Night Of The Reaper (2025) – Don’t Fear The Reaper

Released: 19th September
Seen: 28th September

It’s pretty undeniable that the peak of the Slasher genre was back in the 80s; that’s certainly when all the major classics of the genre came into existence. There are many theories about why this is, but I’d suggest it’s a combination of “Horror was an infamously cheap genre to make movies in during the 80s” and people like Tom Savini showing what extremes that practical effects could achieve. That combo created a gold rush that defined the genre for the longest time (until Scream came along and made it meta) and that period of history being so closely associated with the slasher might also explain why a lot of throwback horror films set themselves up in the 80s to play with the nostalgia of the genre. Night of the Reaper is a prime example of a film doing whatever it can to remind us of films from the 80s but also has something special of its own that makes it worth watching.

Night of the Reaper focuses on Deena (Jessica Clement), a young college student who is visiting her hometown after the murder of her sister Emily and while she’s there decides to take up a little job as babysitter for the sheriff. Sheriff Arnold (Ryan Robbins) needs a sitter because his time is being taken up by trying to not only solve Deena’s sister’s murder but a few other similarly strange murders that’ve happened recently. The film jumps between the two, jumping from the Sheriff chasing up leads and trying to understand the new evidence that’s been sent to him while Deena takes care of his kid and keeps noticing that there’s something strange going on outside… almost like a masked figure is running about ready to strike at any moment.

Night of the Reaper is a stock-standard slasher film for a large part of the runtime, playing with all the classic tropes of the genre that it knows so well and blending that with a bold 80s aesthetic that the classic genre films were dripping in. For easily the first hour you can pretty much see this as a film that anyone would find on a shelf of a video store back in the day, it ticks all the boxes and doesn’t really push things that far out of what is expected until it comes time for the final act which is when the film starts feeling a little more modern. We’re talking ending elements that only really started being part of the genre around the Scream era, things that just really weren’t a part of the old-school slashers are done here and somehow that change works. That switch from the 80s cliches to the late 90s cliches actually hits pretty well and elevates the film from just being a playful homage to the classics.

In terms of plot structure, Night of the Reaper is pretty good about evenly splitting time between our main final girl Deena and the shenanigans going on at the police station. It bounces back and forth to slowly help us paint a picture of just how long the killer has been doing this and how many people they’ve killed and also to just get us to like Deena as she looks after the sheriff’s kid. It’s a simple back-and-forth that also lets the tension build perfectly. Just as things start getting too tense with Deena they switch back to the Sheriff, then when that situation needs a break we bounce back which gives the film a rhythm that helps keep it feeling fresh.

It’s actually kind of impressive that a film that is playing on the standard elements of the genre and deliberately invoking a visual style from four decades ago could somehow find a way to keep things fresh but the way it handles those elements keeps it from being too predictable. It lays out a fun little mystery and keeps you guessing right up until the last moment how things will end up. That last-minute pivot is what really elevates the film from something generic to just a good old time with a fun movie that manages to keep you guessing while playing the hits. It’s a simple balance that lets the film do just what it needs to do. It’s not shooting for the stars, it’s just managing to be entertaining by doing what needs to be done.

It certainly helps Night of the Reaper that it has a likable cast that’s bringing absolutely everything to this script, sometimes delivering performances that’re almost better than the material deserves. This is the kind of film where a performer could coast and it’d be fine, no one is even considering coasting here. If they have a scene that requires gut-wrenching emotions, then they’re taking a wrench to the gut and getting those emotions out and it’s kind of delightful to watch people giving so much to something that didn’t really require it. It makes it easier for the audience to emotionally invest in a film that is just a decent little slasher, you actually want to see the sheriff solve the mystery or see our final girl kick the villain’s ass almost entirely because they are giving so much to their performances.

It also must be said that the cinematographer is absolutely delivering; some of the shots that take place outside the main house under the moonlight are simply gorgeous. You never really feel lost about where everyone is, it’s easy to keep track of everyone and some of the most well done moments of tension are just down to how well a shot is framed to set something up. It’s also fun how it uses the classic VHS tracking at the start of the movie to help set the tone, while most of the film is in glorious high definition. That brief moment of making the film a little shitty looking actually helped make them sell where the film was set. Again, this might not be the absolute best cinematography ever but it’s certainly better than one would expect a throwback slasher to use.

Night of the Reaper really can just be boiled down to “Better than you expect it to be”. Sure, it’s a standard slasher with a decent twist at the end but it doesn’t phone it in. It plays those notes as well as it possibly can, it’s a tune we’ve heard before but it’s so well played that you can’t help but appreciate that they really put the work in to try and make it stand out. It’s one of those films that might be a great entry to the horror genre; it’s certainly going to be one you could suggest as an alternative to the usual set of slashers one might watch around Halloween. It’s just a fun movie that’s not changing the world, but manages to at least be impressive in its own special way.