Crew
Director/Visual Effects – Brandon Christensen, Screenplay – Brandon Christensen & Ryan Christensen, Producers – David Hiatt, Matt Manjourides, Justin Martell & Michael Peterson, Photography – Clayton Moore, Music – David Arcus, Terry Benn & Michelle Osis, Makeup Effects – Dave Trainor. Production Company – Super Chill/Not the Funeral Home/Peterson Polaris Corp.
Cast
Jessica Clement (Deena), Ryan Robbins (Sheriff Rodney Arnold), Matty Finochio (Officer Butch Cassidy), Ben Cockell (Chad Bolton), Keegan Connor Tracy (Elizabeth Talbot), Summer H. Howell (Emily Golding), Max Christensen (Max Arnold), Bryn Samuel (Willis Hanover), Savannah Miller (Haddie McAllister), Susanne Serao (Sheila), David Feehan (The Reaper)
Plot
Deena returns to her hometown from university just on Halloween. As she does so, Sheriff Rodney Arnold begins to receive a series of videotapes labelled Night of the Reaper, which depict the murder of a local boy and of Arnold’s wife, who he believed was killed in a car accident. Arnold becomes obsessed, harassing Chad, a local teen who makes prank videotapes, believing him responsible. When Deena’s friend Haddie falls ill, Denna takes her job babysitting Arnold’s son Max. As she settles in, she then becomes aware that the hooded figure of The Reaper is lurking around the house.
Night of the Reaper was the sixth film from Canadian director Brandon Christensen who had previously made the horror films Still-Born (2017), Z (2019), Superhost (2021), The Puppetman (2023) and Bodycam (2025). Christensen had also acted as a producer on It Stains the Sand Red (2016), What Keeps You Alive (2018), Influencer (2022) and the non-genre Summerland (2020).
Night of the Reaper pays homage to the whole 1980s horror phenomenon – a poster of RoboCop (1987) on the wall places the events as happening sometime after 1987. (Christensen has to effectively set the film back in the 1980s otherwise the whole leaving videotapes to be found thing wouldn’t work). Christensen creates the period subtly and not over-stressed like a lot of 1980s homage works end up being – MTV in the background, the big bulky videocameras, the cars, the hairstyles and old worn video frame flickers over the opening credits. The only major modernism that would never have flown back in the 1980s heyday is that everything is shot in a dreary modern desaturated colour scheme.
Night of the Reaper gives the impression that it is going to be another babysitter stalker film a la Halloween (1978), When a Stranger Calls (1979) or modern efforts like The House of the Devil (2009) and Berkshire County (2014). On the other hand, as soon as we get into the set-up, things start to turn out different to expectation. A standard 1980s slasher would have teased us with a series of supplementary deaths prior to the main event. By contrast, this is a slow burn film that takes us through the B plot with the trail of videotapes and Ryan Robbins’ sheriff harassing the teen videographers. There are no jumpshocks and it is a lot slower in the build-up than almost any other horror film of its sort that you care to name.
Eventually, about the thirty-minute point, Night of the Reaper settles down to be the babysitter being stalked film it promises to be with Jessica Clement alone in the farmhouse, hearing noises and seeing figures outside. However, after the one-hour point, it introduces quite a solid surprise [PLOT SPOILERS] that turns everything you think is happening completely on its head. It is certainly a jolt that wakes up a slower than usual film with some effect. The end explanation may be one that stretches refrigerator logic when you think about it too much, but it is a satisfying twist.
Trailer here