Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: NEVER AFTER DARK [SXSW Film - Austin, Texas]

"Never After Dark" [Midnighter] is, in many ways, a ghost story in reverse with a woman lost in her own memories who enters the possibilities of others until she finds a soul tethered in darkness to something else that is still living. Director Dave Boyle, who offered a unique balance of approach to "House Of Ninjas" on Netflix, understands the balance of worlds here while not losing track of the balance he is maintaining. Moeka Hoshi plays Airi, a medium that wanders through Japan offering her services to communing with the dead. People who believe they are being haunted by family members are given the chance to move on. What makes the story work is the ritual of the film and not trying for easy scares. It is about light switches being turned on and off and wide shots that shift in moments of imagery. Boyle wants to create a mood but also a familiarity. The key here is a melding of East and Western sensibilities though this is undeniably Asian horror. Airi communes with her sister whom no one else can see. We know the tragedy is there but there is an ease between them (initially I thought it was her daughter) The balance is that the mother who brought Airi to this house is just trying to understand why her son seems to be still haunting the house and is in this much pain (though the circumstance seems like it would have been clearer).

The woman's other son also doesn't believe that this is anything more than grief. However once the film starts to unpack its lore towards the end, it becomes much clearer what it is trying to do. The sinister balance is a reflection of what happened before and Boyle cleverly foreshadows a lot of it...and also what we should be afraid of. The use of a portal detail which is meant to pierce the looking glass between worlds per se makes the concept much clearer in how the waking world and ghost world functions. The title refers to the fact that Airi never works after dark, a nod to the fact that spirits might be more malevolent at night. But later Boyle uses daylight in a specific way that offsets this. However, the ultimate antagonist has to encounter this duality back and forth which is what brings the film to its necessary simmer. It is very interesting when these two elements of evil in certain forms, both unconscious or not per se, come into contact. Airi herself is just trying to find the balance giving just a little bit of herself each time to help the momentum shift. But ultimately though it is about sacrifice and the perspective, especially in that of Airi's sister. Who is protecting who becomes a very specific motif. Protection is a matter of will though the harm bestowed on a would-be ghost in the real world and how that is reflected in the present day through a harrowing hostage sequence of events, really brings the film to bear. "Never After Dark" doesn't go easy on the audience but yet is very lyrical in its long hallways and drifting shots in how it sees the world. B

By Tim Wassberg