The Nightshifter is a Brazilian horror movie directed by Dennison Ramalho about a man whose vengeance turns into regret, resulting in his descent into madness. Stenio (Daniel de Oliveira) is a coroner who works the night shift in a morgue, cutting and reassembling dead bodies. He also has the gift of communicating with dead bodies. I liked the fact that the makers didn’t feel obligated to explain the significance of his peculiar gift; instead, they just regarded it as a trait that Stenio may possess. As a result, he encounters many corpses, most of whom are criminals and thugs with whom he frequently converses. For some strange reason, special effects were added to the mouths of dead people when they talked, which seemed unnecessary and weird. Anyway, one of these criminals, Sujo, who operates a heroin ring with his brother Jonas, tells him the name of the guy who murdered him. He orders Stenio to pass the information to Jonas.
Everything in Stenio’s personal life is a mess. Odete (Fabiula Nascimento), his wife, despises him and constantly chastises him for not being at home and not making enough money. She dislikes the smell he brings home, gets repulsed when he touches her, and is disgusted by him. Stenio learns she is having an affair with Jaimie (Marco Ricca), who owns a bakery shop. To exact revenge on Jaimie, a furious Stenio goes to Jonas and lies to him by naming Jaimie as the traitor who killed Sujo. Jonas goes to murder Jaimie but also ends up killing Odete, who was with Jaimie, which wasn’t what Stenio anticipated.
As Stenio deals with the guilt of killing his wife and the mother of their two children, Cica (Annalara Prates) and Edson (Cau Martins), the movie transforms into a psychological horror film. He starts hallucinating and experiencing strange visions, which frighten the kids and Lara (Bianca Comparato), Jaimie’s daughter, who is now watching the kids while Stenio works the night shift. And this is where the movie truly shines: in its depiction of Stenio’s many visions, where Dennison shows off his singular creativity and imagination. Stenio blames Odete for his hallucinations, believing she is now seeking vengeance. There are some disturbing scenes, like when a dead man’s spine goes missing from the morgue and is found in a gift box that Stenio gave to Edson at a party that he had planned for him. In another excellent scene, Stenio hears his kids screaming from their bedroom. As he walks through the living room to get to them, he sees that the room is full of sharp, cuttable kite thread. As he attempts to get to his kids, he repeatedly cuts himself from the kite thread. The children are terrified of their father. Stenio believes Odete, the figment of his imagination, is doing everything she can to drive a wedge between the children and their murderous father.
The movie’s main issue is Odete’s undeveloped character and unclear motivation. Her desire for vengeance on Stenio is evident, but the way she sought to exact it felt unconvincing. It felt like the makers were perplexed and unsure of what to do. Another thing I wasn’t a huge fan of was how the movie shifted gears from psychological horror to supernatural horror toward the end. Previously, we had been looking at things through Stenio’s eyes. He was starting to become delusional, which impacted him psychologically and scared people around him. The sudden shift into supernatural horror to reach a specific conclusion makes it seem like the filmmakers took the easy, clichéd route out rather than sticking with the same structure as the rest of the movie.
In a role that puts all the emphasis on him, Daniel de Oliviera skillfully balances the conflicting emotions of vengeance and remorse. He is especially good at playing a father on the verge of going insane and desperate for his kids’ affection. Despite some issues, The Nightshifter mostly succeeds thanks to a solid underlying theme and a few excellent scares. The movie is now streaming on Shudder.
The Nighshifter movie link: IMDB
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