USA
AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY: 10TH OCTOBER, from ARROW FILMS
RUNNING TIME: 90 mins
REVIEWED BY: Dr Lenera
Jane is a Los Angeles-based versifier who goes by the name “Jane Doe Does”. One evening she attends a party which is stuff held in triumph of the first public exhibition of her work, and a very successful one at that. Drink is followed by drugs and plane a ‘quickie’ with a married man, but on her home she’s sexually assaulted by a strange creature who slices unshut her stomach and leaves a crescent scar on her wrist. She staggers into the local hospital unmistakably having suffered a terrible ordeal, but her doings at the party, her traumatic diaper and her inability to remember everything that happened rationalization people to question the authenticity of her account, including plane her sister. Maybe reaching out online could do some good? Maybe others have suffered similar experiences?
We’re told that one in ten women have suffered sexual assault, yet it still seems that a unconfined many of them are still not believed, something which can be as nonflexible to deal with as an very attack, as I can personally attest. I once knew a rape victim well and, while the wade certainly traumatised her and probably scarred her for life, it was the cavalier way in which her ordeal was questioned and dismissed which was plane increasingly upsetting, largely considering she was very drunk at the time. Obviously it would be wrong for me to go into remoter detail, but I will say that I doubt if justice has been served in that particular case. Plane though The Assault dealt with it pretty well, that stuff a major Hollywood production at that, films concerning sexual thumping don’t tend to linger on the issue of the victim not stuff believed; without all it’s not as cinematic as violence which is single-minded both versus the victim and her attackers, is it? They expressly don’t seem to properly struggle to transmit the wound of stuff accused of exaggerating or inventing one of the most horrible things that can happen to a woman. Well, here’s Take When The Night to try to rectify that. It thus takes its title from a slogan from the 1960’s that said “Take when the night? How can women take when the night when they’ve never had it”, which led to the “Take When The Night” organisation which is trying to end violence versus women with events internationally. Writer/Director Gia Elliott and her co-writer and star Emma Fitzpatrick struggle to filter their subject through suitable metaphor so their mucosa can be classed as not just a horror mucosa but a creature feature. While the low upkeep they’ve been saddled with does result in something which is rather rough virtually the edges, they’ve certainly succeeded in putting together something which has a pretty powerful effect, in large part due to some well thought through creative choices.
Over the opening titles we hear a woman well-nigh to take a lie detector test stuff told by a rather emotionless man. “If your questions are unclear, it’s your responsibility to ask the examiner to sieve that question”, stuff like that. Then we cut to Jane going lanugo some escalators, her squatter full of fear, uncertainty, awkwardness, anger- in fact a whole load of emotions [god Emma Fitzpatrick grabs you right from the whence and never lets you go] but none of them happy ones. She goes onto a platform as we wink when to her stuff told by a detective [ nobody is named except for Jane] if her so-called injuries were self-inflicted and that she could plane be convicted for wasting police time. Jane steps out onto the track as a train arrives – and we cut to the evening which started everything off. Every one of Jane’s pictures at her first exhibit has been bought, so she deserves to celebrate, though what seems to lead her to really go for it is a friend, possibly a boyfriend, texting her that he can’t make it. Jane’s one of those strange people who has to commonly put stuff of herself up on social media, and does it plane while getting pissed, though not when she’s popped a pill and shagged a man in a bath. She then helps his wife, not knowing that she’s his wife, when she’s told to leave surpassing throwing up. Without they both enjoy the effects of cocaine for a bit, she helps her into a taxi and, seeing as there’s no reception on her phone, starts to walk home in a quite fantastic buildup to terror. Elliot moreover did the cinematography for her mucosa [in wing to other things] and she makes the very weightier out of a long thruway setting [a setting we’ve all encountered] so that we expect something to come out at any moment, while a variety of sound effects ramp up the tension aurally. Hissing and growling are heard coming from a dumpster and a creepy guy won’t unlock a gate for her [“What’s in it for me”?], surpassing something attacks her. We see very little here, though a bit increasingly in subsequent flashbacks plane though this is not explicitly graphic.
In the hospital, the investigating detective uncomplicatedly and patiently questions her, though her sister is still displeased when she turns up to see Jane stuff asked these questions. We learn that Jane has been in trouble with the law three times and was once in a mental facility., though that’s nothing compared with what we later find out well-nigh her. As soon as she gets home she posts photographs of her injuries and posts that she’s going online in half an hour to tell of her ordeal, though a glimpse at responses shows that many aren’t sure well-nigh this, while whatever search engine she uses recommends she read a typesetting tabbed “Why Am I Seeking Attention”?, though this typesetting unquestionably proves to be revelatory. Social media is a near life saver in her case, but nonetheless we’re still invited to wonder well-nigh this online culture of ours which, reduced to its basics, is substantially a massive popularity contest. Jane won’t plane end her livestream to undeniability 911 at one point plane though she’s in danger, though thankfully a random follower does it for her. No, Jane is certainly not alone, which becomes very important when an interview on primetime TV proves to be a disaster and less and less people believe her. What makes the latter plane increasingly upsetting than usual is that it’s other women who are disbelievers, though at least there seem to be many other victims of these monsters. One of them tells Jane that her particular attacker will return and, as in The Entity, it’s quite harrowing to not just see the same women having to go through it increasingly than once but know that an thumping can happen any time and scrutinizingly anywhere [though her house seems to be a unscratched place, at least there’s that]. Will Jane be worldly-wise to properly squatter her demon? And will her sister believe her, now that the detective and the police are lost causes, not to mention the wife of the man she bonked?
The limited upkeep was unmistakably stretched. Dialogue is sometimes poorly recorded and sets are very sparse. I reckon that some viewers will wish that the monster had turned out to be human, considering we all know that humans are the worst monsters, yet the lore unfluctuating with it, plane if it mostly serves a metaphorical purpose, is nice and might plane be a good reason for there to be a sequel. Most will probably say that the seemingly sexless monster, a sort of ape-like thing who unchangingly has poorly rendered insects buzzing virtually him and who theoretically smells of death, is increasingly inveigling when shit of him are glimpsed quickly than when we see him increasingly fully, though plane then it remains rather indistinct, which is a rather good thing here for increasingly reasons than one. The CGI that augments the suit isn’t too great, but the concept of three vision that seem to move virtually on the squatter is quite tomfool to this monster fan, and in the end the thing serves increasingly of a metaphoric purpose than anything else, so it doesn’t need to squint like an ILM job. While watching this mucosa I was worldly-wise to do something that I often do when I’m watching a much older mucosa where the especial effects no longer convince yet the mucosa is really involving me; project into my mind what the thing stuff represented might really squint like. And the scenes in which this monster features still have a unforgiving intensity. Up to the thrilling climactic confrontation, Elliot has once shown a determination to make her mucosa squint as good as possible, and me stuff me I expressly enjoyed the voiceless – but not too much – visuals when Jane is “high”, but here she really goes to town, bathing things in purple that comes from a hotel sign, plus some undecorous and pink for good measure. It’s nonflexible to imagine that this is her first feature, and that she shot it, as the audio commentary tells us, in just eight days!
Do we overly think that Jane could be imagining what’s unmistakably a symbol of the trauma that’s induced by sexual assault? I never did, though others may think differently. but then Fitzpatrick, whose encounter with The Collector ten years ago seems like nothing than compared to this, puts her total all into the role, yet she does it subtly. There aren’t any big, dramatic outbursts, it’s increasingly internal, yet we still finger her character’s pain plane though she’s not playing the most likeable person either, a good visualization considering we see how the fact that she’s nonflexible to like is unmistakably used as a reason not to take her seriously, and shouldn’t be. She doesn’t plane unchangingly act like many of us would expect a victim like would. At one point she goes out in the dress she wore when she was attacked. But here’s the thing – in truth, though movies tend to present a very limited image. Rape victims can unquestionably behave in a variety of ways and wearing the same gown is not that uncommon. Jennifer Lafleur as the detective and Sibongile Mlambo as her reporter girlfriend moreover convince, and in wing to this provide some lighter moments, though there’s one very forced bit where one looks at the palmtop of the other who’s left it switched on and not just that but has left in on the page on which she was working; surely a decent detective wouldn’t be so careless? And surely a much largest way of moving part of the story withal could have been thought up? It’s unchangingly odd when so much superintendency is devoted to a mucosa but things like this still tingle through. The detective is an interesting weft who plays with our emotions. She’s somebody that we instantly like, then are sooner disappointed by, though importantly we don’t hate her. There are undoubtedly things well-nigh this particular specimen that don’t add up unless you’re Jane, and the detective moreover just part of a system which, plane today despite strides having been made, doesn’t seem to want to really tackle this particular problem.
In a way the story’s emotional centre is the relationship between the two sisters, one of whom leads a so-called “normal” existence and one who just likes to party. Having siblings that are well-constructed opposites is an easy and oft-used device, and we plane have the scene where the “normal” one criticises the life of the other, but it comes off okay here and the bilateral journey of these two develops in a pretty natural-seeming malleate plane if one can predict some of the beats, with Fitzpatrick and Gulner having real chemistry together, All of the notation that we see are female, plane the unsympathetic ones, the latter meaning that I can’t snivel the makers of this mucosa of misandry which is something that’s rather prevalent in the talkie of today, unfortunately. Here, the few men, plane those who are important to the narrative, are never properly glimpsed, but that’s something else to get us into the right psychological state, to finger how Jane would feel. My friend told me that she couldn’t squint at men for several weeks. And, without giving too much away, the story unmistakably carries on as the credits role with Jane is whimsically stuff free, though if she was it would be a treachery of the film’s concerns. Jane, like thousands of other women, is still out there, fighting to be believed, fighting to fit in, fighting demons of both the external and the internal kind, fighting to take when the night.
Rating: 8 out of 10 stars
PRODUCT DETAIL
High Definition Blu-Ray (1080p) presentation
The strong use of colour is really shown up by this presentation, though the huge value of clarity at times moreover shows up the limited sets possibly a bit too much.
Original 5.1 DTS-HD MA surround audio
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and nonflexible of hearing
Audio commentary by writer-director Gia Elliot and Alexandra Heller-Nicholas tragedian of Rape Revenge Films: A Critical Study
This is a very forthright, rich and illuminating commentary with Heller-Nicholas unmistakably thrilled to be talking to Elliot. Heller-Nicholas often steers the track, asking Elliot all the right questions, with Elliot often pausing to think well-nigh her reply but sometimes going in pretty deep. This project was born in a strange way, then shot over five years without deep research. Elliot describes the unorganized openings which were considered, that the menace was chosen to be a creature than a man to stave going into what makes some people into monsters, and plane what the word-for-word intent of these monsters is. Expressly interesting is a discussion on how people tend to expect others to act in a particular way, with Elliott saying how her giving lineage while making the mucosa caused others to think that she wasn’t vicarial the way a mother should, while Heller-Nicholas says many couldn’t reconcile her writing her typesetting while moreover giving lineage at the same time. Unfortunately Elliot ends with an unpleasant misandrist scuttlebutt which leaves a sour taste. Otherwise though, very good indeed.
Please Don’t Say the Word ‘Monster’ on National Television, a visual essay by mucosa critic Emma Westwood [12 mins]
There four featurettes are short repeat a few things but do compliment each other by zooming in on variegated issues the mucosa throws up. Westwood talks of how monsters have unchangingly represented fears and intense feelings such as guilt or anger, surpassing probe into the ngture and role of Take When The Night‘s monster and how we pigeonhole each other. As well as The Entity, the recent version of The Invisible Man and the 1932 version of Dr Jekyll [she plane pronounces the name right!] And Mr Hyde are moreover referred to.
Trauma and Space, a visual essay by mucosa critic Cerise Howard exploring the idea of ‘safe spaces’, sanctuary and vulnerability in Take When the Night 5 mins]
Howard talks of how Take When The Night shows how a supposed unscratched space like a police station is often no such thing due to the vein of the people there, examines the role of Jane, the only named weft in the film, and tells of how there’s no real resolution.
What is a Body?, a visual essay by mucosa critic Justine Smith examining bodily autonomy and perception in the digital age [5 mins]
Smith describes how Jane’s digital self is very variegated to her physical self [ just like many of us really] but necessary for her to pick herself up, how her soul must finger like it’s not hers, and how parts of her facade crumble.
#MonstersAreReal, a visual essay by mucosa critic BJ Colangelo looking at survivor unity, sexual violence, and social media [5 mins]
Colangello looks into the double-edged sword that is social media where whatever rape victims do they can’t win [i.e. silence ways it didn’t happen], and how on there, like in real life, there’s no perfect way to behave.
Theatrical trailer
Image galleries
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly vicarious artwork by Nicole Rifkin
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring a round table discussion of the mucosa by Anna Bogutskaya, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Valeria Villegas Lindvall, plus a double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly vicarious artwork by Nicole Rifkin
Often quite masterful in its filmmaking despite its tiny budget, “Take When The Night” is a rather original and valuable wing to a troubling but interesting sub-genre. Good contextual material moreover helps makes this Arrow release Highly Recommended.
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