Movie Review: NEVER AFTER DARK

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: September 26th, 2026 / 12:22 AM

NEVER AFTER DARK movie poster | ©2026 Magnolia Pictures

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Moeka Hoshi, Kurumi Inagaki, Kento Kaku, Mutsuo Yoshioka, Bokuzo Masana, Tae Kimura
Writer: Dave Boyle
Director: Dave Boyle
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Release Date: September 25, 2026

NEVER AFTER DARK (NEBÂ AFUTÂ DÂKU) is unusual for several reasons. The onscreen one is that it introduces a novel (at least to this reviewer) supernatural concept. It’s uncommon in a meta sense as it is written and directed by an American, filmmaker Dave Boyle, but set and shot in Japan, with an all-Japanese cast and Japanese-language dialogue (subtitled in English).

Airi (Moeka Hoshi) is a young woman with abundant psychic gifts, who lives out of her car with her opinionated but loving sister Miku (Kurumi Inagaki). We learn that Airi easily sees and communicates with the souls of the departed in a nice twist early on.

Airi is not afraid of the spirits of the dead. In fact, she makes her living by getting paid by the owners of haunted houses to find out why the deceased are hanging around and what they want and then giving it to them or otherwise persuading them to move on to the next plane.

When Airi is summoned by the clearly starstruck Teiko (Tae Kimura), the medium thinks it’s just another job. Teiko has purchased and lives in what used to be an isolated hotel, and she thinks she’s seen the ghost of a man several times.

Teiko’s adult son Gunji (Kento Kaku) believes his mother is hallucinating but is willing to put up with her hiring Airi if it eases Teiko’s mind. Airi is confident that she can get the vast building un-haunted in a day or so, even though Teiko invites her to stay as long as she likes. (The hotel room is an agreeable change from sleeping in the car.)

Teiko wants Airi to start right away, which is where the title NEVER AFTER DARK comes into play. The spirits, Airi explains, are too strong at night. She also quashes Teiko’s hopes of watching a summoning; Airi needs privacy.

Airi makes contact, but this situation is unfamiliar to her (and to at least some of the audience). Curiosity, stubbornness and guilt go to war with rising and well-warranted fear.

Writer/director Boyle sets up a growing sense of dread with some sharp scares, but he’s also careful to give us humanizing time with Airi and Miku, whose sibling bond is appealing.

The location provides a lot of atmospheric mileage – there are even stone gargoyles at the gates – and the gore is properly unsettling.

We would like to know a little more about Teiko, including why such a social-seeming person decided to live in such a remote (and enormous) place and how she affords it. More, once Airi uncovers some facts, we wonder about the involvement (or lack thereof) of law enforcement.

Hoshi effortlessly convinces us of Airi’s passions and dilemmas. Inagaki is becomingly tart and concerned as Miku. Mutsuo Yoshioka is properly menacing as a stranger, and Kimura and Kaku are appropriate as, respectively, the believer mother and skeptical son.

Boyle provides us with something unconventional, at the same time he keeps us entertained and increasingly apprehensive. NEVER AFTER DARK is a welcome addition to the genre.

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