The Nightwatch Collection
directed by Ole Bornedal
starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Sofie Gråbøl
Arrow Video
Ole Bornedal’s groundbreaking 1994 “Nordic Noir,” Nightwatch (Nattevagten), was the first Danish genre film in decades and a massive hit in Denmark that inspired a sequel — and even an American remake directed by Bornedal starring Ewan McGregor and Josh Brolin. The Nightwatch Collection Blu-ray features the original Danish film, Nightwatch (Nattevagten), and its 30-years-later sequel, Nightwatch: Demons are Forever.
Nightwatch centers on Martin (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Game of Thrones), his girlfriend Kalinka (Sofie Gråbøl), and their best friends, Jens (Kim Bodnia) and his girlfriend Lotte (Lotte Andersen). All four of them are in different phases of moving fully into adulthood. Martin and Jens are both nearing the end of law school, Kalinka is still chasing her acting dreams, and Lotte is joining the clergy. Martin needs a job that will not get in the way of his studies, so he takes a seemingly low-key night watchman position at the morgue. Little do any of them suspect the impact Martin’s new job as night watchman and the morgue will have on their lives. Soon the oppressive atmosphere of the job starts to play tricks on his mind. Martin relays some of his unease with his situation with a police detective who once had the nightwatch job and is currently investigating a string of Copenhagen sex-worker murders. Strange events continue to occur at the morgue, and Martin is soon viewed as the prime suspect in the murders. Further complicating the situation is in an attempt to keep themselves motivated. Jens and Martin enter a ridiculous pact, where for the next two weeks, they will accept any dare the other gives them. This game will help fuel suspicion of both men, as a prostitute that both men have been involved with becomes a victim of the serial killer, and all signs start to point to Martin as the killer.
Apart from the human menace, the liminal spaces and oppressive atmosphere of the morgue, with its putrid yellow tiles, barely functional lighting, and ominous pull cord (used to raise the alarm in case any of the dead bodies on the slab aren’t quite dead) are the horror that will linger with viewers long after the plot details have faded. Ole Bornedal does a great job of creating a morgue facility space that feels real and utterly uncanny at the same time, much like Stanley Kubrick did with the Overlook Hotel in The Shining (1980). The morgue is perfectly utilitarian and utterly nightmarish and becomes as much of a character in the film as any of the human actors. Although Nightwatch delivers a number of corkscrew twists, it actually gets better with repeated viewings. Spoilers would certainly diminish the impact for first-time viewers, but the film is even more fun when you quit trying to figure out what might happen and look deeper into the terrors inflicted on Martin and those closest to him.
In Nightwatch: Demons are Forever the fallout of the events of the first film are still weighing on the characters. The trauma has even been passed on to the next generation, as Martin and Kalinka’s daughter, Emma (Fanny Bornedal), is trapped by the evil unleashed on her father, leaving him a broken man. She takes Martin’s old job as nightwatch to look for clues to help ease her father’s torment. Even if the building has had a fresh coat of paint, the unease still permeates. Emma further attempts to help her father, first by reuniting him with Jens, who fled the country for decades to escape his past, and then to try to get Martin to confront the diabolical inspector Wörmer (Ulf Pilgaard) ,which puts her and her father at great risk once again. In the end, Martin and Emma come through their tribulations healed in the warm glow of the sun, free from the flicker of evil, bathed in flickering fluorescent lights. The film suffers a bit from sequel-itis — entire sequences from the first film being mirrored with Emma in Martin’s place feel a bit forced, but the film manages to mostly escape the long shadow of the original and forge its own identity to end on a hopeful note for the new and legacy characters.
Arrow Video’s The Nightwatch Collection transfers of both films feature terrific contrast and shadow detail that ups the creep-out factor of the liminal spaces that serve as the basis for much of the unease in the films. Both movies are bolstered by a host of thoughtful and insightful extras, including a director’s commentary track (in English) from Ole Bornedal and visual essays from film critics and Blu-ray-extra vets Barry Forshaw, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, and Heather Wixson.
