‘Night of the Reaper’ Movie Review: Don’t Fear But Still Enjoy Babysitter-Slasher Throwback
Photo from Shudder
From Jeremy Kibler
Checking the children and making sure there isn’t a masked killer in the house are both examples of proper babysitting etiquette in Night of the Reaper, Brandon Christensen’s 1980s Halloween-set slasher mystery. Evocative of babysitter-horror movies and the spirit of the VHS era, this throwback mashes together Halloween, When a Stranger Calls, and The House of the Devil, until becoming its own cunning genre deconstruction. Writer-director Christensen, behind such effective Shudder releases as Z and Superhost, doesn’t set out to solely make a nostalgic imitation but smartly crafts together a small-town mystery in retro clothing. Night of the Reaper won’t live on as a Halloween mainstay, but it deserves its night.
Similar to one of its influences (1979’s When a Stranger Calls), the cold open is a mildly frightful highlight before the plot proper gets underway. After putting her two trickster charges to bed, nice teenage babysitter Emily Golding (Summer H. Howell) gets spooked with a menacing but grammatically incorrect note and then murdered at the knife-wielding hands of a reaper-robed, skull-masked killer. Back from college, Deena (Jessica Clement) does her sick best friend Haddie (scene-stealing spitfire Savannah Miller) a last-minute favor to babysit the sheriff’s kid. Meanwhile, on his doorstep, Sheriff Rodney Arnolds (Ryan Robbins) begins receiving boxes with VHS tapes of a killer’s recorded murders, two of which hit too close to home for both Deena and Rodney.
Coming on to the scene like she just has a chip on her shoulder, Jessica Clement grows more comfortably into the character of Deena as the story deepens. A little like Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott, Clement is tough but identifiable, making Deena a likable protagonist who’s more than able to carry an entire movie; what she gets to do in the film’s final third actually takes a considerable amount of skill to feel fully earned. The beefy Ryan Robbins also makes for a capable co-lead, conveying Sheriff Arnolds’ grief-ridden turmoil that becomes the engine for his finger-pointing determination.
The first half and some change, intercutting between Deena babysitting Max (Max Christensen, the director’s son) and the sheriff’s red herring-filled investigation, is derivative but adequately paced at best with some playfully ominous flourishes. Once things really get going and the first shoe drops, Christensen and co-writer Ryan Christensen’s script is calculated, playing as a clever case of misdirection that unspools during the final 20 minutes. There’s more of an elaborate long game at stake here (and a lot of perfectly timed preparation), and the table-turning confrontation gets a little repetitive but remains vicious, including one surprising gore gag that involves a walkie talkie. Remembering Roger Ebert’s “Law of Economy of Characters” helps ensure that one notable genre actor is not just stuck in a thankless role. Besides that small nitpick, the killer’s motivations are ambiguous but twisted and still somehow convincing.
Night of the Reaper has such a back-and-forth structure that it doesn’t get to work up a head of steam or tension right away, but like Scream, it works as both a loving homage and a representative of the genre it loves. Director Christensen brings a nice restraint to his production without the kind of “I Love the ‘80s” overkill. David Arcus, Terry Benn and Michelle Osis’ score effectively shifts from familiar but simple and creepy piano keys to more rattling and propulsive synth notes, almost on the level of Disasterpeace’s work in It Follows. The judicious soundtrack also includes the likes of Pat Benatar’s “Heartbreaker” and, naturally, Blue Oyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.”
A well-worn mix tape of girl-in-a-house slasher and police procedural, Night of the Reaper starts off well and finishes even stronger. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it rolls along confidently with sharpened spokes and a fresh coat of paint to stand out.
Rating: 3/5
Night of the Reaper is available to stream on Shudder on September 19, 2025.
