Nigel P Candyman's Tony Todd growls his way through the role of Ruber, caretaker to the infamous Jericho Manor. Todd gleefully hams his way through his scenes, but manages never to send up the subject matter.Two policemen observe footage left behind by a group of internet documentary makers. They have been locked in the Manor overnight and the policemen, Detectives Anderson and Jenkins (Joseph Milson and Gary Mavers) are determined to find out what happened to them. Paul (the essential unsubtle idiot of the group), Jason, Anne-Marie, Sheila (the clairvoyant) and Amanda the hostess with ideas above her station. The cast are enthusiastic but not always convincing, which is a common trait with low budget projects like this. The characters have their flaws of course, but are never as needlessly unlikable as several other groups portrayed in 'teen' horror films.It might be easy to dismiss this as 'Blair Witch in a haunted building' - and there is a scene in which Amanda (Cicely Tennant), having been brought down to size by her experiences, records a goodbye message to her parents much like Heather did in the 1999 film - but here the protagonist is not quite spectral. Furthermore, this is not quite a found footage film. It is a film about two Detectives looking at found footage - with that in mind, the addition of jump scares and an incidental score is somewhat explained. And the reactions of Jenkins are very effective.The twist at the end also really impressed me. The reveal of the killer is very well handled, as is his habit of gently kissing his victims before they die. Good fun.

Harbottle-64 Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. What started as a promising, if unoriginal, British slant on the now common theme of "Ghost Hunters meet evil spirits in a Haunted House" (think Grave Encounters), quickly gave way to a rather humdrum plot that was very disappointing.Despite the presence of Tony "Candyman" Todd, the acting seemed at best to be that of a provincial amateur dramatic group (think The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild Dramatic Society), but not as interesting. "Characters" quickly revert to stereotype. Todd tries to make up for this by hammily overacting, although he does manage to steal every scene he's in (not difficult).The "police station" scenes are wholly unconvincing and the "policemen" laughable. With numerous bog-standard crime fare on telly and in films, surely it wouldn't be too difficult to make these scenes reasonably realistic? Er, no.The "twist" in the plot is hardly surprising, although the reason for it is strangely bizarre. The denouement comes as a blessing for various reasons. I can't remember welcoming the closing titles in a film more readily. Not good. Avoid.

jcalicdan3 This movie was a waste of time. Acting horrible, fighting scenes were fake and looked fake, actors were over dramatic and the scenes were just out of place. It was a waste of time and I will definitely not be recommending this to anyone even my worst enemy. This movie was portrayed to be scary and wasn't. The camera setting wasn't interesting it set right to make it interesting and for the lighting it was obvious that the killers would have seen it but it was just awful. The people who were in the movie were just over actors who have gotten recognized. Some of the scenes were so fake. For example the female that feel down the stairs. She fell in a certain way where she definitely should not have died but she did. I mean how did she die with falling like that?? Also with the other deaths, it just made no sense and I'm done scenes you can see the feet of the people that were recording it. Just horrible!!

Reaper-of-Souls I must say I had been looking forward to watching this for quite some time, and it wasn't just because of Tony Todd (CANDYMAN) having a somewhat sufficient role in it. No. I was intrigued by the plot. A found footage film about the paranormal with a slasher element added in for good measure. Take that and surround it all with an ongoing detective investigation and you have DEAD OF THE NITE.I really wanted to like this film, and I tried, but it just couldn't deliver. The acting was nothing spectacular, but better than one would expect coming from a film with a $20k budget. The kills were a major let down, very unimpressive and practically bloodless. I really had a big problem with the filming/editing. As we are watching the found footage from multiple cameras, it is edited to look like a normal film instead of what actual found footage would look like. It was also quite predictable. Several things were apparent before they happened. I knew the "twist" ending long before it was revealed.Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway), I was very disappointed. DEAD OF THE NITE had the potential to be a really decent film, but ultimately it failed. Not even the presence of the great Tony Todd could save it. What a shame.