source: Nightshade

For starters, there is no political or social agenda in this film. That right there is worth the price of admission as far as I'm concerned. Outside of that, I'm not sure why so many people found this movie to be that bad. You've got murder. You've got intrigue. You've got suspense. You've got misdirection. You've got a plot twist. You've got the supernatural. I mean, what more do people want? To be spoon fed every little detail? The actors were all very capable - nobody is going to be winning any awards for their performances, but at least nobody was just phoning it in like much of today's garbage. The story was interesting, but I'm not sure what the occult shop really had to do with anything. It seemed like that was a scene that could have been left on the cutting room floor, but.. it didn't detract any from the movie, so... My only objection - and I find this in ALL of the movies made today - NOBODY knows how to freaking light a scene anymore! I swear this whole section could be used cut and paste in the review of almost everything coming out these days. Room lights are nothing more than nightlights. In indoor scenes that are shot in broad daylight , the ONLY light in the whole room is from a window or glass door and that somehow fails to spread ANY light to the rest of the scene. Not to mention the fact that the actors are filmed in front of the light source with no fill light whatsoever, so the entire person is in deep shadow. If you want to give it a failing review grade on lighting (or lack thereof)... go right ahead, but otherwise, the movie is well worth watching.

A true C grade Hallmark Thriller where the banal elements of tarot cards, hypnosis and energy come together...so that the true killer can be concealed.

Bern Hays (Lou Ferrigno Jr.) is a homicide detective who has sleep, nightmare, and premonition issues. He shares the details of his cases with his doctor (Dina Meyer). His wife recently miscarriage. The story lacked the witchcraft element until the end. This made the film dull. Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity. Lou takes a lot of showers.

Three things. 1) the bad ending. 2) the presentation style is a bit confusion. And 3) the very end gun shot scene is also confusing. Except those three things, the film is kind of doing okay. It would have been a good one if there were more efforts.

This crime thriller has some relatively decent aspects to it but it never truly works and it quickly becomes a tedious experience. It has stilted acting, little to no originality and a generic, yet competent, music score. In fact, one could describe the film as well funded and with some creative cinematography sprinkled throughout but the story is empty and theres nothing to be engaged by. Overall, its a worthless movie.

... are high in this low budget occult thriller, but the acting is mediocre at best. As a cynic, one might call it a low-income, low-intelligence version of Lars von Trier´s "Antichrist". The good thing is that this flick is not that long, so the time of your life wasted is limited.

OMG, give me my 90 mind back, please!!! Don't waste your money or your time. This thing is so boring and silly I had to keep rewinding it because I kept wandering away. Awful!

"I want you to know that I love you very much". Uh-oh. Someone's housewife has gone a little cray cray in the City of Angels. She's the antagonist in a cop thriller a la the "voodoo that you do". So yeah, Nightshade is said cop thriller and my first write-up for 2022. Call it police procedural dread that's two years removed from Body Cam. Nightshade stars Lou Ferrigno Jr and well, he's the son of Lou Ferrigno. Lou Ferrigno Jr is not a bad actor but he seems miscast as a sleuth-hound with disturbing nightmare issues. He appears more like a model for Men's Health Magazine. Hey at least Ferrigno Jr emotes more than his dad ever did (the occasional hulking out and green makeup don't really count as emoting). Anyhow, Nightshade is an 80s stoner pretense coveted by a director who has seen one too many movies by other directors (David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, David Fincher, Alex Cox). With Nightshade, Landon Williams styles it up for the masses. Employed by the lens he uses and the ominous music by Benjamin Burney, Landon's film is acid trip noir while featuring enough Apocalypse Now fan shots to form a drinking game. Dark and saturated while harboring a nanosecond cameo by Jason Patric and supporting work from Dina Meyer (she just gets sexier with age), Nightshade is about a detective (Ben Hays) whose trippy dreams and psychic leavings help him try to nab a brutal killer. Look for a twist you don't quite see coming and plenty of fuzz cliches (the frazzled partner battling demons, the angry captain, the token, odd buddy cop couple). In truth, Nightshade's outcome doesn't bode well and that might be its strongest asset (talk about a Karma Houdini). It is not the first great flick of 2022 but it is the first flick of 2022. Call it a "night".

Nightshade