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).

A student takes a job as a night watchman in a morgue. Very quickly he becomes the chief suspect in a series of grisly murders that are happening around the city…There aren't too many Danish thrillers out there. Nightwatch along with Pusher proves that back in the 90's the Danes were certainly capable of making very good ones. This film is another in the serial killer cycle of movies that was especially popular back in those days. It doesn't especially break the mould to be perfectly honest but its pretty effective never-the-less. The morgue setting is good and does lend a certain morbid atmosphere to proceedings. Where the film falls a bit short in my opinion is in the domestic scenes. The watchman and his buddy set themselves a series of challenges throughout the picture. I found these to be mostly annoying distractions that, with the exception of the introduction of the young prostitute, don't really add anything to the overall whole. I guess they are mainly there for character development purposes and I concede that on that score I suppose they do actually flesh out the principal leads but only to make them seem like a couple of unsympathetic bozos. The film works best when it concentrates on its thriller principles. There is one very creepy scene in the film where we experience the killer at work, and the aforementioned parts in the morgue are very worthwhile too.Ultimately, Nightwatch is something of a mixed bag. But the most important thing is that it does work well as a creepy thriller. If you like serial killer movies then I certainly think this one will be right up your street.

Somebody wrote here: '(Most) US reviewers find this mediocre or 'not interesting' and suggest we should see the American remake. European reviewers all like it! I like it too' Oh well, I'm European... so what? I love GOOD cinema of any kind but sadly I got really disappointed with this over-rated and feeble thriller. The story is so obvious and cliché-ridden as any Hollywood mainstream movie of this type and in the last 30 minutes it's like an idiot-plot compendium. It begins promising enough, there are a couple of superb scary scenes in the first half, tons of creepy atmosphere along the way (great locations and camera-work) and some decent performances. But that's all. OK, if the point with this movie was character development it fails with this, too. There's not a single complex or even sympathetic character. And that slight social commentary is uninteresting because it doesn't match with the thriller elements at all.I haven't seen the American remake and I don't feel like to do it after seeing this one.

This is a great horror movie and what makes it even better is that it is Dansih.You seldom see good movies coming out of Scandinavia,but Denmark has proven that they can make good movies.This movie has great acting performances,especially by Kim Bodnia. A really creepy horror movie!