by Ken Wynne
Directed and co-written by Jimmy Giannopoulos, alongside co-writer Diomedes Raul Bermudez, Alone at Night stars Ashley Benson (Pretty Little Liars) as camgirl Vicky. After a tumultuous breakup, she retreats to her friend’s remote cabin in the woods to clear her head and perhaps make a few bucks as an exhibitionist for the adults-only, live-streaming website ‘18 & Over’ (also Alone at Night‘s original title – when the producers were trying to sell the movie as an overpriced NFT). What could possibly go wrong? Everything apparently! From tired slasher tropes (like the overused power cut jump-scare) to the well-executed yet mundane, unimaginative death count, courtesy of the crowbar killer… you know, like The Driller Killer, but without Abel Ferrara’s psychodrama intensity!
Featuring appearances from Sky Ferreira (Lords of Chaos) and Luis Guzmán (Wednesday), it’s Benson’s final girl that carries Alone at Night throughout its 90-minute running time. Alternating between her entrepreneurial online sex work, interacting with the locals – including an underutilised Pamela Anderson (Baywatch) as the town’s sheriff – and watching trashy reality television hosted by Paris Hilton! This social commentary on reality TV (and voyeurism) later provides the film with its meta-twist ending that recontextualises the film…for the worse! Unfortunately, the tone doesn’t fit with the rest of Alone at Night, and the climatic Kevin Williamson-esque twist misses the meta mark entirely. There is nothing for audiences to rediscover or re-evaluate under this new context either. Like reality TV itself, it felt lazy, vapid, and exploitative.
Alone at Night is out now on digital platforms.
