NIGHTWATCH Review Country : Russia Year: 2004 Genre: Horror Format: DVD Running Time: 114 minutes Distributor: FOX This is how the Russians do their horror. Apparently it is violent and very weird. Read on for all the gory details... Credits Directed by Timur Bekmambetov. Screenplay by Timur Bekmambetov and Laeta Kalogridis. Based on the novel by Sergei Lukyanenko. Starring Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov, Valeri Zolotukhin & Mariya Poroshina. 'Nightwatch' is one of those films that you either love or hate. There’s no middle ground on this issue. If you haven’t seen it, it’s 'Underworld' meets 'Franz Kafka' meets 'The Matrix'. In 'Nightwatch', among normal humans live the "Others" possessing various supernatural powers. They are divided up into the forces of light and the forces of the dark, who signed a truce several centuries ago to end a devastating battle. Ever since, the forces of light govern the day while the night belongs to their dark opponents. In modern day Moscow the dark Others actually roam the night as vampires while a "Night Watch" of light forces, among them Anton, the movie's protagonist, try to control them and limit their outrage. Still with me? Good. The style of this film is very weird and you begin to feel as uncomfortable as our main character. Weird. 'Nightwatch' is one of many films that I am adding to my 'weird for the sake of being strange' list. There’s loads of great bits in the film but I think describing them just doesn’t work. The film has a ton of seemingly outlandish humour mixed in liberally with an American style combined with a very sharp script... but executed very poorly. Granted it’s heavily borrowed themes from 'Underworld' and 'The Matrix' and to a certain degree 'The Trial' by Franz Kafka but it’s not so great to watch. As I said this kind of film is difficult to review so can’t you just trust me and watch it? Make up your own mind. Was it worth the purchase price? Personally, I got a free screener (IN RUSSIAN) but I can see a lot of people hating this film so I would say no, wait for the DVD. Would I recommend it to a friend? No, they might want to kick my ass when all is said and done. 'Nightwatch' opened with a limited release February 17th, look out for the DVD. OFFICIAL SITE DISCUSS ON OUR FORUMS Review by John Gray, for Pitofhorror.com