Writer-director Josh Lobo makes an ambitious return with Night After Night, his first feature since 2019’s I Trapped the Devil. The film is unsettling, visually inventive, and unapologetically strange. It is also intentionally difficult to untangle, demanding that viewers surrender to its nightmarish experience rather than expect a neatly explained narrative.
Scott Poythress and Johnny Sibilly star as Andy and Willis, two overnight security guards at a private university. Their quiet, repetitive shifts grow increasingly disturbing when a silent figure begins appearing on the grounds night after night. What initially seems like a straightforward supernatural mystery soon becomes far more complicated as time, identity, and reality itself grow increasingly unreliable.
Poythress and Sibilly make the film’s central relationship believable, especially as their characters respond differently to the inexplicable events around them. Alexis Louder is particularly effective as the mysterious Janica, bringing a strong presence to a character whose purpose is not immediately clear. Trace Lysette and genre favorite AJ Bowen also contribute to an impressive ensemble.
Lobo, who co-wrote the screenplay with Rowan Russell, is far more interested in creating uncertainty than in providing answers. Grainy surveillance images, infrared photography, abrupt transitions, unsettling narration, and Simon Waskow’s pulsing score combine to make the university feel caught between reality and a recurring nightmare.
Admittedly, I did not fully understand every turn the film takes. Its fractured structure occasionally becomes so obscure that emotional and narrative connections are hard to maintain. Certain images seem designed more to provoke discomfort than to advance the story, and viewers seeking a traditional explanation may leave frustrated.
Still, the confusion does not diminish the film’s considerable power. Lobo creates a deeply unnerving atmosphere and sustains it with confidence. Even when I was unsure exactly what was happening, I remained curious about where the film would take me next.
Night After Night will not appeal to everyone. It demands patience, close attention, and a willingness to accept unanswered questions. For viewers open to experimental horror, however, it offers an absorbing, thoroughly disorienting journey. It may leave you puzzled, but it certainly will not leave you unaffected.