A slick ending saves Night Watch from the slow-paced psychological melodrama it's settled into. Elizabeth Taylor is convincingly neurotic as Lawrence Harvey's wife Ellen. The fact that she's actually in control of John's (Harvey) and his lover Sarah's (Billie Whitelaw) relationship makes her transformation from victim to predator chilling as well as surprising.
Almost all of the movie takes place in John and Ellen's house, with Sarah as a guest. If it weren't for the occasional goings-on at the neighboring dilapidated house, and plenty of flashbacks of Ellen's ex-husband's fatal car wreck, there wouldn't be much else to comment on other than the wallpaper.
It's a brilliant scheme to convince everyone, including the police, that you're an hysterical nut who sees dead bodies next door. Then, when you want to kill someone over there, you're off the hook; as no one will listen to your 'confession'. The problem for the viewer of Night Watch is that nothing much else happens anyway. It's an ending looking for a story.
Setting this in the old house would've been much more interesting. Instead of making it a backdrop for the supposed plot to drive Ellen nuts, maybe there's something in Ellen's past that connects her to it. Then she starts to unravel as she spends time there...the same ending would still work. And the old house has unlimited opportunities for horror scenes. Make Appleby a creepy caretaker to add interest.
The Wheeler house is just too nice for weird stuff to happen. Appleby isn't really used effectively. Neither is Tony; as a psychiatrist, he could bring out some of Ellen's demons, but he merely sets up a 'vacation' for her, which doesn't occur.
There's the makings of a good psychological horror movie here, but Night Watch doesn't draw it together well enough to keep the viewer entertained.
Almost all of the movie takes place in John and Ellen's house, with Sarah as a guest. If it weren't for the occasional goings-on at the neighboring dilapidated house, and plenty of flashbacks of Ellen's ex-husband's fatal car wreck, there wouldn't be much else to comment on other than the wallpaper.
It's a brilliant scheme to convince everyone, including the police, that you're an hysterical nut who sees dead bodies next door. Then, when you want to kill someone over there, you're off the hook; as no one will listen to your 'confession'. The problem for the viewer of Night Watch is that nothing much else happens anyway. It's an ending looking for a story.
Setting this in the old house would've been much more interesting. Instead of making it a backdrop for the supposed plot to drive Ellen nuts, maybe there's something in Ellen's past that connects her to it. Then she starts to unravel as she spends time there...the same ending would still work. And the old house has unlimited opportunities for horror scenes. Make Appleby a creepy caretaker to add interest.
The Wheeler house is just too nice for weird stuff to happen. Appleby isn't really used effectively. Neither is Tony; as a psychiatrist, he could bring out some of Ellen's demons, but he merely sets up a 'vacation' for her, which doesn't occur.
There's the makings of a good psychological horror movie here, but Night Watch doesn't draw it together well enough to keep the viewer entertained.