Nightbitch (2024) review – A derivative and toothless take on motherhood

Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we are taking a look at Marielle Heller’s Nightbitch.

A Worn Out Formula

Nightbitch follows the story of a new mother (Amy Adams) as she attempts to adapt to life as a stay-at-home parent. Giving up her art career, she now spends her days attending baby-and-mother meets, cooking meals, shopping for groceries, and looking after the home. As she begins to feel more and more jaded, she starts to notice changes in her body and new animal urges that she struggles to understand.

“As you can probably guess, this is your standard “person is unsatisfied with their life, goes through a journey with vague metaphorical horror tropes.“

Adams plays a character caught between her parental demands and animal urges, ill at ease in her position and poorly supported by her dork of a husband (Scoot McNairy) who simply doesn’t understand her. Her desire to unleash her wild side and roam free manifests in her transformation into a fluffy canine, complete with a propensity to maim the local wildlife and a stark dislike of cats.

As you can probably guess, this is your standard “person is unsatisfied with their life, goes through a journey with vague metaphorical horror tropes, before ultimately coming to some sort of conclusion about their new identity one way or the other” type of thing. This has been done to death in recent years within horror. Baby Ruby is one example and Huesera: The Bone Woman followed a short while later.

Most of these movies play on the “metaphorical monster” blueprint set out by films like The Babadook and they all feel fairly similar. Nightbitch is no exception; the focus just happens to be on identity changes, body horror, and a lot more comedy, rather than the altogether more serious approach of the aforementioned films.

It’s an important topic but this movie is derivative and dull

At the risk of repeating myself from other reviews of similar films, this is an important topic. The expectations placed on new parents, mothers in particular, are incredibly significant. It’s a topic ripe for the picking when it comes to horror storytelling. When done well, it can be very effective; Huesera is a perfect example.

“The writing is extremely basic, almost like a high school English project, adding to the inauthentic feel of the narrative.”

It is insightful, clever, moving, and, above all else when it comes to this genre, scary. Nightbitch is, really, none of those things. This is a movie that brings literally nothing new to this overpacked table. In fact, I’m not really sure why Heller was content with putting out such a derivative product. Nightbitch is wholly unoriginal and, almost, inspires a feeling of déjà vu.

It’s something of a shame because it starts pretty strong. Amy Adams is fantastic and crafts a character that is both incredibly relatable and very likable. The script is pretty strong, and the movie is genuinely funny for the first thirty minutes, or so.

It is around this point, however, that things start to get a little repetitive. The humour reveals itself to be very one-note, with the script attempting to garner laughs with the same basic plot points from earlier in the movie. The story feels like it is going nowhere and starts almost moving backwards. It gets lost and doesn’t quite know where it wants to go or what it wants to be.

Does it want to be a comedy-drama? Is it trying to be a horror? Does it want to be a deep drama with an important message? It’s hard to tell because it feels so confused.

It’s barely a horror movie

Nightbitch gets the “horror” and “body-horror” tags, but in reality, there is virtually nothing here to please horror fans. We have one moment that is somewhat wince-inducing, and there is the vague suggestion of horror themes. In reality, however, it seems that any desire for Nightbitch to actually be a horror movie disappears very early on. At a push, I would say this is a drama in the vein of Blue My Mind and other similar titles that sometimes find themselves mislabelled as horror.

“It’s far closer to the 90s UK kids’ show Woof! than it is to An American Werewolf in London.”

Much like the equally dull Baby Ruby, this is one of those movies that would be completely ignored against a backdrop of far superior dramas. Throwing in a few elements that could be vaguely classed as horror is a great way to get these inferior movies a bigger and, let’s be real, less demanding audience. Don’t expect fantastic transformations or horrible mutations in Nightbitch. It’s far closer to the 90s UK kids’ show Woof! than it is to An American Werewolf in London.

The drama leaning wouldn’t be such a big problem if it didn’t feel so damn inauthentic. This is one of those movies that tries to push an important, and poignant, narrative before tying things up in an overly saccharine manner reminiscent of rom-coms and Hallmark Christmas movies. It feels so false and prosthetic. The movie engages in a number of moments of character monologuing and the writing is extremely basic, almost like a high school English project, adding to the inauthentic feel of the narrative.

Our Scoring Philosophy: A Fair Fight

Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.

A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.

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