by Charles Kirkland, Jr.
A struggling teen pianist emerges from the shadow of her more popular and more talented twin sister in the Amazon/Blumhouse series movie, Nocturne.
Juliet (Sydney Sweeney) is tired of being in second place. Her twin sister Vivian (Madison Iseman) is the most popular in their performing arts school. She has a boyfriend, their parent’s adoration, and the spotlight solo in the school’s end of the year showcase. One day, Juliet comes across the diary of the one girl who beat her sister. She starts using the notes in the diary to unseat her sister from her perch. By the way, the owner of the diary jumped out a window to her death. As Juliet crosses event after event of the list of the diary, is her fate the same as the previous owner or can she truly rise above it all?
Written and directed by Zu Quirke, Nocturne stars Sweeney and Iseman with Jacques Colimon, Ivan Shaw, Miles McKenna, and JoNell Kennedy. It’s the next film in the “Welcome to the Blumhouse” series collaboration from Amazon and with Jason Blum, the super-producer behind such groundbreaking movies as the Paranormal Activity and The Purge series, Whiplash, Get Out, and Us. This is Quirke’s first feature-length film after completing three prior short films. There is nothing outstanding in this being her first work but there is nothing terrible either.
Nocturne is a horror/thriller movie that delves into waters that have been coursed so many times before. For some reason, music and dance seem to be fertile grounds for horror most likely because of the competitive nature of these arts. These arenas foster competition, unlike any other art or sport. For instance, if the backup football quarterback wants to have the job of the starter more often than not, he has to leave the school where he is because the coach designated the starter, and usually the backup is told to wait his turn. Not so in the world of the musical arts. Competition for a position is not only welcomed but encouraged. The belief is that fighting to be the best makes the group the best. This belief, mixed in with a little sibling rivalry, is the motivating theme for this movie.
Juliet is already borderline neurotic from the start. She is taking mood enhancers for some undisclosed reason so when she comes across the diary of a woman who killed herself, it is plausible that she would ignore all the warning signs and follow the demonic directions for success.
Nocturne is creepy and very predictable or so you would think until the end. (This seems to be foundational criteria to all of these “Welcome to the Blumhouse” movies.) Everything that happens in the movie is conveniently predictable which is ironic because even the Juliet character should know her fate if she is paying attention (which she actually is). But that ending…
Sydney Sweeney (Everything Sucks, The Handmaid’s Tale) is frighteningly creepy and at times reprehensibly repulsive in this role where she convincingly plays twin sister to her real-life best friend Madison Iseman (even though they look nothing alike).
Nocturne is not rated by the MPAA but has scenes of sex and nudity, violence and gore, profanity, (teen-aged) alcohol, drugs and smoking, and frightening and intense situations. It is a decent effort for first time director Quirke and decently acted by Sweeney. The story is mundane and without a true emotional connector to the main character. If nothing else watch this one so that you can say that you saw Quirke’s early work. There’s surely going to be a discussion group about that ending though.
Grade: C-