NIGHT OF THE REAPER movie poster | ©2025 Shudder

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Jessica Clement, Ryan Robbins, Summer H. Howell, Keegan Connor Tracy, Matty Finochio, Ben Cockell, Bryn Samuel, Savannah Miller, Sofie Kane, Max Christensen, Huxley Fisher, Isla Spencer
Writers: Ryan Christensen & Brandon Christensen
Director: Brandon Christensen
Distributor: Shudder
Release Date: September 19, 2025 (Shudder)

In NIGHT OF THE REAPER, it’s the ‘80s. Pat Benatar is singing “Heartbreaker” on MTV, and all of suburbia has VCRs on their cathode ray tube TVs.

Babysitter Emily (Summer H. Howell) is reassuring her two young charges, Mark (Huxley Fisher) and Marina (Isla Spencer). Mark is afraid of the “Skinny Eater” that he says lurks in his closet. Emily examines the closet, pronounces it safe, puts the kids to bed – and then proceeds to endure an ever-creepier set of incidents that culminate with a skeleton-masked figure tying her up and slashing her to death while a videotape camera rolls.

Then it’s Halloween time, and there are skeleton decorations (among others) all over town. College criminology student Deena (Jessica Clement) is back to visit her parents for the long weekend. She also gets in touch with BFF Haddie (Savannah Miller) who, despite her youth, has a crush on local sheriff Rod Arnold (Ryan Robbins).

Recently widowed Sheriff Arnold is already troubled when he starts receiving cardboard boxes from an anonymous sender. The boxes contain items from murder sites – and videotapes, all labeled “Night of the Reaper,” showing the kills. It doesn’t take him long to become determined to find and arrest the culprit.

Haddie is supposed to babysit the sheriff’s little boy Max (Max Christensen) but comes down with stomach problems. She begs Deena to sub for her (Haddie is afraid that if the sheriff is left to his own hiring devices, he’ll find someone better and Haddie will lose her regular gig).

Deena easily bonds with Max, but soon enough, weird stuff is happening in the house.

So, is this a regular serial killer who enjoys taunting their prey? Is this supernatural? What’s with those souvenirs and videotapes?

The answers more or less add up (good) and aren’t what we might expect (better). The screenplay, by Ryan Christensen & director Brandon Christensen mostly plays fair with exposition. We get a satisfying number of, “Oh, so that’s why …” moments.

On the other hand, we never do find out why one main character turns out to be repeatedly targeted (under the circumstances, this seems to warrant an explanation) and what the back story is on another. It would be helpful to have some sort of onscreen chronology marker for us to know when the main body of the film occurs in relation to the opening, since that’s not part of the mystery.

For those sensitive to such details, the filmmakers also have the killer using dead dogs as a distraction. While it serves to make us hate the killer more than we already do and we only see the aftermath, this minimizes the lives of the animals and induces a wish that John Wick would put in an appearance.

Director Brandon Christensen is adept at doing those ominous tracking shots that are the essence of this subgenre. He’s got some good compositions as well. There’s a lot of fun to be had with the period, including an homage to RISKY BUSINESS and styles that evoke the era without lapsing into parody.

Performances are good across the board, although to allude to who is doing what might give something away.

As modestly-budgeted period slashers go, NIGHT OF THE REAPER is cleverer than many and checks most of the boxes for what it’s meant to do.

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