Alone At Night is a new horror thriller released this past January. It is directed and written by relative newcomer Jimmy Giannopoulos. Also, it has received universally bad reviews. I looked around. I checked it out. I couldn’t find any reviewer who said this movie wasn’t bad. Not one.

And that bugs me, because apparently I saw a different movie than everybody else. Now I want to be really clear from the get go: I didn’t think it was a great, brilliant, genre bending movie by any means. I don’t think there’s anything here for the next Stanley Kubrick to be taking notes on. However, I did think it was totally decent. Its worst sin is that it follows the slasher thriller formula too perfectly. Every tent pole scene is accounted for. Every trope is squarely in place. You know exactly how this movie is going to end from about five minutes in. (But hey, can’t die-hard horror fans say the same of about three quarters of the movies we see?)

Alone At Night follows Vicky (Ashley Benson), a camgirl who just broke up with her boyfriend. After the ex-boyfriend kicks her out, she stays at a friend’s cabin in the woods. Meanwhile, there is also a deranged serial killer on the loose. (Isn’t there always?) From the start we are sure that he is after Vicky, even though there is no obvious connection between the two. After all, why else would the action be following both storylines? As the cast of characters increases, whodunit is added to slasher, and we try to figure out who the killer is as bodies pile up.

Like I said, the movie is not without a few serious flaws. There are three instances where the main character makes decisions that were simply baffling. Even Carmen Electra in the opening scene of the first Scary Movie would have screamed, “What the hell?!” Halfway through, the director also makes a mistake of giving us a clue as to the true identity of the murderer that’s just a bit too obvious.

Beyond that, I don’t think this is a bad movie at all. It relies very heavily on each and every slasher/thriller film trope it can squeeze into 89 minutes. But it’s a slasher and a thriller. So I sort of expected those. What’s more I think it’s too harsh to hold their use against a film. Yes, the film doesn’t do anything new or very creative with those tropes, but it does them efficiently and effectively.

The technical side of the film is good as well. It is shot relatively well. Good use is made of celebrity cameos. The editing is well done. The camera work is also good, and even creative at times.

I really think Ashley Benson does a stand out job here. Because of the way the movie is shot, she ends up having to carry most of the burden in this film. I think she does it well. She remains watchable, believable, and I was worried for her safety and well-being all the way to the end. (Let’s be honest horror fans, we all know there are plenty of films where you could care less if the final girl dies.)

Alone At Night also offers up a healthy dose of social commentary. Two reviewers said that it was trying to be meta, like Scream, but just ended up being trite. The end goes for a clever meta thing that I agree doesn’t quite work. But I think that blinded the reviewers to the fact that the main storyline explores a far deeper issue. It’s a commentary on how - especially since COVID - we live in a world increasingly dominated by fake, virtual relationships. We desperately try to pretend they are real to maintain our own sanity in the midst of crushing loneliness, and sometimes we don’t know which relationships are real anymore. That’s worth looking at.

One last thing: I also think this film deserves some credit for showing just how much you can do with a horror flick on an extremely limited budget. It’s always good to be reminded that you don’t need $20+ million to make a good scary film.

So, with all that, yes, Alone At Night is a little bit dull and a whole lot “slasher flick by numbers”. However, it really isn’t as bad as a lot of the reviews are saying and I think folks will have fun with it and should consider giving it a try.

Written by Andrew

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