Storyline

A law student, Martin, gets a part-time job doing the night shift at the morgue. The isolation and macabre nature of the facility initially spook him and he thinks maybe this isn’t for him. Meanwhile, a serial killer is murdering women, an event that will become relevant to Martin when the victims end up in his morgue.

Our Thoughts on Nightwatch (1997)

There are better films out there, sure, but this little hidden gem is definitely worth a watch, particularly if you like the kind of thriller that has a paranormal tint to it.

McGregor is very good here (although he seems to possess the weirdest accent out there) as is Josh Brolin and Nick Nolte. The plot concerns a young man who takes the job as the night watchman at a spooky morgue. Things start to play on his mind, and as they do the bodies begin to rack up as a serial killer is on the loose. Is it McGregor? Or is his mind playing tricks on him, and if so who is the killer?

6 out of 10 Stars

Trivia 

(at around 8 mins) The photograph on the bulletin board at the guard desk that Martin notices when he shows up for his first shift and asks the old watchman about, is a famous photo of Lewis Thornton Powell (also known as Lewis Paine or Lewis Payne), a conspirator with John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of Abraham Lincoln.

The movie is a remake of the Danish movie Nightwatch (1994). The director of the Danish original, Ole Bornedal, also directed the remake.

(at around 8 mins) The black and white picture of the guy on death row in the cabin is the same one used in the original version of this movie (Nightwatch (1994)).