Take Back the Night – Intense Mystery
Director: Gia Elliot
Writer: Gia Elliot, Emma Fitzpatrick (Screenplay)
Starring: Emma Fitzpatrick, Angela Gulner, Jennifer Lafluer, Sibongile Mlambo, Corina Kinnear, Kati Sharp
Plot: Finding herself the victim of a violent monster attack, Jane launches a vigilante campaign to hunt the beast that tried to kill her. Jane’s efforts intensify, but her troubling history of drug use and mental illness bubbles to the surface causing her family, community, and authorities to question the authenticity of her account. Suddenly alone in her fight, Jane starts to doubt her own memory of the attack…to doubt if Monster exists at all.
Runtime: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Take Back the Night starts when a social media artist Jane (Fitzpatrick) is celebrating her work, when she finds herself alone in an alleyway near the party, here she will find herself attacks by something she can’t explain, a monster in her eyes.
As the detective (Lafleur) starts to look into the case, she believes it could be a typical attack, but Jane’s past will make it harder to believe her story, with her social media presence only making the case harder to solve.
Thoughts on Take Back the Night
Characters & Performances – Jane is a social media influencer and artist with one of her first major shows being the celebration she has worked so hard for. The after party will see her become a victim of a terrifying attack, from an attack she can’t remember, seeing her become convinced she was attacked by a monster, rather than a person. Jane is like most victims, she wants answers, lives in fear and will stand up to help others speak out about their stories. Emma Fitzpatrick is brilliant in the leading role, showing the strength needed to show the assault her character has been through. When it comes to the supporting characters, we have the sister of Jane who is looking to support her, while a detective is trying to uncover the truth about what has happened. The supporting characters only help Jane through the events.
Story – The story here follows a woman as she needs to convince people of an attack, she went through is from a monster, while others around her believe it was just an attack from a person, while living with the shadow of the attack haunting her, using her own social media presence to get people to pay attention to what happened. This is a story that will put a focus on how isolated a victim can become, while leaving plenty of mystery about what really happened, keeping us guessing to what we are waiting to see unfold. This does have an important message about how people will need to support a friends, family and listen to their stories.
Themes – Take Back the Night is a horror thriller that will mix the effects an assault with the idea that a monster is roaming in the streets, looking for more victims. The big city adds to the uncertainty about what has happened. The creature design also gets used to add to the idea of not knowing what Jane saw, leading to a much bigger set of ideas going on within the story.
Final Thoughts – Take Back the Night is an intense thriller, filled with uncertainty.
