Movies
‘Night Call’ Review – High-Octane Action Thriller Delivers Propulsive Fun
A young student in Brussels moonlighting as a locksmith finds himself in a desperate bid to survive the night when a routine job puts him in the crosshairs of a vicious mobster in writer/director Michiel Blanchart’s adrenaline-fueled feature debut Night Call. Blanchart’s stylized action-thriller maintains a propulsive pace, rendering a bad work day into a harrowing bid to evade death, with a few overt nods to horror along the white knuckle journey. While it adheres to a familiar formula and its tumultuous Black Lives Matter protests backdrop feels more of a narrative crutch than meaningful, its winsome lead, kinetic staging, and palpable stakes ensure a gripping watch.
It’s clear from the moment he’s introduced that Mady (Jonathan Feltre) is a pure-hearted, trusting soul just trying to make it through his shift. He’s also exhausted. It’s why Mady doesn’t suspect that the woman, Claire (Natacha Krief), who’s been locked out of her apartment, might be lying about whether she actually lives there. He overlooks the signs that something is deeply amiss, including Claire’s promises to run to the ATM so she can pay him for his work while he waits there. It’s while Mady waits for her that the apartment’s true tenant arrives. A fight to the death ensues, but Mady’s bad night will only get worse as he’s captured by ruthless crime boss Yannick (Romain Duris) and tasked with retrieving what Claire took from him under the supervision of right-hand man Theo (The Nun‘s Jonas Bloquet). That Mady only has until sunrise to complete this mission or face death kickstarts a ticking time bomb.
Despite a nonstop barrage of thrilling set pieces and bone-crunching action sequences, Blanchart reels in viewers with morally complex yet relatable characters. Feltre’s Mady makes for a charming underdog whose simple miscalculation opens up a world of hurt. Mady isn’t your conventional action hero; this is a young student with a kind disposition but zero combat skills. That fish-out-of-water aspect primes Mady as the perfect audience proxy into this seedy underworld, but Night Call‘s magic is in the way it muddies his once pure sense of morality. Mady is consistently forced to weigh his options and decide how much of his captor’s amoral behavior he should match if he hopes to live, and Feltre is more than capable of conveying the nuanced complexity of this conundrum.
Feltre’s frequent scene partner, Bloquet, also helps. Much like Bloquet’s affable Frenchie in The Nun films, Theo is the rough-around-the-edges type with a gooey soft center. Well, to an extent. Theo has personal stakes in Mady’s quest, and the push-and-pull between Theo and Mady drives the narrative forward at a steady clip.
Blanchart drew inspiration from a real-life Black Lives Matter protest turned violent for his feature debut, yet the filmmaker shies away from getting too political or using this backdrop to make a statement. Instead, it feels more like a crutch for plotting’s sake and heightening tension. Mady, a black man trying to evade his white captors, for example, chooses not to phone the police at a critical moment. The film’s climax also features a moment that speaks directly to the period, though fails to achieve the intended impact. Mady’s too removed from the world at large, isolated by his plight, to integrate a brisk, entertaining action-thriller with disconnected real-world themes.
Even still, Blanchart’s high-octane debut makes for a dazzling and entertaining ride. There’s enough violence and bloodshed to appeal to genre fans, including The Evil Dead playing on TV in a scene featuring almost a cartoonish amount of violence amidst thug ineptitude. While it’s likely a nod to Sam Raimi, who is producing a feature-length version of Blachart’s short film You’re Dead Hélène, there is a sense of playful mischief to Blanchart’s brand of violence that earns that reference. More importantly, it marks him as a filmmaker to watch.
Night Call is out in theaters now.
This week kicked off with the release of hippo horror movie Hungry at home, and four more horror movies have arrived for at-home viewing as we head into the final weekend of June.
Here are the new horror movies that released on Friday, June 26, 2026!
The Halloween season can no longer be contained to the months of September and October, with “Summerween” becoming a thing in recent years. Essentially, it allows for Halloween to bleed into the warmer Summer months, and the first ever Summerween movie has arrived.
The Asylum released Summerween onto Digital outlets today.
In the film from writer/director Ryan Ebert, “On Summerween, a former circus clown escapes a mental institution to return to his abandoned mansion and hunt the teens partying there.”
Cole Chapleski, Chase Breithoff, Logan Roe, Sophia Sabol, and Clint Morrison star.
Director Ryan Ebert is the man behind a string of recent indie horrors we’ve covered, including Shark Side of the Moon, The Jolly Monkey, Jurassic Reborn, and Predator: Wastelands.
A witchy coming-of-age story from Dark Sky Films, Camp is now playing in select theaters.
Check your local listings to find a theater near you.
Camp is from writer-director Avalon Fast (Honeycomb, The Serpent’s Skin).
“Emily is the root cause of two devastating tragedies very early in her life, and she feels the weight of these accidents as though cursed. At her father’s suggestion, she takes a position at a summer camp for troubled youth to ease her guilt. When Emily arrives, she is welcomed by the other counselors, who accept her as she is and surround her with peace and forgiveness.
“As Emily begins to believe in a new kind of life, she starts to hear a voice whispering from deep in the woods — one that urges her to go home, and one that may be impossible to ignore.”
The film stars Zola Grimmer in her screen debut alongside Alice Wordsworth, Cherry Moore, Lea Rose Sebastianis (Castration Movie Part 1 & 2, In A Violent Nature), Ella Reece, Austyn Van de Kamp (This Too Shall Pass), Sophie Bawks-Smith (Honeycomb), Izza Jarvis, and Aiden Laudersmith.
Producers Tyler Perry and Jason Blum have joined forces for Peacock Original Strung.
The film is now streaming only on Peacock.
“A talented violinist takes a prestigious job as a music tutor for the gifted daughter of an influential and enigmatic family. As she becomes entangled in their opulent world, unsettling secrets begin to surface, forcing her to question her safety, her dreams, and even her sanity.”
Malcolm D. Lee (Scary Movie 5, Space Jam: A New Legacy) directs from a script written by Alan B. McElroy (Wrong Turn, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers).
Chloe Bailey (“Swarm“), Lynn Whitfield (Jaws: The Revenge), Lucien Laviscount (“Scream Queens”), Anna Diop (Us), Coco Jones (Vampires vs. the Bronx), Langley Kirkwood (“Banshee”), and Romy Woods star in Peacock’s Strung.
Produced by Diablo Cody, director Meredith Alloway’s Forbidden Fruits brought a new coven of witches to the big screen earlier this year, and it’s now streaming on Shudder.
Lola Tung (“The Summer I Turned Pretty”), Victoria Pedretti (“The Haunting of Hill House”), Alexandra Shipp (Tragedy Girls), Gabrielle Union (Breaking In), and Emma Chamberlain star in Forbidden Fruits, released by IFC and Shudder.
Free Eden employee Apple secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours. But when new hire Pumpkin challenges the group’s ‘girl boss’ ways, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.
“Forbidden Fruits grabbed me by the neck the very first time I read it,” Diablo Cody said. “It’s one of the craziest, most creative, beautifully bonkers projects I’ve ever worked on.”
Meagan Navarro writes in her review for Bloody Disgusting, “Forbidden Fruits may not necessarily forge new terrain in the teen satire space, but Alloway brings so much style and energy to her well-cast single-location stage play adaptation for the Gen Z crowd.”
The film is an adaptation of playwright Lily Houghton’s stage play Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin and Through Her We All Die. Alloway and Houghton co-adapted.
This week’s new release roundups are presented by HUNGRY.
All aboard the swamp tour from hell – this hippo isn’t playing games…
HUNGRY is now available on Digital. Watch it now!
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