Fear the Night - A not Satisfying Home Invasion Thriller Movie

I was actually planning on seeing another movie in the theater last night with my wife, but alas it no longer played in the cinema near our home. Instead this movie replaced it, so I saw it by myself as my wife was not interested in it. Anyway here's more on the film.

Brief Story Line

Tess (Maggie Q - The Protege, Designated Survivor TV series etc) and her estranged older sister Beth (Kat Foster - 'Til Death TV series etc) decided to temporarily set aside their differences for bachelorette party of their youngest sister Rose (Highdee Kuan). The party was set in their old house located in a secluded place and they went together with several old friends such as Mia (Gia Krovatin - Dirty Weekend etc), Noelle (Ito Aghayere -  Carol's Second Act TV series etc), Divya (Roshni Shukla) and few others.

However, the party turned into a scary situation for them when a group of people led by Perry (Travis Hammer) tried to invade the house with unknown motive. As the women were in distress, Tess who was a war veteran had to think of a way for them to survive the night.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Honestly I only gave this movie a chance because it starred Maggie Q who was well versed in martial arts and usually her films would have plenty of actions. I actually saw its trailer in the cinema before which showed so much detail up to the point that I had to take my eyes off the screen to avoid spoilers, but it did seem like the suspenseful kind. However, when I watched this movie, the early part was overly detailed that it took almost one third of the movie to get to the interesting part. 

After that long wait, the movie start to feel quite intense as the women tried to survive the attack. Unfortunately these women were characterized as such annoying persons that instead of feeling sympathetic to them, I actually did not feel sorry at all when one by one they found their fate (except maybe for the first victim which made me confused as the survivors did not seem to be affected so much considering they were very close to her).

The thing that rather disappoint me was the fact that Maggie Q was not given the chance to show her fighting capabilities as the actions were a bit scarce and too brief. Although it did give her more time to shine in other areas (she seemed convincing as the stressed out war veteran and at least showed that she was good in acting as well).  In term of story, it was pretty standard and nothing extraordinary (not that I expected more any way, so it was not a great factor for me). It was written and directed by Neil LaBute who had quite vast experience as director of In the Company of Men, Death at a Funeral and few others, including creator of Van Helsing TV series.

Aside from the short amount of intense scene, there was final part called Epilogue which was confusing. It did not seem to give additional value to me personally and if the purpose was to give closure, I did not think it was successful and created more ambiguity instead. Critics and audience did not seem to appreciate the movie either with poor rating by both. So if you are looking for an intense home invasion movie or Maggie Q kicking ass, then you would find very little of it here. I personally was not too satisfied with this and only had little excitement during the movie. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars