Nightlight

* ½

Covington forest has notoriety for being a place not to visit if you wanted to remain alive. It was obvious that some kids (teens) would take this infamy and see if it was true. There’s this cynicism to be tested. Nightlight (2015) takes the found footage in a slightly creative route: the camera is on the flashlight. So wherever the flashlight points, the camera records. Shelby Young’s Robin, a “smart nerd who has longed to hang with the ‘cool kids’”, has been invited to play the “flashlight game” in the Covington woods where suicides are well known and the presence of something evil is recognized within the environs. Ben (Mitch Hewer), is a Brit Robin has a shine for. Nia (Chloe Bridges) is the affluent snob Robin desperately wants to impress. Nia never seems to be the kind of person Robin would ever achieve friendship with. Nia’s humor and snide remarks directed towards Robin focus on her strata within her peer group at school. Like Robin’s current crappy job (because she doesn’t come from affluence), or her interest in Ben. Ben takes her flashlight and plays a game of “hide and seek”, but what awaits him in the woods is a creature so bloodthirsty, when it attacks we get a realization that he was flesh for the beast. 

The clever use of the flashlight concept wasn’t lost on me. Like when Ben is attacked. Even though we don’t see it, some blood, Ben’s falling to the ground from a rock formation (his eyes going white), and a wolf with a nasty snarl and growl are all we need once the flashlight starts to catch flight as it leaves its victim’s hand. When Robin finds herself in the skeletal body of an infamous church as bats fly right at her, when she catches her foot in a bear trap, and the unfortunate stumbling into a rattler that strikes right at her while in a coil, the flashlight concept offers some interesting angles and revelations. Carter Jenkins, as goofball Chris, gets his “ghost story” about Covington (which came from Wikipedia, by the way), while blonde Taylor Murphy as Amelia winds up being pretty meaningless other than “she’s the hottie of the group quite desired by Chris who is confidant she will give him a little during their night in the woods”. Robin is the character that is used as the focal point whose flashlight is what ultimately captures most of what we see. The flashlight of Ethan (a kid interested in Robin, but he’s denied because she is infatuated with Ben; he would be the last to commit suicide before the kids of this flashlight game we watch fall apart) being used at one point was a rather disturbing touch. Truth is, the film is about the device while the characters are caricatures merely existing as victims to die oddly according to the mythos of the woods. A name carved in wood seals the fate of those who write them in trees of Covington.

Using the flashlight too much could beckon the evil spirits. If you get drowsy or sleepy, that could be a sign you are becoming a vessel of possession. One scene has Robin and Nia walking under what look like street lights that turn on when someone walks under them. This is particularly innovative when there’s no physical body underneath them as Robin views from a slight distance and they start turning on.

Overall, though, this is much ado about nothing. The kids are at the mercy (supposedly) of Ethan, the kid from their grade in high school that few could care less about. He was hurting and no one seemed to give a shit. Robin was the only one really who could perhaps have helped the kid, but she fucked up by getting all googly-eyed for Ben. I don’t want to seem like an insensitive asshole but when Robin goes on and on about wanting to be a cool kid, and then later bowing in defeat, asking Ethan for forgiveness. She turns out to be pathetic.

There’s a lot of running around in the woods with Robin (seriously, was there no other character to focus the film’s length on other than her?) given key perspective through what she experiences. Sadly the only other “developed” character is the bitchy Nia, who I don’t think (unless you are a diva expecting jocks to fawn over you while you form an L with finger to your forehead calling people supposedly inferior to you a loser) anyone will give two shits about. Ben was somewhat likable but he’s a goner before you can really get to know him. Sadly, the best scene could actually be early when Robin is playing “run down the train tracks” (?!), drops her camera flashlight, and narrowly escapes a passing train. As the train passes, the camera shoots it. The striking snake isn’t too shabby either. But these key sequences are nowhere close to rescuing this from a long-lasting life collecting dust on a shelf in the remaining rental stores or a small shelf life in the redbox.