Kind of like this year’s surprise bonkers Barbarian, but without all the spice, Gone In The Night, re-titled The Cow from its original title, which premiered at SXSW, has some of the right elements. For example, Winona Ryder is a star. Her gigantic expressive eyes are almost enough to save this lazy thriller. If you’ve watched to the end of this and wondered what I just watched, you’re not alone.
Kath, a wide-eyed Ryder, and her younger friend Max, a calm toxic John Gallagher Jr., have traveled to a cabin in the woods for a weekend to reunite and rest. The drive there is thick with caustic negativity. She’s insecure about her looks and age, and he only reinforces that feeling. In a rare honest moment in Gone In The Night, Kath is concerned about her forehead and almost imperceptible wrinkles. There’s a nugget of something clever there that gets lost in the rest of the film. The message about aging and respect for time served and lives lived turns into a hackneyed and insultingly measly version of Death Becomes Her without the humor or morals.
After a long drive, they arrive at the cabin in the dark to find a much younger couple, Greta and Al, already there. It takes some convincing on all parts, but in the end the two couples agree to spend the night together in the cabin and make the most of it. It is clear that Kath has little in common with this younger couple, and the other woman is not open to flirting with Max. Greta takes pleasure in making Kath feel insecure and uncomfortable. When things fall apart, Kath goes to bed. The next day she wakes up in an empty bed and cabin. While walking through the woods looking for Max, she sees Al, who seems devastated and says that Greta and Max slept together and left them both behind.
Kath returns to town alone and tries to put the pieces of her life back together, but struggles to forget about Max. She tries to get the cabin’s owner, Nicolas Barlow, to give her Greta’s contact information, but he refuses to divulge that information out of professionalism and safety. Nevertheless, the two strike up a tentative friendship and Kath learns he is a biotech genius who has left his career behind to live a simpler life. He claims he had an epiphany when his father died of a debilitating genetic disease and realized there was more to life than work and money. Barlow also reveals that he has the disease but is working on a cure.
Table of Contents
Who are Greta and Al, and what do the flashbacks show?
At this point we start putting the pieces together on Max and Greta. Max is offended by Kath and her friends at a dinner party a few days before the cabin trip and leaves, pretending to need more wine. He runs into Greta and Al, who are arguing. Al and Greta tell him about a house party, and they go to the party together. At this party, Greta tells Max about a secret concert and invites him to the hut. Although Al was surprised to see Kath when Max would be alone, they agreed to let them stay in the cabin. This is what Kath saw when the other couple argued over who reserved the cabin. They really had a fight about whether Max would take Kath.
Greta takes a selfie of her and Max, whom she drugged and put in a barrel before delivering it to the shipping container we see later. This is the picture Kath sees on Greta’s phone and mistakenly believes it is proof that they are sleeping together. Greta also finds an important document which is important later. Kath makes an important discovery while at Barlow’s house to bring him a plant. It’s a picture of Nicolas and his son. She now realizes that Al is Barlow’s son, and everyone has been involved in this from the start. Al and Greta chose Max to save Barlow’s life, or so Al thought.
The end of Gone In The Night
In act three of Gone In The Night, Kath finds a shipping container near Barlow’s cabin, and using the keys she stole from his house, opens it. Inside, she finds Max hooked up to medical equipment and a transfusion machine. Barlow, Al and Greta confront Kath in the dumpster and everything comes out. It is revealed that Greta chose Max to use as a source of blood for Barlow. She also pulls out the document from earlier and tells Al that Barlow does not have the same genetic disease as his father. The blood transfusions are to prevent aging. Like an Elizabeth Bathory doll, Barlow thought he could transfuse himself with Max’s blood and reverse the aging process. It doesn’t matter that no one typed blood or anything.
Barlow claims his motivation is to spend more time with Al and because he can’t imagine becoming weak and dependent like his father. He also said that he had grown really fond of Kath, and she uses his affections to save herself. Kath tells him that she is also terrified of getting old and that she is dating Max to feel younger. She says she wants the transfusions too. Barlow and Al sedate Greta so she can be used to give Kath a transfusion, and while they’re at it, Kath tries to escape with Max. Unfortunately, in Max’s weakened state and confusion, he rips out the IV in his neck and bleeds to death. Kath then runs out of the container and locks the door behind her. Greta, Al, and Barlow were still inside. Instead of calling the police or driving away, she goes back to Barlow’s cabin and looks out the window.
What does Kath’s final scene mean?
After looking at herself in the mirror and rubbing her bloody hands over her face, Kath gets out of the car and enters Barlow’s cabin. The movie ends with Kath staring calmly into the woods. Kath has been portrayed as an insecure but decent human being all along. She could have been shocked and horrified by everything that happened and needed a moment to collect herself before calling the authorities. She could also have worried that she wouldn’t be believed, as Barlow was a well-respected millionaire. It’s also possible that she wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to do. She was preoccupied with her age throughout Gone In The Night. Kath could decide how to proceed so she can get the transfusions too.
But in all likelihood, Kath knows she can’t open that container again or she’ll be killed. I think Kath looks at herself in the mirror and finally makes peace with her age. She stays in the cabin because, unlike Barlow, who only pretended to want a simpler life, Kath really does. She loves plants and in the forest she is surrounded by them. I think her last look is one of serenity. She couldn’t save Max, but she saved herself.
Try as I might, I could not dislike this movie. Unlike Horowitz’s brilliant Homecoming series, I saw the twist coming early. I always knew who was behind the mystery. Even with the lazy scripting and awkward dialogue that I can’t quite believe are always intentional, there’s a comedic sensibility to Gone In The Night that makes it fun in a Hulu recommendation at two in the morning. I don’t judge; we’ve all been there. There’s a perverse fun to watching Ryder navigate the madness, but it’s not enough not to miss this, more like, um, it’s not so bad if you’ve got a few hours to kill.
As editor-in-chief of Signal Horizon, I enjoy watching and writing about genre entertainment. I grew up on old fashioned slashers, but my real passion is television and all weird and ambiguous stuff. My work can be found here and Travel Weird, where I am the editor-in-chief.
