While not as great as Night Watch, Day Watch starts us off a few years after Night Watch. I for one was a huge fan of the Russian film, which to date I believe still holds the box office title in the former Soviet Union. The story is your classic good vs. evil battle and the films are all based on very popular Russian novels by Sergei Lukyanenko. There is a talks that the third book in the series Dusk Watch is also being turned into a film under the title Twilight Watch which is also the re-titled name of the book here in American. I also heard a rumor about a forth book called Final Watch, but could not find much information on it.
So come forth the Day Watch, in this film the roles have been reversed. With Yegor choosing to be part of the dark, he is now under the wing Zavulon, the leader of the Day Watch. Meanwhile Yegor’s father Anton, a member of the Night Watch is still trying to track his son’s moves. He is hunting down vampires who are attacking helpless old women and drinking their blood. Along with his powerful counterpart Svetlana, they jump between dimensions to track the elusive blood sucker. But what they learn is that there is more to mystery than they thought and their is a lot more at stake. Anton is framed for murdering one of the Day Watch’s top members. To prove his innocence he begins to stalk out the ones who set him, however he find that their is a device, a piece of mysterious caulk that can restore Moscow, and bring the power of the order back to the Night Watch. While trying to avoid capture Anton goes on an adventure to get a hold of the caulk and save the city of Moscow from a war between the Dark and Light ones.
While I found the story and script not to be as good as Night Watch it was still an enjoyable one. the script didn’t really need to have much character development as we already knew the characters from the first film and what their back stories were. Not to say that they weren’t developed more, but the script mainly ran on story than it did on character development. The film starts off with a very promising first scene, then gets very slow and dark a little bit after the first scene. But the story does pick up after the first hour and the real action begins.
The acting in the film is just as perfect as it was in Night Watch. Konstantin Khabensky is still great as ever in the role of Anton. Our returning cast includes that of Mariya Poroshina, Viktor Verzhbitsky and Dmitry Martynov as Yegor. I pretty much don’t have much to say other than that the acting in the film was just as good as the first film, and even some of the new characters that were introduced; the actors that played them also did a wonderful job with their performances.
Being the number one film of all time in Russia, It’s pretty obvious that their was plenty of money in the budget to make sure that the production value was top notch, and such is the case here. One thing that I’d admire about the Russian filmmakers that put both films together is the way in which they use the CGI and visual effects in the films. The effects are used in such a conservative matter and each effect looks very realistic. Like most American films their are times where CGI is over used. With both Day and Night Watch the effects are only used when they need to be used, and nothing more. We get nothing but top notch production value from the filmmakers and it makes the experience of the film that much better.
Overall, while Day Watch is not as good as Night Watch it is still a very good follow up to the first film in the soon to be trilogy. While the story for Day Watch is a bit slower and a lot more darker than that of Night Watch it is still a great film. If you liked Night Watch you’ll be more than thrilled with how the story continues and how the characters come to meet their fates in this one. Now my only worry is how is Twilight Watch going to work out, because day watch for the most part pretty much sums up the story at the end; or does it. The DVD is well worth picking up, especially if your a fan of the trilogy. There are some really good features on the disc and you can even watch the film with dubbed in English to better understand the story and not have to spend half the time reading subtitles. The dubbing nothing great, but it gets the story across.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
