Nightbooks is squarely aimed at a younger audience and as such I watched it with my son and it was good fun albeit quite scary at times and the Netflix 7+ rating is a bit too low I would say, it’s more like 10+.
Age ratings aside, Nightbooks can be enjoyed by young and old audiences, even more so together, regardless of the rather simplistic plot and obvious outcome, it still provides enough on its own to make it a fun experience.
Alex (Winslow Fegley), the young horror story aficionado who loves to write horror stories himself and Yasmin (Lidya Jewett), the fellow captive, try to escape from the evil witch Natacha (Krysten Ritter) who had lured them to her magical apartment to have horror stories read to her for a specific purpose which is revealed to the viewer in due time. Fegley and Jewett do a decent enough job portraying the scared kids in this Hansel and Gretel scenario and Krysten Ritter (you may also know her as Jessica Jones) is really enjoying her role as evil witch and it shows.
Will they escape the clutches of the evil witch and live happily ever after? Will the evil witch come back? Which witch you ask, not the old witch, the new witch, I mean… yes, that one, obviously you don’t go and squander your chances for a sequel now, do you?
The movie looks good, has good pacing, offers nice horror references for the “older” kids and meets the scary quota for a family gateway horror film. What’s not to like? Sure it’s a quite simple affair and adults may not be interested in it all that much but that’s not the target audience, anyway.
For the younger viewers, after sunset, be it at a sleepover or with siblings or the whole family, grab some popcorn, draw the curtains and … enjoy a night of fright with Nightbooks.
