My Review Of “All Sinner’s Night”

Bobby Easley’s “All Sinners Night” is a Halloween horror showdown that puts Satan back in play in one community’s tradition, as a couple seeking answers come face-to-face with a brutal devil cult. The film stars John Dugan, Tom Spark, Sal Lizard, Brittany Jesse, Bob Shaw and Jackie Palmer. Here is the plot to “All Sinners Night”:

Halloween marks the one year anniversary of the disappearance of Daniel, Lana Williams' brother. Although he is considered dead by the authorities, Lana is obsessed with finding him and stumbles across a local investigative reporter whose wife committed suicide a year ago on the exact same night.

He suspects a satanic cult is actually responsible for her death. Believing there is a link connecting the deaths, they travel to a small rural town in Indiana. Meanwhile, the Reverend Hiram Graves and his Hand of Glory ministry roll into town and hold a bizarre tent revival to save the souls of the wicked. As Halloween night approaches, a murderous cult of masked killers descend upon the town to kidnap and sacrifice five victims - one for each point of the pentagram. How far will Lana and David go to discover something more evil than they ever imagined had happened to Daniel?

“All Sinners Night” has a pretty cool story concept that stumbles some hurtles as it attempts to complete a very complex story arc. With a mix of psychological thriller and extreme gore, the film brings out some strong subject matter as well as brain matter. The acting is hit-and-miss with the unfortunate miss coming from the main characters that are to drive the emotional connection to the “victimized”. Lines are delivered with awkwardness as the two actors stumble over heightened emotions to give us dialog. There is some nice character deliveries in this film, mostly from the victimizers who gives early Bressack style driven cruelty to their characters. An almost to real feel, which is awesome.

The scenes are staged in a nice, somewhat surreal, nightmare-obscura way that is also nice to see from Easley’s cinematography, and his own guidance of course. There is a heavy, sinister atmosphere that really brings the horror to “All Sinners Night”. Unfortunately a lot of the acting is either over-kill, or muddled with bad line-delivery. Except from the afore mentioned cast members. The notable stand out is the twisted preacher man. He looks and feels as evil as any that can come from a horror setting such as this.

Now the special effects in “All Sinners Night” kicks some major ass on indie, low budget scale. The scenes and practical effects own this beast from start to finish. There is brutality that feels like real life crimes taking place, blood splatter and gore a plenty throughout the film. And it isn’t that off screen suggestive stuff that most low budget films use, often successfully, but this is full frontal assault mayhem that shows the faith placed in the FX departments hands. The soundtrack and effects are a blend of punk rock, rock-a-billy, spook show stuff that keep the energy up for a lot of the film. Just know that the pesky flaws with the main characters acting kills a lot of the awesomeness that can be found in “All Sinners Night”.