The Nocturnal Third Review

Independent Cinema.  It’s an odd thing.  You see an independent painting, book or play is one thing.  They’re not limited to anything but the bounds of the human imagination. You never think about budget when you look at a painting.  But an independent movie is different.  They’re limited to the resources the artists have at hand.  Kevin Smith had a convenience store and he made Clerks, Benjamin Stark had a stonework plant at his fingertips and he made The Nocturnal Third.

The Nocturnal Third would best be described as a thriller.  It’s about suspense and tension.

The story is as such: our man Eli (Kevin Haggard) is your average working stiff.  He’s an artist who works at a stonework factory out in the country.  He needs some hours and chooses to work the third shift, the graveyard shift.  He’s working it with the company screw up Harold (Wescott Youngson); a big guy who’s a touch creepy.  During the shift Harold has an accident with a dangerous machine and refuses any 911 call, forcing Eli to deal with the emergency himself.  Whilst trying to run the place on his own a drifter calling himself a salesman (Luke Weaver) walks in.  He says he’s out of gas and needs to hang around until another ride shows up.  This ‘salesman’ forces himself and his ideas on Eli while Eli tries to get his work done.

Tensions rise as we learn more and more about these characters until… well, I won’t go into spoilers.

It’s a solid movie, but let me get the negatives out of the way.  The movie was made for $10,000.  For those of you who don’t know what movies cost to make I’ll just say that $10,000 will not exactly get you… Inception.   But the filmmakers aren’t making Inception, they’re making The Nocturnal Third.  Really, that’s the only downside here, the low-budget look of the piece.

Now, let’s get to the good stuff.  What the filmmakers lack in funds they made up for in pure talent. First of all, I love the general tone and eerie feel to the movie.  Like I said, if you’re expecting Inception, you’re a moron.  But, if you’re perhaps expecting The Machinist, you may be into this movie.  The setting and general story did remind me of Brad Anderson’s excellent thriller The Machinist, and in a good way.

The best part of the movie has to be the performance of Kevin Haggard as Eli.  He really comes off as a natural here.  I saw bits of myself in the character.  Eli’s just a young man with talents beyond that of a guy cutting rocks and metal.  I can relate to his plight in some ways.  Also, I’ve worked in a place similar to this.  Eli’s general malaise about this job is VERY relate-able.

The general technique of the movie was very well executed, I found.  A recurring dream about Eli potentially killing someone was exceptionally filmed and edited with a bit of animation that I thought was surprisingly good.  The script was good, nothing that shattered my brain, but I thought it was very good.  The scenes of Eli and the salesman talking about potential and ambition were very well done.

Is this movie worth seeing?  I say, yes.  I can honestly say I enjoyed the movie.  It’s a nice thriller.  This Benjamin Stark has the goods, he just needs a bigger budget perhaps.

So the next time you’re surfing the web, looking for a new film to watch, head on over to http://thenocturnalthird.com and spend a few bucks on something original.  You won’t regret it.

I give this movie 3 out of 4 Stars.

Check it out.