Ray J's Review - "Nightbooks" (A Netflix Original Film)

I just happened to be browsing Netflix this evening, and saw this new movie "Nightbooks" right at the top! I had never heard of it before. I went into this movie completely blind...didn't even check out the trailer or anything, and it ended up being a frightfully fun horror-fantasy!

The film revolves around a young middle school aged boy named Alex (played by Winslow Fegley), who has a creative mind for writing enchanting scary stories. The movie kicks off as an upset Alex threatens to burn all of his books that are full of the horror stories he's written down. As he can hear his parents discussing his uncommon passion for horror in the other room, Alex dashes away from his apartment and into the elevator, which he intends to take all the way down to the boiler room, but just as he's almost there, the elevator stalls and the doors open to a mysterious floor, where he comes upon a creepy as heck apartment. Once inside, Alex is bewildered to see that this apartment has everything he loves inside of it. The TV is playing his favorite movie, and there is a slice of his favorite dessert, Pumpkin Pie, right before his eyes. Yeah, weirdly good as that all sounds, you know that it's weirdly bad for a reason right? All of a sudden Alex finds himself trapped in the apartment, and just minutes later he is greeted by a witch, a pretty darn wicked one that is (played by Krysten Ritter). After finding out what Alex is good at, the witch demands that he write her a new scary story each night, and if they end up not being good or scary that it will be "the last thing he will ever do". Unfortunately for Alex he begins suffering from writers block, but soon learns that he is not alone in being held captive by the witch. After Alex meets Yasmin (played by Lidya Jewett), a young girl around the same age as him who was kidnapped by the witch in Washington, DC, and who has been held captive for quite some time, she helps him get more comfortable with being in the apartment. While trying to come up with new stories for the witch in the library, Alex discovers some written clues hidden in books which seems to be from a girl who escaped the witch. After letting Yasmin know his discovery, the two hatch a plan to try and escape! Do you think they can?

"Nightbooks" has a bit of a slow start, but it does pick up after a bit! I personally thought it was a thoroughly enjoyable watch, and could be a perfect weekend evening movie for tweens, or teenagers to watch together! It actually does have some aspects that can be quite frightening, and intense I must admit, especially to a younger crowd in which this film is aimed towards!

I don't wanna spoil it, but there is a twist, and it also has to do with a certain fairy tale. What I will say is when it gets to that point, it is so cool visually🤩 I honestly wasn't expecting it! There are a couple parts that are neat to the eye visually. Also when Alex tells his stories, I thought it was cool how they are shown, and played out. It was clever in my opinion😄

As far as acting performances...honestly there are really only the three characters in the entire film, but all of the three actors that played them did a fantastic job👏👏 If I had to rank the performances I would say Lidya Jewett (as Yasmin) > Krysten Ritter (as The Witch) > Winslow Fegley (as Alex). Again, all were great!

All in all, I do recommend "Nightbooks"🎬 It's a perfectly entertaining streaming movie, and a delight with a fair amount of fright😲

"Nightbooks" is now streaming on Netflix!

The Ray J's Reviews rating is:

4 out of 5 lime green hearts

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