The Night Shift and Walking a Fine Line: A Movie Review

*A screener of this film was provided by Fighting Owl Films.

Director/writer: Thomas Smith.

Thomas Smith's The Night Shift is based on a 2009 short, of the same name (review here). Now, Smith has expanded the mythos of a graveyard full of undead and rotting residents to a full length feature film. Currently on the film festival circuit with a showing at the Stanley Hotel May 6th, The Night Shift is hard to classify in genre, but the film is full of campy fun. Rue Morgan (Khristian Fulmer), an obvious reference to Rue Morgue magazine, is in the center of the action, with werewolves, and undead Civil War relics threatening to oust him as cemetery caretaker. The two hours spent in the graveyard is mostly a tame time, with The Night Shift struggling to find some much needed pointy teeth.

Starting with a zombie romance is almost always a good move, but adding in a talking skeleton is even better. Herbie (Soren Odom) plays the bag of bones, who is the sidekick in a two part comedic act. Rue Morgan is the second part in the comedy duo and some of the jokes just do not come across as edgy enough. The Night Shift seems to stay in PG territory, despite Herbie blowing up fictional demons, like Adremalech (Andrew Crider). The rolling comedy from Herbie and others could have rode the line closer to adult material, rather than safety of the adolescent.

You have to feel pity for the central character, Rue, as he lusts for Claire Rennfield (Erin Lilley) - another obvious reference to the Resident Evil film or video game series. It must be really hard to pick up chicks, when you are rotting above and below the waist. Claire seems to encourage this undead character's advances, while she promises to unseat Rue with his competitor Captain Roderick (Jonathan Pruitt). The romance seems more friendly than true passion and The Night Shift does not get the chemistry quite right between these two characters.

One of the more interesting features in The Night Shift is the use of office politics. Just like any corporation, the cemetery has a group of mysterious absent board members, who seem to screw much of anything that goes on in their establishment, the graveyard. Also, not only is Rue unmanned in the area of romance, but he is symbolically removed of his pistol and position as resident caretaker. Soon, Teen Wolf makes an appearance and residents run amok, as Rue does his best to regain his title as Alpha male of the necropolis.

The Night Shift is simply an unobtrusive, light romp through a graveyard, where creatures of the night are free to do as they please. Even George A. Romero makes an appearance and one begins to wonder what Smith could do with his next film, if he tried to make the material a little more edgy. The 120 minutes is not time wasted, but the film could have strengthened some of the reel's slower parts with a jump scare or two. More make-up effects are also necessary in Smith's next endeavour, to create a more terrifying graveyard scenario.

Editing/photography/sound: 6 (some issues with sound and adr, or dubbing).
Directing/control/style: 7 (some interesting night shoots, good diversity of characters).
Writing/plot/unfolding of events: 6 (more tension required, or mystery).

Overall: 6.3 (entertaining, but some mistakes usually associated with first feature films e.g. changing cameras or lenses mid scene).

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