In "Night of the Caregiver," directed by Joe Cornet, Natalie Denise Sperl portrays Juliet Rowe, a hospice caregiver. She finds herself in a secluded home, caring for Lillian Gresham (Eileen Dietz), who claims to have a rare heart cancer. Despite looking quite well, Lillian offers Juliet cookies, casting an initial cloud of mystery around the need for caregiving services.
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Shortly after, Juliet starts experiencing a series of eerie events. There are unsettling noises to a nightmarish dream and even an encounter with a monster. The clichéd horror setup inevitably leads the audience to predict the home, and Juliet's caregiving assignment, as a snare of impending doom. This isn't a new premise. Even Anubys Lopez’s "Aged" (2023) employs the formula of a caregiver landing in perilous circumstances, in this case, at the home of Mrs. Bloom. This recurring theme begs the question: Are these films highlighting the grim working conditions of Western caregivers?
Cornet's film doesn't just isolate its protagonist in a remote location but perpetuates a larger trend. There seems to be an insistent focus on cutting characters off from society. This suggests that horrors are reserved for uninhabited places, not bustling urban locales. This overused approach doesn't enhance suspense; rather, it spoils the plot.
The movie leans heavily on Juliet and Lillian to carry the story. However, in a bizarre turn of events, Detective Roman, played by Cornet himself, comes out of nowhere to nearly save Juliet. Intriguingly, this character has more backstory than Juliet. This reveals a vengeance-fueled subplot connected to his mother, a former caregiver who met a similar eerie fate.
Juliet's character remains underdeveloped. She mentions her financial struggles but fails to elaborate, and spends most of her screen time screaming at apparitions. This makes the climax seem almost farcical, as though lifted from a low-budget 90s TV movie.
The balance between suspense and horror is crucial in any successful horror film. Overexposing the ghostly entity can result in dissipating the fright factor, a mistake "Night of the Caregiver" unfortunately makes. Moreover, the movie is hamstrung by its lackluster background score, further diminishing its scare potential.
Adding insult to injury, the evil presence in the film is named Ayush. This is a common Indian name that does little to ratchet up the horror quotient. The performances by Sperl and Dietz seem disengaged, a likely consequence of a weak script and poorly fleshed-out characters. Even attempts at humor fall flat.
To add another layer of inadequacy, the film employs a rather unconvincing lighting technique, trying to mimic daylight by shining an incandescent light through windows. The film ends with a gratuitous walkthrough of Lillian’s house, showing off an assortment of clichéd creepy objects, from flickering bulbs to animal bones, in a manner reminiscent of a low-budget haunted house tour.
In summary, "Night of the Caregiver" aims high but falls woefully short in delivering a memorable horror experience. The film stumbles on multiple fronts, from an overused plot and underdeveloped characters to a lackluster score, making it a less-than-fulfilling addition to the horror genre.
