Director: Joe Cornet
Release date: 2023
Contains spoilers
A low budget horror film with a limited cast, Night of the Caregiver has a demonic entity at its heart but definitely aims for a vampiric aspect. There is a reveal to be spoilt in this review as I explain why it’s a vampire film but, to be fair, it wasn’t a shock when it happened and the viewer is in on it (without being explicitly told what’s going on) long before the primary protagonist knows.
Juliet Rowe (Natalie Denise Sperl, Succubus: Hell-bent) is a caregiver who has taken an additional, one-time job on, on top of her job as a hospice nurse. However, we first see her during said moonlighting job, sleeping and then woken as a demonic hand brushes her and then see her panicking in the night. Following this we cut to 13-hours earlier and New York detective Eckhart (Joe Cornet), out of jurisdiction, visiting paranormal expert Dr King (Eric Roberts). Eckhart’s mother went missing years before and he has tied the disappearance into an LA urban legend.
Juliet’s girlfriend, Pam (Anna Oris, Spooky+), is not impressed at losing their Friday night horror movie watch but concedes the point when Juliet points out that they need the money. She arrives at her client’s house, in the middle of nowhere, but no-one answers the door. It’s open and she enters, calling out, and finds the patient, Lillian Gresham (Eileen Dietz, the Last Slay Ride, Creepshow 3 & Monsterland), baking cookies. As they get to know each other we discover that Lillian has heart cancer but her vitals, taken by her normal caregiver, seem too good to be true, she refuses the taking of further vitals and she doesn’t take medication.
Nevertheless, and despite it being all sorts of strange, Juliet settles her down for the night and starts to experience ‘events’ – the phone sometimes doesn’t work, lights flicker on and off, Lillian vanishes and reappears and she sees a demonic entity. Putting things down to tiredness, at first, she gets more and more spooked until, eventually, she realises that Lillian is the source of her trouble (which is, of course, the reveal I mentioned). She genuinely did have heart cancer and it was untreatable but she invoked a demon, named Ayish.
The demon made a deal with her. She was infused with an alter ego – the demon sharing her body and giving her its powers. To maintain her life, she has to kill an innocent once every 13-years, before the night is over, and she chooses caregivers as they are good (and therefore innocent) people. She has to suck the victim’s blood as part of the deal and so it is this extended life (she started this some 65-years before), with blood drinking, that makes this a vampire film. It should also be mentioned that failing to fulfil her part of the pack means the demonic infusion will be burnt out with the morning sun.
The film isn’t a bad little horror watch. The twist was palpably obvious, unfortunately, and the detective was virtually pointless except for the end intervention – which they could have had with the girlfriend (she offered to come over when called and Juliet was freaking out and then, as contact was lost, she could have driven over and served the same function as the detective – and it would have made more sense). Sperl did a fair turn at the victimised caregiver and Eileen Dietz was the professional you would expect, toying with her victim. The exposition was crowbarred in. Not the greatest flick ever, but passes the time. 4.5 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
 |
| Joe Cornet as Eckhart |
Juliet Rowe (Natalie Denise Sperl, Succubus: Hell-bent) is a caregiver who has taken an additional, one-time job on, on top of her job as a hospice nurse. However, we first see her during said moonlighting job, sleeping and then woken as a demonic hand brushes her and then see her panicking in the night. Following this we cut to 13-hours earlier and New York detective Eckhart (Joe Cornet), out of jurisdiction, visiting paranormal expert Dr King (Eric Roberts). Eckhart’s mother went missing years before and he has tied the disappearance into an LA urban legend.
 |
| Natalie Denise Sperl as Juliet |
Juliet’s girlfriend, Pam (Anna Oris, Spooky+), is not impressed at losing their Friday night horror movie watch but concedes the point when Juliet points out that they need the money. She arrives at her client’s house, in the middle of nowhere, but no-one answers the door. It’s open and she enters, calling out, and finds the patient, Lillian Gresham (Eileen Dietz, the Last Slay Ride, Creepshow 3 & Monsterland), baking cookies. As they get to know each other we discover that Lillian has heart cancer but her vitals, taken by her normal caregiver, seem too good to be true, she refuses the taking of further vitals and she doesn’t take medication.
 |
| Juliet and Lillian |
Nevertheless, and despite it being all sorts of strange, Juliet settles her down for the night and starts to experience ‘events’ – the phone sometimes doesn’t work, lights flicker on and off, Lillian vanishes and reappears and she sees a demonic entity. Putting things down to tiredness, at first, she gets more and more spooked until, eventually, she realises that Lillian is the source of her trouble (which is, of course, the reveal I mentioned). She genuinely did have heart cancer and it was untreatable but she invoked a demon, named Ayish.
 |
| Ayish revealed |
The demon made a deal with her. She was infused with an alter ego – the demon sharing her body and giving her its powers. To maintain her life, she has to kill an innocent once every 13-years, before the night is over, and she chooses caregivers as they are good (and therefore innocent) people. She has to suck the victim’s blood as part of the deal and so it is this extended life (she started this some 65-years before), with blood drinking, that makes this a vampire film. It should also be mentioned that failing to fulfil her part of the pack means the demonic infusion will be burnt out with the morning sun.
 |
| attacking Eckhart |
The film isn’t a bad little horror watch. The twist was palpably obvious, unfortunately, and the detective was virtually pointless except for the end intervention – which they could have had with the girlfriend (she offered to come over when called and Juliet was freaking out and then, as contact was lost, she could have driven over and served the same function as the detective – and it would have made more sense). Sperl did a fair turn at the victimised caregiver and Eileen Dietz was the professional you would expect, toying with her victim. The exposition was crowbarred in. Not the greatest flick ever, but passes the time. 4.5 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
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