Freeze - nightmare night watch

Movie
German title	Freeze - nightmare night watch
Original title	Nightwatch
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1997
length	105 minutes
Age rating	FSK 16
Rod
Director	Ole Bornedal
script	Ole Bornedal , Steven Soderbergh
production	Cary Granat , Michael Obel , Bob Weinstein , Harvey Weinstein
music	Joachim Holbek
camera	Dan Laustsen
cut	Sally Menke
occupation
	Ewan McGregor : Martin Bells; Nick Nolte : Inspector Thomas Albert Cray; Patricia Arquette : Katherine; Josh Brolin : James Gallman; Erich Anderson : News anchor; Lauren Graham : Marie; Brad Dourif : Doctor on duty; John C. Reilly : Deputy Inspector Bill Davis; Alix Koromzay : Joyce; Lonnie Chapman : old security guard; Scott Burkholder : Professor; Michael Matthys : man in pub; Alison Gale : friend of man in pub; Robert LaSardo : Pub Brawler; Mongo Brownlee : pub brawler; Candy Ann Brown : Female Paramedic; Michelle Csitos : prostitute; Larry Cedar : Waiting; Lennie Loftin : man in the theater; Nicholas Cascone : Male Paramedic; Ben Skorstad : helicopter pilot; Jeff Davis : Stage Worker; Bradley Gregg : stage actor; Sandra Hess : student; Nicholas Stadler : Theater Director;

Freeze - nightmare night watch is a thriller of Ole Bornedal from the year 1997 . It is a remake of the Danish thriller Nightwatch from 1994.

action

Martin Bells, a student, works as a night watchman in a hospital . He wants to use the time to study for his studies. Martin has to regularly check the hospital rooms, including the morgue, in the middle of the night. Surrounded by darkness and dead silence, Martin struggles with fear. The morgue in particular makes him uncomfortable.

Martin's friend James allows himself a joke one night by setting off the alarm in the morgue, which is intended to allow people falsely declared dead to make themselves heard. Martin calls the doctor on duty and then later has to excuse himself more badly than right. Martin also meets the police inspector Thomas Cray, who visits him every now and then. He and his colleague Bill Davis are looking for a serial killer who kills women, especially prostitutes .

The next day, Martin meets James and Joyce, a prostitute who was paid by James, in a restaurant. She explains to the two friends that one of her clients would always cover her with a shroud during sex to make it look like she was dead. Martin suspects the killer behind this perverted person. Martin's friend Katherine meets Joyce, who tells her about the perverse things Martin would have done with Joyce. Katherine confronts Martin, who denies everything.

That same night Martin discovers during his inspection that a woman's body has disappeared. He follows a trail of blood and finds the corpse in another building, sitting against a wall. Martin immediately contacts the doctor on duty, but when he arrives, the body is suddenly back in the morgue, the doctor now thinks Martin is crazy. Meanwhile, Katherine goes to Joyce to speak to her. However, she is stabbed to death by the murderer in her apartment. Katherine walks through the open door to Joyce's bedroom. Without seeing the killer, she flees when she notices that he is still in the apartment. The killer turns out to be Inspector Cray. Cray, who has not noticed Katherine, goes to Joyce's body, dips her index finger in blood and uses it to write Martin's name on the floor.

Martin found out by secretly sifting through the personnel files that Inspector Cray was once a night watchman himself at this hospital. Meanwhile, the woman's body, which Martin said was leaning against a wall, has been desecrated. Martin is considered the main suspect. Katherine drives to the hospital. Inspector Cray overpowers Martin and Katherine, ties them both up, and goes to the entrance hall, where James and Cray's colleague Davis arrive. Suddenly Katherine's alarm is activated. Bill Davis becomes suspicious, runs into the night watchman's office and is knocked down by Cray. Cray handcuffs James to a metal pipe and goes back to Martin and Katherine. He lays the prisoners on a dissection table and has a couple of dissecting tools ready. Meanwhile, James is able to free himself from the handcuffs by cutting off his thumb. He takes the gun from the downcast cop and goes to the autopsy room to see Martin, Katherine and Cray. James shoots Cray just before he can put the saw knife on Martin.

The police arrive; Martin, Katherine and James receive medical attention.

Background information

Filming began in March 1996 and ended on May 3, 1996. They took place in Los Angeles , including in the Royce Quad university building in the Westwood district. It wouldn't be completed until 1997 as a number of test screenings and reshoots were ordered by Miramax. Changes made to Miramax 'completed adaptation included reducing the role of James' friend Marie and adding a more satisfying ending scene. Bornedal continued: "The Nightwatch filming was great, everything was wonderful and I could do what I wanted, but in the post-production phase everything suddenly got extremely complicated."

US revenues are around $ 1.2 million.

The photograph above the night watchman's desk is a famous black and white photo of the assassin and Lincoln conspirator Lewis Powell , which was also used in the earlier film adaptation of 1994.

The director Ole Bornedal initially wanted Harrison Ford to play the role of Inspector Cray.

Film music

Setting Sun - The Chemical Brothers
Loops of Fury - The Chemical Brothers
House to Myself - Transister
Mozart's String Quartet in B flat major - The Smetana Quartet
The Wake-Up Bomb - REM
This Old Man - Tom Glazer
Pain - Super 8
Largo el Factotum - Riccardo Stracciari and The Orchestra of Milan
Menuet, Opus 13 - London Symphony Orchestra
Looking for James - Seattle Music
The Auspicious Verses of Guru Puja and Kang Ling - The Monks of the Dip Tse Chok Ling Monastery

Reviews

James Berardinelli wrote that too much blood flows uselessly. The identity of the killer was revealed too early, the representations were uninspired.

Mick LaSalle ( San Francisco Chronicle April 17, 1998) praised the atmosphere of the dark rooms and Josh Brolin's play. He criticized that the role of Patricia Arquette was too small.

"The Dane Ole Bornedal has staged a Hollywood remake of his own hit film" Nightwatch "(1994), in which he adhered strictly to the template in every respect and managed to make a respectable transition to the commercial camp. He uses the resources and actors of Hollywood without letting himself be used and offers acceptable genre cinema, which lacks the low-budget charm of the original. "

- Lexicon of international film