In the week leading up to Halloween I ran a special series on my personal movie blog that focused on adaptations of the work of H.P. Lovecraft. All of Lovecraft’s work is in the public domain, making him a go-to source for aspiring filmmakers looking to get story ideas on the cheap. One of the things I learned from this experience – watching a large number of independent films produced with minimal funding – was that to be a good filmmaker you don’t need a lot of money, but you do need a good sense of story, character, and visual dynamism. For instance, Kevin Smith created characters we could sympathize with in Clerks, and the lack of story fit the lazy unfocused pace of the film, but his lack of interest in visual action would torpedo his career later on. Meanwhile, Shane Carruth (Primer) and Rian Johnson (Brick) were both able to create what are considered instant classics with small budgets that focused on tight narratives, relateable characters, and interesting visual styles. Both of these men, because they so clearly knew and cared for the medium of film as a storytelling device beyond dialogue, have generated great interest in future projects.

With that in mind, even though The Nocturnal Third may suffer from some storytelling issues in its final moments, it still stands as a worthwhile and ultimately engaging example of a filmmaker at the outset of what is doubtlessly a promising career. The tale is the type of deliberately-paced, slow-burning thriller that knows exactly what it is doing, and the craftsmanship behind it serves it well.

We meet Eli (Kevin Maggard) as he settles in for work at Stafford Stoneworks, a rapidly deteriorating factory in the middle of nowhere. He is a young man ill at ease, his mind unsettled by his debts and the recent death of his dog, though there is solace in his marriage to Ellie, his childhood sweetheart. He isn’t well suited to his job, but it pays the bills (barely), and considering the economic straits of the community around him he is happy to be employed. His sleep schedule has been shot by stress and other outside concerns, and he struggles to put anything worthwhile into book of sketches. Worst of all are his semi-waking dreams of nightmarish portent. Still, in spite of his already fragile mental condition he decides to take a late night shift from a coworker, eager for the extra pay the shift affords as compensation for the lack of sleep and having to work alone. Eli is eager to spend the night drawing and generally relaxing, but when he arrives at the factory he’s surprised to find a shady coworker, Harold (Wescott Youngson), hard at work.

From this inauspicious beginning, the night grows steadily more corrosive to Eli’s frail mental condition. A black cat sneaks into the factory and consistently eludes capture. Harold has an accident and refuses to let Eli call for an ambulance. Things are helped only marginally when Jeffery (Luke Weaver), a gregarious stranger with car trouble, enters the plant looking for a phone. He offers Eli a conversational partner, though time and again the conversation drifts too close to the uncomfortable truth of Eli’s position. Jeffery clocks Eli as a man out of his element, working a job he doesn’t like, married perhaps a bit too young, and without the means to do or create anything on his own. Being constantly reminded of all of these elemental truths drives Eli slowly closer to the edge, toying this his own unspoken sense of self-worth and forcing him to gauge his life anew.

The film cribs notes from other recent and classic films, but in the best way possible. Rather that using the tricks of other craftsmen to fill in the holes of his own talent, writer/director Benjamin Stark shows a deep understanding of what made those tropes effective in the first place, as well as an ability to make them suit his own original tale. From The Machinist he takes the setting of an industrial, machine-heavy work environment that supplies the noise, power, and general atmosphere of dread. To be sure, for much of this film’s run time it feels a bit like a horror film. There seems to be a building sense of dreaded expectancy at the edges of everything. This tension and propulsive aurora of mysterious danger is aided by the visual acuity of the camera work, lighting, and sound design. These are indeed small, fragile people stuck in a large, powerful space, and the very inexperience of Eli in dealing with these machines perfectly and ably reflects the thematic parallels to his own life.

Meanwhile, the relationship between the put-upon Eli and the affable Jeffery closely resembles a less antagonist riff on the relationship between the cab-driving Max and the hitman Vincent in Collateral. It is their relationship and the way they interact and affect one another throughout the course of the story that is responsible, above all else, for keeping the audience interested in the story, as it is this relationship, we feel, that will ultimately deliver on the spectral promise of danger that lives just under the skin of the movie.

Luckily, the actors tasked with bringing these characters to life are up to the challenge. Eli, as played by Maggard, is suitable hangdog and inarticulate. He seems like a person who has spent his entire life trying to defend his position but has grown weary and uncertain of his defense. He is young, boyish, and seems out of place in the Stoneworks, making his frustration at the decaying aspect of the machines and the physical labor involved in their maintenance and running all the more palpable and understandable. Jeffery, meanwhile, has the attitude of Eli’s evil twin, likewise stuck in a thankless job, but with the perspective and self-awareness to know that he can and will do better. Weaver makes Jeffery carefree and friendly, but in a very intense and purposeful kind of way. In another world they could be friends, but in the confined, noise-filled spaces of the Stoneworks their interaction is a subtle balancing act of friendly uncertainty and jovial bullying, respectively.

As I said, the film fails to entirely stick the landing in the film moments. The reveal of certain motives and actions is given less clarity that it perhaps should have been, but the pieces are all there. The ending has finality, but lacks some kind of nebulous catharsis. These are small complaints though, and really only warrant mentioning because they feel like slight disappointments next to the exact and well-executed storytelling that preceded them. That being said, they should definitely not dissuade anyone interested from taking the time to check this film out.

Films of a limited budget give a very specific and important kind of insight into the creative chops of a filmmaker. With The Nocturnal Third, Benjamin Stark and his entire crew have proven that they are well worth keeping an eye on.

♥♥♥

(The Nocturnal Third is available to buy or rent on Amazon Prime)