So I sat down the other night with a dish of pudding to watch the film NOCTURNE, a new séance gone wrong story of a group of friends at a party celebrating their high school graduation. Right from the start I found it to be a frustrating experience.  The film did such a poor job of introducing the characters that I became irritated trying to figure out who everyone was and what their relationship was to each other.  All of the actors looked older than high-schoolers but one in particular, Maren, looked and initially behaved more like a parent or maybe an older sister.  At one point I was sure that she was Isaac’s sister but apparently not.

Who are these people?

Let me stop here and take a moment to try and straighten out the characters for you. Isaac is hosting the party at his house. Isaac is with Vi who is not going away to college in the fall so she can stay in town with Isaac. Maren and Liam are or were a couple until prom or maybe some other time. Gabe is the wacky friend with a creepy fetish that sort of but not really contributes to the plot in any way. And then there’s Jo. Jo brings us into this world. The movie opens with Jo visibly upset as she drives to Isaac’s house, pulling herself together just before going inside. Jo has a secret hidden under her shirt that nobody knows. Although, for some reason, they do all seem pretty determined to get her shirt off.

As I sat there trying to make sense of this group, something else began to irk me as well. The sound quality was pretty bad. I missed entire dialogue exchanges because I just couldn’t understand what was being said. Who knows? Maybe some of the dialogue I couldn’t make out could have cleared up some of my character questions. But I doubt it.

Greatest Hits

After NOCTURNE addresses why there are only six people at this graduation party, it’s time to move on to the séance. The ask the spirit a bunch of questions about each other. The answers reveal secrets such as Vi not really being in love with Isaac or Liam having left Maren at prom to go see Jo. This makes Maren mad so she leaves the table. Disregarding Gabe’s warning to not break the circle until they have said goodbye to the spirit.  Of course this leaves the spirit no choice but to possess Maren and kill the rest, but not before messing with each of them first.

As the film continued, it was not difficult figure out what was coming next as it mostly played liked a greatest hits of possession/haunting tropes. Some of which were poorly executed. One that ‘s made me so mad I had to stop eating my pudding, involved a section of the film where each time a character stepped through a door they ended up in a completely different part of the house and occasionally in an earlier point of the movie. Isaac experiences this and ends up trapped in the hot tub under the cover as the water begins to boils. The camera then shows the outside of the hot tub and reveals to us that Isaac is boiling to death while he and the rest are inside have the séance. So what!? Isaac doesn’t know this and earlier during the séance nobody said “Hey, do you hear something outside?” or “Is something…” I don’t know because there isn’t any sound or movement to draw their attention. I recall the cat staring outside. Not meowing or hissing, just staring. But nothing reminded me of that later.

I really didn’t hate everything

I can complement the film on a few aspects. Hailey Nebeker as Maren gave a really good performance especially when she was possessed. The effects were really impressive and certainly one of the higher quality parts of the film. And I will say that a couple of those classic horror clichés were done very well. Notably a sequence where Jo is sitting out in front of the house and an aura of dread comes over her. She senses something is out there and even catches a glimpse of a figure disappearing behind a tree. The way it was shot combined with the accompanying score made this one of the few scene that grabbed me.

Obviously I’m not a fan of NOCTURNE but I won’t deny the potential of these filmmakers. They just need to put less focus on gags and more on the characters so that what happens to them will matter to us, the viewers.