At Night with No Curtains (2004)

User Rating:

3.1/10   

Director:

Ian Hayes Brett

Writer:

Ian Hayes Brett (writer)

Genre:

Drama | Horror

Tagline:

The maid is not dead but sleepeth...

Plot:

Five teenagers set out to explore the grisly legend of a local plantation home.

Plot Keywords:

Elizabeth Hatley | Gates | Wilmington | Nevermore | North Carolina

Cast

Marcus M'teo	...	Jake
Sterlin Lake	...	Samuel
Parker Britt	...	Monty
April Hope Smith	...	Aggie
Rhonda Cobb	...	Linda-Lee
Jennifer Joyner	...	Elizabeth Hatley
Henry Joyner	...	Pops
Fred Eley	...	Slave Ghost

Runtime:

87 min | USA:88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo (RCA Sound System)

Filming Locations:

Ahoskie, North Carolina, USA

Company:

Purple Hayes Productions

An admirable effort...?

The knowledge that this film was many of its makers' first attempt provides something of a cushion for its overall failure to realize its potential. Striving for a bit of "The Blair Witch Project" with a dab of down-home Southern Gothic feel and a shot of 1950's innocence, the film's original idea is quite interesting: that a Civil War widow who ordered the murder of her five children now haunts the crumbling remains of her mansion and can be summoned back at the command of teenagers in search of a good fright. The premise of the film is that history might repeat itself, that the teens in the movie might bite off more than they can chew by trying the trick for themselves. In the end, though, the writing is pretty awful and the delivery isn't significantly better. While all of the more abstract scenes and the camera work that accompanies them - basically anything that doesn't involve dialogue - are very impressive, they're dragged back under the surface by the poor acting, while the character development, such as there is, acts in direct contradiction to the rest of the film. The jarring disconnect between the characters' relationships and what's apparently happening around them made me wish I could edit this film myself. Somewhere in its 80+ minutes there's a terrifying half-hour short I would gladly have paid just as much to see in a third of the time.