Jay Rohr
Never After Dark aims for the eerie overall. Its strongest elements work in concert, creating an atmosphere that easily results in zotto suru. These components sometimes take advantage of the film’s formulaic moves to shift expectations. Often, though, the movie is simple in a double-edged way. As such, its strengths can sometimes be weaknesses.
Airi (Moeka Hoshi) is a roving medium, always on the road traveling from job to job. People hire her to guide restless spirits to the other side. As such, she arrives at an isolated home in the woods to clear out a troubling ghost. Everything seems like business as usual until she encounters the gruesome apparition. It soon becomes clear that things aren’t what they seem, and Airi may be in considerable danger.
Never After Dark succeeds by sticking to a simple story. Sometimes it can feel formulaic, but that aspect also works to the film’s advantage. For example, audiences may recognize the setup for a jumpscare only to have the movie do something different. It creates tension, while changing expectations since knowing the formula doesn’t guarantee the outcome. More often Never After Dark avoids being needlessly complicated utilizing the same kind of simplicity used so effectively in Oddity (2024).
This is a straightforward supernatural story. Technically, on paper, it doesn’t seem very different from other similar features. Never After Dark distinguishes itself by generating a persistently eerie atmosphere throughout. The Village III location in Kiyosato used as the primary setting screams haunted property. An excellent combination of cinematography and production design maintains a dread sense that something is always lurking just out of sight. This is thanks in part to the filmmakers establishing their story’s supernatural rules in a direct way early on.
The downside is that there can be a degree of predictability to the narrative. Never After Dark reaches a point where most of the parts are in place, and the audience, likely aware of the course, are just waiting for things to happen. The film renews interest by having some events playout in slightly unexpected ways. Still, there’s an argument to be made that the movie could be a little shorter. While the pace is meant to inspire tense anticipation, Never After Dark occasionally creeps along when it could be moving quicker, any sense of slowness intensified by its predictability.
The upside is that this fright flick has a chill quality to it. It makes for the kind of oddly peaceful time killer genre fans enjoy. How scary the movie is ventures into territory too subjective to quantify. The surest thing to say is that Never After Dark has a truly unsettling ghost, visually and conceptually, at its core. Furthermore, writer-director Dave Boyle skillfully teases the entity before fully revealing it.
Since the majority of the story takes place in one location audiences will be glad that several scenes are shot from a variety of angles. This helps make things like opening multiple doors in a row feel fresh each time, but it also keeps a viewer engaged when showing the same room again and again. As much as these angles visually imply something off kilter about the haunted house; they make every shot seem different even when it’s the same thing from a moment earlier. It conjures a sense of never being on solid ground.
The use of practical effects is a one hundred percent A-plus element. Never After Dark rarely uses any CGI, and only then to polish a scant few minor moments. The vast majority of effects are pulled off using a variety of techniques from mirror tricks to body doubles. That lends an unsettling sense of reality to this supernatural story.
Selling the situation even more so is the cast. Moeka Hoshi (Shōgun) gives a subtle performance as a medium haunted by her sister who doesn’t seem to love the life she lives. She has a remarkable ability to shift from inviting to thorny, especially when dealing with the skeptical Gunji played by Kento Kaku (From Today, It’s My Turn). His acting is fine, but the role doesn’t add much except the prescribed skeptic to this supernatural procedural. Mutsuo Yoshioka (Chime) turns The Gaping Mouth Man into something unsettling, especially when his true nature is revealed. Tae Kimura (All Around Us) imbues the part of Teiko with the desperate credulity of someone hoping ghosts will allay her concerns about death, but the character seems underdeveloped since the story never explains her fixations.
There are several narrative threads that come across as wisps which never really get woven into anything worth noticing. It’s a persistent weakness because Never After Dark sacrifices opportunities to give the characters more personality and backstory in an effort to tease implicative tidbits that don’t add anything. The best example of this is how exactly Airi’s sister died which is meant to be a motivating force for future choices, but feels like a narrative element wasted. The same can be said for Gunji’s restrained attempts to flirt with her.
The result is a generic ghost story full of unexplored avenues. Sticking to the simple narrative keeps things uncomplicated but also prevents the feature from developing intriguing uniqueness. There’s very little here that hasn’t been done elsewhere and occasionally far better. Consequently, Never After Dark doesn’t have any absorbing thematic aspects.
Genre fans might appreciate a scary story they haven’t seen before, though the feature doesn’t offer much that’s truly memorable. Never After Dark manages to manifest a prevailing eeriness throughout, however, atmosphere can only carry a movie so far. The cast is wonderful. Unfortunately, their performances are hampered by a script that doesn’t conjure compelling characters. The roles hardly get beyond generic tropes.
While Never After Dark is a serviceable supernatural fright flick, it lacks the scares necessary to overcome its weaknesses. The mix of overly familiar components in a great looking movie doesn’t have enough horror to keep it constantly captivating. Although it won’t hurt to watch, there’re better ghost stories out there.
