After two years, John Spinelli (Matthew J. Dennis) is released from
prison into Wellhome, a halfway house stuffed with borderline crazy
inhabitants. And while he tries to get his life together, to find out
what's going out between him and his girlfriend Ruby (Liz Nolan), who goes
to relationship therapy on her own, tries to hold his job at the
supermarket he hates, and stay out of the way of crime - in other words,
while he tries to become a model citizen, he witnesses strange goings-on
in the house next door, every night at 3:33, something that starts with
flashlights - but at the end of the night, somebody is always found dead.
And since the first two victims are John's former partner in crime (Craig
Bouwens) and his rather unlikeable landlady, it's only logical that he's
suspect #1 for detective Allingham (Scott Baisden), even though it was
himself who called police during the second murder. Those who believe in
his innocence though are the weirdos who are his neighbours, and his
priest Father Stark (Chris Kotcher), but he has a hard time to prove to
even them there's something weird going on next door ... and when he
manages to and they find out why exactly what's happening is happening,
the priest is killed and Ruby is abducted - and things are likely to go to
hell ... 3:33 AM is a highly original little movie that
manages to keep the audience in the dark to what's actually going on until
the third act, but keeps things running not only via the underlying
mystery but also some highly original and well-crafted characters
(including some intentional caricatures), some subtle humour to lighten up
proceedings (though be warned, there are a few burp jokes in there), all
carried by a very able cast and a laid back directorial effort that
doesn't lose the film's story to spectacle. That all said, clocking in at
about 2:15, the film is a little on the long side, and could probably have
done without a subplot or two, but even as it is, it's highly enjoyable
and different from your usual genre fare, and quite possibly director
Daniel E. Falicki's best one yet.
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