The plot of this film may sound familiar – Four guys on a bachelor party get off the subway at a station that has been shut down for years after causing trouble on the train. They witness a cop being brutally murdered by a group of homeless men and find themselves fighting for their lives beneath the streets of New York City. I saw ‘Stag Night’ at this year’s Glasgow Fright Fest and going into the film I was expecting a run of the mill low budget rip off of movies that have already used the subway setting such as Creep. However I was quite wrong and this film turned out to be one of the best surprises for me at this year’s festival.
At the festival the writer/director of Stag Night was there to answer our questions once the film was over and listening to him describe his inspiration for the film was fascinating. He referenced the documentary Dark Days which is about the large community of people who actually live underground in New York City. It’s a fantastic documentary on which to base a horror film as the idea of encountering a community of people living in the dark underground of one of the largest cities in the world at night is terrifying as it is, so if you turn them into a group of crazed killers for a movie, you have a good horror on your hands!
One thing I really enjoyed about the film was that it didn’t attempt to hide the identity of the killers. We are pretty much shown who they are straight away and the tension in the film comes from the chase and the terrifying game of hide and seek that ensues between the killers and the the rest of the characters. As I mentioned previously, a lot of people are comparing this to Creep, which is an excellent film. However if you take away the underground setting the films are quite different. The killers in Stag Night are a prime example. They don’t just follow and hunt you down…they run and don’t stop until one of the characters is dead. Despite being quite basic in terms of movie villains go, it works very well here.
The best thing about the film is indeed the location. It adds so much to the tension and the feeling of hopelessness that the characters go through. As they attempt to find a way out, the audience is right there with them. Being lost in New York City at night may be a scary thought for some people as it is, but being lost in the New York underground is far worse and the dark setting actually steals the show as the film’s best character.
Horror fans will be glad to know that there is plenty of scares and plenty of gore in Stag Night. The director is obviously a big fan of horror and certain parts of the film reminded me of some of the unrelenting chase scenes that we have seen in classics such as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and other films of the same nature. The chase scenes are unrelenting and intense and you’ll find yourself shouting at the screen, telling the characters where to run to next.
Stag Night is not a groundbreaking film by any means. However it delivered for what it was. It has solid performances all round, some excellent gore to please the bloodthirsty mob and a great location. The script was written well, and the direction was good, apart from a few overly shakey camera moments where I simply couldn’t tell what was happening. The film is highly recommended to horror fans and to anyone looking for a good little horror flick to relax and watch with some friends on a night in. Pick it up when it is released on dvd later this year.
