As soon as the opening credits hit, I pretty much knew I was going to enjoy this flick. “Block of Ice” by Thee Oh Sees blasts its way into your head as the characters are introduced in color bleached freeze frames and I’m just sitting here with a big old smile on my stupid face. One of my all time favorite bands utilized to perfection. So I was ready to love, and luckily I don’t have to make any excuses. Fever Night works as an unhinged psychedelic odyssey but not in a pretentious or confusing way. It’s a hard gambit to pay off but much like those garage punk acid psychedelic lovelies, it rocks…..hard.
Three amateur satanists head out to the middle of the woods to perform a ritual. The details are not made specific, it all plays out in quick flashes during the aforementioned awesome opening credits, but their plan to leave is hindered when the car is stuck in the mud. Terry, group leader Elliot’s cute girlfriend, gets a plank under the wheel as Elliot pushes the rear. Warren, being a little dim, accelerates and runs over Terry. She ain’t dead but she ain’t moving. This puts our two “heroes” in a tough spot. Seeing a bright light off in the distance, Elliot decides to go seek help and he makes Warren stay with Terry’s unconscious ass.
Elliot comes running back when Warren freaks out after Terry vanishes. Dragged off, the duo of dudes go looking for her. They find her buried under a pile of leaves but still breathing. Realizing it might be better if they don’t split up, they tie Terry to the driver’s seat of Warren’s car and go looking for help together. Shit begins to get weird.
Exploded crows and small distortions hint of troubled times ahead. When they come across the fire they used in the ritual, they discover the skull of a goat. This skull quickly levitates and grows eyeballs. Freaking the shit out of Warren and Elliot, it takes the form of a weird horned boar and the two nope the fuck out. Broken bones and bloody noses are discussed as they hide out in a tree and Elliot’s sanity seems to be slipping but things are only escalating in weirdness.
Reality crumbles and it looks less and less likely that anyone will be leaving the woods alive. Warren comes across a naked woman and her disgusting father (it ends with butt rape and a rifle blast to the face) and Elliot makes it to the safety of the car but he fares no better (it ends with a giant nude hermaphrodite with the head of a boar). These three should have definitely steered clear of invocations.
Usually when films go for that hallucinogenic vibe it just feels forced as fuck and leads to one hell of a boring time. Not the case here, there’s something natural at work and the creators definitely had a hell of an unhinged wild hair. The acting isn’t anything special but it fits in this offbeat trek through the acid lipped embrace of some devil worshipping prostitute picked up on the alternate dimension found behind the dumpster at your local Arby’s. Yes. That is high praise 7/10
Spook du jour 