&039Nightshade&039 Movie Review • Horror Facts

what does it mean when you start having premonitions about murder? no, I’m not talking about the plot of ‘evil’ or when you start to have insomnia and suspect that you might be living a double life. No, I’m not talking about the ‘fight club’ premise either. I’m talking about a movie that steals its ideas from more successful movies and mixes them to create the mess that is ‘beautiful grass’.

‘natureshade’ opens with randy bell (jason patric) trying to bury his recently murdered wife. As he tries to get rid of the evidence, her little daughter comes across the creepy scene, but instead of running scared, she runs across the lawn and picks up a book lying next to her mother’s body. p>

The cold opening ends as Bell tries to break down the door in search of her daughter and the mysterious book.

After this scene, we are introduced to Detective Ben Hays (Lou Ferrigno Jr.) who we learn has been suffering from a bout of insomnia presumably caused by the current homicide case he is working on.

To help him with his insomnia, Ben agrees to see Dr. collins (dina meyer), a psychiatrist who convinces him to try hypnotherapy.

His situation, however, goes from bad to worse as Ben begins to have visions of murders, all cases that seem to share eerie similarities with the one he’s been investigating.

As Ben loses his grip on reality, his wife Lucy (Kenzie Dalton) and fellow Detective Beckett (B.J. Britt) begin to suspect there may be more to Ben than he’s letting on.

‘Nightshade’ suffers from the beginning of the “I’ve seen it too many times before” trope: the protagonist who has unexplained premonitions of murder scenes and finds himself waking up in strange places with no idea how he got there. this, of course, leaves one with the assumption that this individual is the killer without their realizing it.

To its credit, ‘nightshade’ tries to set itself apart by working to establish our character’s innocence and leaves you wondering if there are more sinister forces at play here.

but it’s not long before you’re once again confronted with the same notion that ben is the killer. This is expressed through the fact that Ben continues to slide further and further into insanity and finds himself waking up in even more incriminating situations just as a recent string of murders occurs.

Working to continue to prove his innocence, Ben discovers a startling revelation that connects him to the victims, leaving him to wonder if he hasn’t been an unwilling pawn in a game.

warning spoilers below

The third act of ‘Nightshade’ features a twist that reveals that the young woman in the open cold was Lucy, and the mysterious book that belonged to her mother has allowed her to transfer her consciousness into Ben’s body to exact revenge for Ben’s death. his mother and punish those who manage to slip through the cracks of the legal system, like his father.

here, ‘nightshade’ exaggerated his hand with the concept of total possession. the idea that her wife can transfer her consciousness into her body is too far-fetched to leave behind.

Instead of incorporating this aspect of total possession into the film, it would have been better to incorporate more of the underused concept of voodoo, a concept only briefly hinted at by the momentary flashes of a voodoo doll on screen. The notion that she cast a spell and forced Ben to commit these acts under a voodoo trance would have been a more original and, dare I say, more plausible explanation than the one we got.

On a scale of 1-5 stars, I give this movie 2 stars.

‘nightshade’ tried to take an old story and mold it into something new and original but, in the end, the story never caught our attention. this is also largely due to the one-dimensional characters that made it impossible to care about anything that was happening on screen.

‘natureshade’ stars lou ferrigno jr. as Detective Ben Hays, Dina Meyer as Dr. Amy Collins, Jason Patric as Randy Bell, Kenzie Dalton as Lucy Hays, B.J. Britt as Detective Beckett, James Duval as Camel Officer, Tim Russ as Captain Burns, Eryn Rea as Elizabeth Bell, Jaime Gallagher as Dawn, Josie M. Parker as Lucy Young, Chris Levine as Officer Price, and Nick Sarando as Carlos.