Nightwatch Collection, The (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Oct 06, 2025
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Ole BornedalRelease Date(s)
1994/2023 (July 22, 2025)Studio(s)
Thura Film/Nordisk Film (Arrow Video)- Film/Program Grade: See Below
- Video Grade: See Below
- Audio Grade: See Below
- Extras Grade: A
- Overall Grade: A
Review
Nightwatch, a 1994 Danish language film, is part thriller, part police procedural, and part psychological horror. Like the better known The Silence of the Lambs, made three years earlier, it virtually drips with atmosphere and shows how the human mind can spiral into paranoia and irrationality. The Nightwatch Collection contains both the this film and its 2023 sequel, Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever.
In order to pay his law school tuition without asking his parents for help, Martin (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) takes a job as night watchman at a local forensics institute and morgue. The job is supposed to be easy and allow plenty of quiet time to study. On his first day, however, the man he’s replacing (Gyrd Lofquist) warns him that the morgue can affect people in odd ways. When Martin makes his rounds, the sight of the sheet-covered cadavers gives him such palpable chills that he blocks his peripheral vision so he won’t have to see the gurneys on both sides of him.
At the same time, a serial killer is terrorizing Copenhagen with grotesque mutilations and violent murders of young women. Police detective Peter Wormer (Ulf Pilgaard) is in charge of solving the case.
Martin’s best friend Jens (Kim Bosnia) challenges him to play “Dare,” a game in which the players dare each other to do something and neither can refuse. Jens says the prize will be freedom, since the law school already has all of their money. If Martin fails to complete a challenge, he must marry Kalinka (Sofie Grabol). If Jens fails, he must propose to Lotte (Lotte Andersen). The challenges escalate from standing up to tough bullies at a bar to cheating on their girlfriends with teenage prostitute Joyce (Rilke Louise Andersson). Jens seems to take the “game” too seriously, sneaking into the hospital to scare Martin and harassing Joyce by making her talk about her oddest clients.
Director Ole Bornedal creates tension early on and maintains it throughout as the film progresses from light drama about two buddies and their misadventures to something much darker. The old night watchman’s admonitions set the tone for weird happenings in the quiet of the hospital and especially the morgue. The scenes of Martin making his solitary rounds are suspenseful and gripping. A blinking fluorescent light, the sheeted corpses, and Martin’s own trepidation enhance an eerie atmosphere.
The director gradually works in elements of horror and some pretty gory scenes as the film progresses, yet the action is always grounded in the here and now. We feel and share Martin’s paranoia as he makes his rounds.
Coster-Waldau makes us admire Martin for assuming financial responsibility for himself and empathize when the job gets to him, but also shows us his naive recklessness in unquestioningly accepting the rules of Jens’ game and his cruelty in betraying Kalinka. So Martin isn’t a flawless hero, yet Coster-Waldau induces us to feel for him nonetheless.
Nightwatch was shot by director of photography Dan Laustsen on 35mm film with spherical lenses, finished photochemically, and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The Blu-ray is sourced from the original camera negative. A sense of foreboding pervades the scenes in the institute as Martin makes his routine rounds and the loneliness and presence of cadavers unsettle him. Laustsen uses low key lighting and tight framing to project the morgue’s oppressive, eerie atmosphere. Shadows and reflections add to the mood. The color palette at the institute is dominated by desaturated yellows, blues, and whites that emphasize the clinical milieu. Scenes in a restaurant feature soft lighting and a bar scene is brightly lit.
Soundtrack options include Danish 2.0 LPCM and Danish 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. English subtitles are automatically selected, but optional. The score by Joachim Holbek, mostly for strings and piano, has a melancholy feel. Dialogue is clear and distinct. Sound effects include a punch to the face, gun shots, screams, a baseball bat making contact with a body, the blaring alarm in Martin’s office, and the hum of the refrigeration unit in the morgue.
Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever, made nearly thirty years after the original, picks up the story with a much older Martin (Coster-Waldau again), drug-addicted, grief-stricken and traumatized by his wife’s suicide. He lives with his daughter Emma (Fanny Leander Bornedal, the director’s daughter), who’s so desperate for answers that she takes a job in the same forensic hospital where her father worked.
This film lacks the artistry of the original in building and sustaining an eerie atmosphere. It’s formulaic and predictable. The primary source of suspense is learning what happened to Emma’s parents on the night that drove her mother to take her life.
A number of bloody murders occur but without suspenseful lead-ins, which diminishes their impact. An irritating aspect of the script is that those who are clearly in danger either fail to recognize it or they downplay it. This dashes credibility and you almost feel like shouting at the characters.
Jens (Jim Bodnia) is back and hasn’t matured much, even after a near-death experience in Nightwatch. He takes nothing seriously, even the fact that a copycat killer is on the loose. Only one scene suggests that he’s remotely affected by what happened thirty years ago.
Coster-Waldau, excellent in the original, plays Martin without much variation. He’s sad and has internalized grief to such a degree that he puts up an emotional barrier between himself and Emma. It’s as if Martin is present in body but in another world mentally. Martin dominated the first film but has been relegated to ensemble player this time around. The protagonist in Demons Are Forever is clearly Emma.
New characters include Bent (Casper Kjaer Jensen), a deranged acolyte of the original serial killer; Maria (Nina Terese Rask), Emma’s best friend; Sonja Richter, an empathetic psychiatrist; and Paprika Steen, a cynical, by-the-book detective.
Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever was captured digitally by director of photography Lasse Frank Johannessen and presented in the aspect ratio of 2.39:1. In darker scenes, detail is much clearer than in Nightwatch. Images are pristine on the Blu-ray, and natural skin tones and textures stand out, especially in close-ups. Blacks are deep and velvety. The lighting and color palette tend to be brighter than the original, giving this film a different feel. Graphic images of kills with ample amounts of blood distinguish the sequel from its predecessor, which was more subtle in its imagery.
As with the first film, soundtrack options include Danish 2.0 LPCM and Danish 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio with optional English subtitles. The score by Ceiri Torjussen sounds great, with excellent use of the channels to place music where it will enhance visuals. The score is used sparingly, but significant in amplifying tension in major scenes. Sound effects include footsteps in an empty corridor, stabs, the maniacal screaming of a psychiatric inmate, and incidental ambient sounds in the institute.
NIGHTWATCH (FILM/VIDEO/AUDIO): B+/A/B+
NIGHTWATCH: DEMONS ARE FOREVER (FILM/VIDEO/AUDIO): B-/A/A
The Nightwatch Collection 2-Disc Blu-ray release from Arrow Video includes a reversible sleeve and a double-sided poster featuring new artwork for both films by Peter Strain, as well as an insert booklet containing cast and crew information, the essay Nightwatch as an Innovative Small Nation Horror Film by Eva Novrup Redvall, presentation details, productions credits, and special thanks. Bonus materials include the following:
DISC ONE (NIGHTWATCH)
- Audio Commentary by Ole Bornedal
- Not Afraid of the Darkness (16:56)
- Death in Denmark (14:09)
- The Making of Nightwatch (28:13)
- Trailer (Danish) (1:32)
- Trailer (German) (1:32)
- Trailer (English) (1:33)
DISC TWO (NIGHTWATCH: DEMONS ARE FOREVER)
- How the Nightwatch Films Explore the Horrors of Adulthood (17:45)
- Life (and Death) on Mars – Public and Private Life in the Nightwatch Universe (22:23)
- Trailer (2:07)
Audio Commentary – Danish writer/director Ole Bornedal conducts this commentary in English. Bornedal notes that Nightwatch was seen by 15% of the Danish population. He made early scenes understated so that later scenes would make a greater dramatic impact. Martin covering his eyes when he goes into the morgue is a childish thing, yet it shows his trepidation and the effect the morgue has on him. Bornedal talks about the “non-existent monster” that’s always around us creating unease and fear. This non-entity is reflected in the film’s photography and the almost constantly moving camera. Bornedal’s comments are sporadic and often merely descriptive of what we’re seeing. He gives little information here about the actual making of the film. He’s more forthcoming on The Making of Nightwatch featurette.
Not Afraid of the Darkness – In this newly filmed interview with cinematographer Dan Laustsen, he describes Nightwatch as a low-budget film shot completely in locations in Copenhagen. At the time, Laustsen had quite a bit of experience under his belt while Ole Bornedal was a novice director. However, the cinematographer was impressed with Bornadal’s thorough preparation, which allowed for a fast shoot. Laustsen approached the film as a challenge, since he liked the story. Steadicam was used a lot because it made you feel there was something—a presence—around all the time, and amped the scariness factor. The crew was small, about 15 people as opposed to 300 on a major studio film. The biggest challenge was filming in a small apartment.
Death in Denmark – Critic and Nordic Noir specialist Barry Forshaw speaks about both Nightwatch and Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever. Director Ole Bornadal was inspired by director Michelangelo Antonioni. Because Bornadal couldn’t get into film school, he worked in radio and later TV and eventually became a major influence in New Danish Cinema. He enjoyed manipulating an audience through cinematic techniques. Forshaw speaks about the main actors in Nightwatch and provides brief career overviews. Still photos and posters related to his comments are shown. The two films deal with male friendship, and the last third of the original has impressive use of color, lighting, and production design. The original film is a whodunit and even though the title of the sequel suggests that it’s a horror film, it is not. In the sequel, Martin is a destroyed figure, some parts of the script are illogical, and most of the focus is on characters from the original. Both films are genre-bending and, in Forshaw’s opinion, “top notch.”
How the Nightwatch Films Explore the Horrors of Adulthood – Film critic and horror specialist Heather Wixson notes the “palpable sense of atmosphere from start to finish” in the original Nightwatch. She calls it one of the most impressive films to emerge from the Euro cinema scene during the 1990s. Nightwatch is more than standard serial-killer fare. Transitional anxieties are brought out through the relationship of Martin and Jens. The challenge game is their means of clinging to childish ways. Both Martin and Jens are logical suspects as the serial killer. Both actors find humanity in their characters even though they do some unlikable, even cruel, things. Martin is ill prepared for “real adversities life can throw you.” In the sequel, Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever, made thirty years after the original, director Ole Bornedal honors the spirit of the first film. The two films are a complete contrast to each other in style. Martin is now a shell of a man. His daughter Emma is alone to contend with the ghosts of the past. She tries to discover how the events at the forensic institute left such scars. What’s happened to Jens over the years is discussed. Martin is eventually forced to confront the personification of evil. Despite their subject matter, both films have an uplifting ending.
Life (and Death) on Mars: Public and Private Life in the Nightwatch Universe – In this video essay by author and film critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, she notes that there’s a “driving, pervasive, yet constantly evolving tension between ideas of public and private space.” Martin moves from a social life with his friends to the gloomy isolation of the forensic institute. He undermines his relationship with Kalinka by his own self-destructive actions. There’s an indication that there’s “trouble in paradise” between the two couples. The rot begins to set in. In the sequel, Martin and Kalinka could never capture the sanctity and protection of their private domestic space. Kalinka’s suicide has left Martin dysfunctional and it’s up to daughter Emma to look after him. She perseveres despite her heavy emotional load. Old newspaper clippings and tapes familiarize Emma with the events of thirty years ago. The film’s production design creates a sense of suffocation. Emma tries to bring Martin back from the brink of mental collapse by breaking patterns that had trapped and destroyed her family.
Was a sequel necessary? I don’t think so. The degree of success of Nightwatch was a surprise to the filmmakers, and the thinking might have been to return to those characters to milk box office dollars (or kroner). But the original tied things together neatly, making a follow-up unnecessary. The thirty-year interval suggests that the public wasn’t exactly clamoring for a sequel. Ole Bornedal is hampered by a routine script and underdeveloped characters. Despite the subtitle Demons Are Forever, it’s actually a slasher film that has nothing to do with the supernatural. For slasher fans, it should be noted that the first kill doesn’t occur for close to an hour.
- Dennis Seuling