HE KILLS AT NIGHT (2025)

3 stars

4Digital Media. Digital. 2nd December

A car pulls into an underground car park. The female driving the car changes into her posh shoes. Then she hears someone whistling. Waiting for the lift she hears more noises and whistling. She goes to see who it is but there is no one there. Rushing back to her car the lights go out – when they come back on there is just one shoe left there beside the car.

On a radio show there is talk of a serial killer. A caller tells about three missing women. Presumed dead.

It is Christmas Eve. Brogan (Serene Fensom) is driving through wintery, snowy roads. She is dressed for Christmas in red, with candy cane striped tights. She stops to have a wee by the side of the road – as you do. As she gets back into her car she realises there is someone in the back seat. She attempts to fight back but the man (Richard Galloway) overpowers her. He demands that she drives him out of there. He has a large knife. When she fights back this angers the interloper and she ends up stuffed into the boot of the car.

Another woman Marie (Levi Heaton) is driving through the bad weather. She has a swollen black eye. She comes across Brogan’s stranded vehicle and is dragged from her car and knocked unconscious. Pushed back into the driver’s seat, the attacker, our man from earlier, gets in the back seat and tells her to drive – as he doesn’t know how.

Marie turns on the radio and there is more talk of the serial killer. Is the man in the back of her car the murderer? He certainly makes for a frightening presence.

Some of the situations stretch credulity a touch, but for the most part this is an effective thriller with two strong performances – much of the action taking place in Marie’s car, driving along, though the killer doesn’t seem to have thought things through properly or have any kind of plan. Director Thomas Pickering, working from a script by James Pickering, tries to keep things visually interesting, though he does have an odd habit of shooting through the misty car windows, meaning things are somewhat obscured a lot of the time. The plot eventually leads to a twist which feels unearned by what has gone before and just comes out of left field to try and be clever.

Steve Kirkham