»Nightwatch«: »Demons are Forever«: freak show on the screen

When you see the first “Nightwatch” film again, you immediately feel nostalgic. Ole Bornedal’s directorial debut was released in cinemas in 1994 and was a serial killer thriller that was common at the time: a whodunit plot, an unparalleled parade of psychopaths and adventurous plot twists, the plausibility of which was due to the very good cast. If you didn’t buy it from the actors, you wouldn’t believe it at all, and it seemed unintentionally funny, reinforced by the film’s deliberately comedic undertones. But if you went along with the daring plot twists and the furiously overdriven finale, you got a latently over-the-top thriller with latent kink undertones (sex in the morgue) and a misogynistic subtext that wasn’t entirely clear whether it was meant to be affirmative or critical.

At least on the latter point, Bornedal’s late, unexpected sequel, “Nightwatch: Demons are Forever”, which has probably not really been missed by anyone so far, provides clarity by replacing the male hero of the first film with a heroine. The former is still jumping through the scenery. Martin (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) is still severely traumatized by the events 30 years later. But the main role is now played by his daughter Emma (played by the director’s daughter, Fanny Leander Bornedal). And as befits a trauma story, the essentials are first repeated, obsessively: Emma studies medicine like her father and takes on the job of night watchman in the same morgue as him. Only to then quickly come into contact with the same serial killer, the necrophiliac psychopath Wörmer (Ulf Pilgaard).

In 1994 he tried to saw Emma’s mother and father in half in the morgue. He is now in a psychiatric clinic. Emma sets out on a quest to understand and uncover the trauma. And thus triggers a new series of murders. But Wörmer cannot be the perpetrator because he is locked up and is also blind.

So much for the somewhat daring starting point, which then pushes Bornedal’s script further and further into the implausible. You can’t summarize the resolution and the way there without giving massive spoilers. But where the first “Nightwatch” film did not violate the limits of what was plausible within the genre coordinates, the sequel repeatedly exceeds them at high speed.

Which doesn’t necessarily have to be used against the film. The exaggeration of the plot progression finds its counterpart in the freak show on the screen. Here, psychopaths still rub blood on themselves, bang their heads against safety glass and laugh madly all the time. In this sense, too, “Nightwatch: Demons are Forever” exudes a quite enchanting 1990s retro charm. And it’s less in line with current genre products than with “Copycat”, “Because they’re there to kiss” and the “Silence of the Lambs” that towers over everything. All films that, like “Nightwatch” (both parts), now seem very campy and over the top in an unintentionally funny way.

“Nightwatch: Demons are Forever” was not a good film in the strictest sense. But he’s never boring for a minute, there’s always something going on. The finale ends a bit abruptly compared to the first part. Back then, someone had to saw off their own thumb to kill the killer. Today a quick shootout is enough. Until then, however, there will be entertaining excess on the screen.

»Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever«, Dänemark 2023. Regie und Buch: Ole Bornedal. My: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Fanny Leander Bornedal, Ulf Pilgaard, Kim Bodnia. 113 Min. Cinema start: 16 May.