Action Film Nightshooters Is a Great Gritty Indie

If ever there was a low-budget, high-quality film with a creative storytelling format, Nightshooters would qualify. Stringing together a story about a crew of filmmakers who end up in the wrong place at the wrong time is just the beginning of this hybrid gangster movie by Marc Price. Hailing from a British landscape, Nightshooters is what a lot of independent creators set out to achieve and never quite reach. Ticking all the boxes from performance excellence to choreography that would pass muster in any blockbuster movie, one of the only gripes I had, was the poster art didn’t do this action film justice.

As extra icing on this darkly funny violent movie, Nightshooters stars stuntman Jean-Paul Ly (Jailbreak, F9: The Fast Saga, Doctor Strange) as Donnie. But he wasn’t the only actor to bring the martial arts goods. Karanja Yorke certainly has some killer moves too.

Additional cast to look out for is Doug Allen (“Law & Order”,) Nicolas Aaron (“Outlander”), Rosanna Hoult (The Lobster, Captain America: The First Avenger), Wendy Glenn (You’re Next, “The L Word”), and Philip Barantini (“Band of Brothers”).

A Violent Action Movie

Nightshooters‘ begins in an abandoned office space. Between scenes, the crew discusses their location and discovers the building is set for demolition in the morning. To top it off the director has them working there illegally. In an unfortunate twist, some gang members also know the value of the soon-to-be rubble location and are busy torturing and executing their own witnesses nearby. Before they know it, their presence is discovered and instead of finishing off the zombie movie they set out to make, they are trying to save themselves from being killed off in real life.

The look and feel of the big bad, Tarker in this scenario, was somewhat of a juxtaposing force. Played by Richard Sandling, I can only compare his performance as a ruthless killer to the reactions from some when Kevin James had a go at being mean in the title Becky. Personally, I thought James pulled it off. However, swarms of cinephiles didn’t buy what he was selling. In a similar vein, Tarker comes across as a giant teddy bear who says things that sound like they should be coming out of someone else’s mouth. While he looks at the part, there is a certain ‘nice guy’ vibe that oozes out of his presence.

Creative Kill of the Year

Comparatively, Tarker’s henchman Chilemna does a lot of malignant damage. He’s also convincingly menacing. In addition, Nightshooters doesn’t rein in including shocking death scenes. There is enough here to satiate any action movie and there’s plenty of blood spatter included. Not to mention one particular fight scene resulting in a jaw-dropping kill that I would easily highlight as my creative film death of the year.

Overall, Nightshooters is fresh, fast, and nail-bitingly good.

I give Nightshooters

4 best indie filmmakers out of 5