Danish film "Nightwatch" (1994) was the feature film debut of director Ole Bornedal. 23 years after its release, it's still truly thrilling.The story is simple enough, but the subplot with Martin's friend Jens and the young prostitute Jens sees adds another, darker dimension. It's a well-acted movie with three Danish acting stars-to-be: Kim Bodnia, Nikolaj Coaster-Waldau and Ulrich Thomsen. Remarkably, both Coaster-Waldau and Thomsen make their very feature film debuts here and Bodnia made his second feature film role only. They later became some of the greatest stars in Danish cinema and Coaster-Waldau has a significant career in Hollywood TV and cinema. Cinematographer Dan Laustsen photographed this movie and later followed director Bornedal to Hollywood for his 1997 remake of "Nightwatch". The same year, Laustsen had his first collaboration with director Guillermo del Toro on "Mimic", del Toro's first Hollywood feature and his second feature ever. Laustsen and del Toro were to collaborate again on "Crimson Peak" (2015) and "The Shape of Water" (2017).

I haven't watched any other film by Bornedal(including the American remake, which I understand is inferior to this), but he certainly nailed this one. From start to finish, this establishes and maintains an atmosphere and crafts a tension so thick, you *can't* cut it with a knife, you'd need a razor-blade. The editing and cinematography, with only a handful of exceptions, are inspired, using light and darkness immensely well, and utterly terrifying the audience. This is marvelously well-shot. The plot is excellent, and the twist is unexpected and has a relatively subtle, yet nicely effective reveal. Granted, when you think it all through, you do have to accept one or two details that strain credulity. Still, this is exciting and creepy whenever it attempts to be, and the relatable story and credible, well-developed, human characters are the driving force of the movie. Inbetween the sequences of suspense - to keep it from overstimulating the audience - there is humor, and every joke and gag are funny, none fall flat or try too hard. The acting is impeccable, every performance is spot-on. While there are jump-scares, most of the build-up pays off, big time. The music is excellent, and contains a good bit of rock, as well as a cue that they must have composed with Psycho in mind. There is a lot of disturbing content, some sexuality(including in dialog), brief nudity and a little bloody violence in this. The DVD comes with a well-done half-hour long behind-the-scenes featurette that covers the majority of the areas of production, and the theatrical trailer. I recommend this to every fan of horror. 8/10

I first saw Nattevagten in 1994 when it came in theaters. After i saw it, I was very pleased to choose this one, instead one of the Hollywood movies, since it was so enjoyable to watch. What can i say....A great script with some minor flaws, very good acting from all of the cast, superb camera movement making this movie sometimes shocking. And an intelligent story, but that's reasonable, since it came from Europe. In 2003 I watched it again for the all times sake. It was still good, but sadly, this is one of the movies made for one-time watching... especially in a dark room.7 out of 10

Not much to say about this film. The actors are BRILLIANT and towards the end you are against on the wall clawing at the wallpaper for sheer excitement. Forget the 5th-rate US remake and watch the original horror, but don't do it alone.........