Sean Parker
At a time when businesses seem to have more rights than the people who work at them, a film like Night of Violence arrives to eviscerate your moral sensibilities. Illya Konstantin’s film plays with your sense of what’s right, actively has you siding with its supposed villains, but produces POV characters you also want to see survive an office party from hell. Holding its UK Premiere for FrightFest on Thursday evening, the audience witnessed an affectual dilemma of right vs. wrong, while Konstantin aggressively gets them to determine where their boundaries lie. It’s rare when a movie that plays both sides works as well as this one, delivering a fun jolt of slasher violence in a Die Hard package.
Joining an array of films like Bloodsucking Bastards, Mayhem, and The Belko Experiment, office space has never looked so viscously red as Night of Violence spotlights members of a pharmaceutical company preparing to celebrate a victory over the victims of one of their drug trials. Through non-disclosure agreements and corporate spin, the company lawyers’ win now allows the release of the controversial trial drug, with a slightly changed name, that dulls pain response and allows its users to experience a worry-free life, which may have inadvertently turned them into perfect killers.
Night of Violence centers on Eliott (Kit Lang) as he has a hard time convincing himself that he’s on the right side, but when he tries to talk about the issue to anyone internally, such as Rudy (Vince Benvenuto) he’s met with cantankerous stares and self-serving rhetoric that amounts to “better them than us” philosophy. Rudy is more interested in the party happening at the end of their shift anyway, with the idea of dancing, drugs, and getting busy with any coworker who’ll give him the time of day. Like the drugs they’re slinging, Rudy convinces Eliott to think happy thoughts, and the prospect of finally making a move on his office crush Janelle (Abria Jackson).
As the party commences, so does the action. First, we’re introduced to a barrage of employees, most of whom are just the worst, then a group of the company’s victims infiltrates the catering staff, masks up, and begins their rampage. Starting with the execution of the company’s CEO at the party, the ensuing realization that it isn’t an act sets in when the masked figures begin shooting and slashing anyone in their sights. Eliott, Rudy, and Janelle escape the party, teaming up with Blake (Russ Russo), who also happens to be one of the company’s attorneys. The four of them attempt to flee the tower to safety whilst being hunted by an insurgency of emotionless killers.
Konstantin’s film is a subversive blast that takes aim at the consequences of corporate malfeasance and slashes back. The film uses the background of the Purdue Pharma scandal, where the pharmaceutical company offered incentives to doctors to prescribe opioids it manufactures, such as OxyContin, leading to mega profits for the company while simultaneously manufacturing an addiction crisis among its drug’s users. This led to a $7.4 billion settlement in 2023 due to improper marketing strategies. However, Night of Violence considers the ever-changing political landscape and considers what would have happened if the ruling had gone the other way.
Using the location to his benefit, the director drums up tension easily. The endless, labyrinthian hallways, underground infrastructure pipe rooms, and of course, office cubicles, help the film’s surrealist qualities by promoting a backrooms-like experience as we watch these characters continuously fail to find an easy way out. Night of Violence has its share of shocks and deaths, and does a fine job of mixing in bits of humor with the serious subject matter. Konstantin’s film is well-paced and instantly entertaining, rarely letting up, making the film easily digestible on the surface while gnawing at the gray areas of your ethical values.
Night of Violence also makes many of the characters on the POV side of things incredibly unlikable, Rudy with his sophomoric frat-bro qualities, and Blake, who seems to have no morality whatsoever. These characters serve as a bit of a compass for the audience, showing their lack of scruples against the more upstanding Eliott. However, no one is innocent in this. While it’s easy to consider the kill-or-be-killed novelty, it’s worth considering that the cycle of eye-for-an-eye violence originates from greed and lack of accountability. To that end, Benvenuto and Russo consistently provide their characters with the right amount of douchebaggery and immorality necessary to love hating these guys.
I did take some issue with some of the film’s events, such as a grenade triggering an explosion that is seen from the outside of the building early on. The moment is intense, but it plays with Night of Violence’s story in a negative way. To get the length of time the masked killers need to hunt down the employees, they’d have to keep things relatively quiet. It’s a similar event in Die Hard that results in Sgt. Powell’s arrival at Nakatomi Plaza, and that one was much further away from city infrastructure. While it does take a bit off the believability aspects of the events, the scene is also filmed electrically, adding a lot of adrenaline-powered oomph as the film gets going.
Regardless, Night of Violence will have you on the edge of your seat while also considering its commentary on the moment we’ve socially arrived in. While the moral bankruptcy of vengeance – even when the bastards deserve it – should be the lesson here, it’s often events like these that inspire change. For a short time, we saw this discussion play out after the United Healthcare CEO shooting. Still, these companies tend to fall right back into their earnings over human life philosophies after their empty promises to do better tend to fizzle out. You’re going to root for the bad guys one way or another in Night of Violence, and it’s a big win for the viewer either way.
Night of Violence held its World Premiere at FrightFest on Saturday, August 23. For more information on this and other films playing at the festival, please see the FrightFest website.
