even more surprising this does seem to be turning up at a lot of multiplexes around my area, maybe, just maybe, it will get the audience it deserves. If nothing else it is guaranteed to get a cult audience on DVD!

Night Watch was the biggest grossing film in Russian cinema history and was even made the Russians official Oscar entry for 2005.

Running Time: Very surprisingly 114 minutes, feels a lot shorter than that which again shows how enjoyable it is!

Certificate: 15

Summary: A good fantasy that relies on story rather than effects.