Night of the Reaper 2025 Movie Review
No matter how many horror/slasher movies set in the 1970s or 1980s are released, you can guarantee there will be eager viewers (us included) ready to watch. Night of the Reaper, streaming September 19 on Shudder, is the latest film of this sub-genre following in the footsteps of John Carpenter’s Halloween as an intriguing, creepy Halloween-set horror flick. Although not particularly novel and derailed by a third act twist, Night of the Reaper effectively draws upon Scream, House of the Devil, and When A Stranger Calls to make for a worthy addition to your spooky season watch list this year.
From director and co-writer Brandon Christensen (Superhost, The Puppetman), Night of the Reaper takes place in a quaint American suburb in the 1980s. Sometime after a masked murderer kills a babysitter, college student Deena (Jessica Clement) returns home and reluctantly takes on a last-minute babysitting job for local sheriff Rod Arnolds (Ryan Robbins). That same day, Sheriff Rod receives a series of cryptic packages that kick off a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with the masked murderer. As Sheriff Rod tries to uncover the identity of the murderer, Deena finds herself in the killer’s crosshairs.
Christensen crafts a competently made, suspenseful, lean horror movie with Night of the Reaper. The film kicks off with an intricately crafted opening, inspired by the original When A Stranger Calls, that takes its time slowly building tension and a sense of danger, rather than rushing to a bloody kill before cutting to the title card. It’s an intelligent beginning that precludes a horror film in which the frights don’t come from lazy jump scares or excessive gore, but, rather, from the palpable tension that arises when the audience is left to methodically watch things progress from intriguing to eerie to terrifying.
The strong start gives way to a story characterized by two main storylines. One of these storylines follows Sheriff Rod as he investigates a series of strange packages and snuff films that tie back to previous unsolved murders in the town. These scenes of the movie take on a more chilling and intriguing, rather than a scary, tone and play much like a creepy whodunnit (à la Scream, albeit with a decidedly more serious tone). The audience tags along as Sheriff Rod looks into clues, interviews suspects, and tries to unravel a mystery he can’t quite back sense of, all of which make for gripping viewing.
The other storyline follows Deena, a solemn teen who returns home for Halloween during her first semester at college. Deena is clearly plagued by past trauma, the nature of which remains explicitly unclear for much of the movie (although it’s quite obvious what the trauma entails from the get-go). Her mother is troubled and her father sits watching television in a catatonic state, making the offer to babysit the sheriff’s kid for a night an enticing proposition. From there, Deena’s storyline operates as a cross between Carpenter’s original Halloween and Ti West’s House of the Devil. To call it a strict slasher would be somewhat of a mischaracterization as Night of the Reaper doesn’t feature killers hacking innocent victims to death left, right, and center. Instead, this narrative thread, like House of the Devil, provokes fear and suspense through the seemingly simple, yet highly effective, premise of a young woman being in a dark house at night alone (for the most part). Admittedly, the vast majority of the scares come from creaking doors, mysterious sounds, and ominous shadows in and around the house, which, although eventually becoming repetitive and tiring, foster the exact cozy yet creepy vibe you want from a movie like this. Imagine the scene from Longlegs in which the titular killer creeps around Maika Monroe’s character’s house and you can get a sense for what kind of chills are in store in Night of the Reaper.
With parallel storylines intriguing and unsettling in equal measure, Night of the Reaper deteriorates in its third act. Director and co-writer Christensen admirably goes for a more subversive take on the ultimate slasher movie reveal but unfortunately misses the mark with a twist that poses more questions than it answers. The reveal, while unexpected in a number of ways, relies on certain characters somehow coming to know things, although it is entirely unclear how they arrive upon that information. The twist also entails that certain characters are somehow capable of predicting events and others’ behaviors with a startling and unrealistic degree of precision. In turn, any and all surprise that comes from the reveal is hindered by how frankly unsatisfying and puzzling it is given the number of assumptions viewers need to make or plot gaps viewers need to overlook. Due to how compelling the first two acts are, this third act unfortunately sees the movie take a steep drop in quality and sees investment in the story and characters dissipate come the end. Although not quite disastrous enough to tarnish the strong film that came before it, the ultimate reveal and its explanation (or lack thereof) in the third act certainly derail engagement.
Night of the Reaper gives horror fans another creepy, 1980s-set Halloween slasher-esque film to enjoy. After an intricately crafted, When A Strange Calls-inspired cold open, the new Shudder film from director and co-writer Brandon Christensen leans into its Halloween and House of the Devil influences with an eerie tone, methodical pacing, and creepy vibes, rather than overt scares. Two parallel storylines see half of the movie unfold as a compelling, intriguing whodunnit and the other half as an unsettling house movie with effective, yet repetitive, scares. Unfortunately, a third act twist that poses more questions than it answers and relies on all sorts of assumptions and leaps of logic depletes investment in the story and the characters, although the strength of its first two acts do just enough to prevent total derailment. Despite not being particularly novel and hindered by this third act twist, Night of the Reaper bolsters enough intrigue, suspense, and chills to make it a worthy addition to your spooky season watch list this year.
