Mischief Night (2013)

MISCHIEF NIGHT is a pretty lacklustre movie that feels entirely derivative of previous, better films in the genre. There are elements of THE STRANGERS here in the presence of masked villains who say very little and creep around houses, alongside throwbacks to the classic 'blind woman' thrillers like WAIT UNTIL DARK. Another blind woman thriller I saw recently was the Michael Keaton-starring PENTHOUSE NORTH, which is about on par with this one.After a fairly confused and irrelevant opening sequence, we're introduced to the usual type of premise: there's a young blind woman in a house on her own at night, on "mischief night" of all things, which is when houses get egged and the like (it's sort of a tamer version of THE PURGE). Inevitably the bad guys show up with murder in mind, and there's a lot of tiptoeing back and forth and suspense scenes involving broken glass, poor mobile phone signals, and the like.Sadly this is the type of film where we've seen it all before, and it doesn't help that the lead character is completely unsympathetic so I had no particular desire to see her make it through the night. The filmmakers try very hard to make this frightening and suspenseful, but if I'm honest I was bored by it all.

From the start this movie is just not serious enough not to be the complete joke that it is, and this is no comedy. The only mischief this movie gets up to is an over indulgence in add-libs, and a real lack of a good story. If you watched any of the "large number" of Gene Simmons wife's movies from the 90's or Halloween you have already seen this twice. A question asked by O'Connor in the movie is "what is mischief night?" No one ever gives a real answer, and we are just supposed to believe that it is a night that has always just been around. Don't waste any time with this movie, you want a good scare find a Rob Zombie movie with numbers in the title. You won't Enjoy this, I know I sure didn't.

"Mischief Night" was actually a nice surprise. I hadn't initially expected much from this movie, but still decided to watch it. And it turned out to be a rather good movie actually.The story is about a teenage girl, Emily (played by Noell Coet), who is rendered blind after a tragic car accident with her mother. Now on October 30th, what is known as Mischief Night, where youngsters play physical pranks on people and houses alike, Emily is about to stay at home all by herself, as her father (played by Daniel Hugh Kelly) is about to head out on a date after 9 years of solitude after his wife died. However, things quickly turn to horror as Emily is terrorized by an unknown assailant, who eventually gets inside the house.Storywise, then "Mischief Night" was entertaining and thrilling, with just the right amount of thrills and twists of events to keep the movie fresh and interesting. If you are here for a slasher movie, then you will be sorely disappointed.The acting was quite good, despite the relative small ensemble of cast members. Noell Coet was nicely cast for the lead role, and she carried the movie quite nicely.The movie cover says "the lucky ones die quickly", well that is sort of misleading as this movie isn't particularly high on body count. So don't get your hopes up on that account."Mischief Night" is entertaining and should be on your to-watch-list if you enjoy thrillers.

I've been following these filmmakers (clicking on Schenkman's and Wilkinson's IMDb pages) since "The Man From Earth". I loved that film and their output since has been hit or miss. From looking at their filmographies, it appears that this is the first movie they have made together since that film and I have to say, they are much better filmmakers as a team.For me, Mischief Night was a lot of fun. While one might consider this as just another entry into the slasher genre or the home invasion genre, at the same time they have introduced some original elements to it that separates Mischief Night from it's bigger budgeted counterparts. The story is simple... On the night before Halloween, a blind girl is left alone as her widowed father goes out on his first date in almost a decade. An intruder enters the house (returning to the scene of a grisly murder he performed at the very same house, presumably a year before) to wreak havoc. Now the blind girl must defend herself in any way possible to stay alive. LIGHT SPOILERS: I loved the idea of having the "killer" right in front of his prey and she doesn't even know it. The other thing I enjoyed was the fact that the filmmakers didn't even give the "intruder" a motive or any back story (not unlike The Strangers or Halloween... Michael was just "pure evil"). It just made the proceedings WAY creepier. The film is more of a throwback to Halloween, than anything else (let's face it, Halloween was a "home invasion film" way before we were calling them home invasion films). And like Halloween (including the late October setting), Mischief Night is also kinda light on gore. Since it was a slasher film of sorts, I was expecting more blood and guts (it has just enough few bloody shots to satisfy fans of the genre, but nothing overtly graphic like a Saw or Hostel). LIGHT SPOILERS OVERThe acting was also surprisingly top notch with kudos going out to the relatively unknown Noell Coet (as the blind girl), Daniel Hugh "Hardcastle" Kelly as the dad and Adam Edwards (also never heard of), who actually brought some personality to the killer, despite having nothing but one line in the whole film. Yes, there was some inexplicable but typical "horror movie behavior" from the characters (going upstairs? Going BACK to the house? Really?), but I also got the sense the film was playing to the expectations of the genre but attempting to do something new at the same time.Overall, I liked it. Its MUCH better than the typical DTV fare (It said it had a theatrical release on October 30 on iTunes but I couldn't find it... I just rented it there). Just check your brain at the door, give in to the movie and you'll have a lot of fun. If I can find it for less than $10 when it comes out on DVD, I'd add it to my collection.