‘Gone in the Night’ Film Review: Winona Ryder Confronts the Passage of Time in a Thriller Packed with Twists

thewrap.com:

This film was originally reviewed out of SXSW 2022 under its previous title, “The Cow.”In writer-director Eli Horowitz’s labyrinthine, mostly unpredictable thriller “Gone in the Night,” becoming increasingly risk-adverse is one clear symptom of getting older.

Part unlikely friendship tale and part potpourri of genre tropes orchestrated as a parade of red herrings, this debut feature takes on modern culture’s blatant disdain of aging and veneration of youth.It begins with a common sequence: two people driving on an empty tree-lined road.

They are, of course, heading toward an isolated destination in the middle of nowhere. Middle-aged hydroponics expert Kath (Winona Ryder) and her younger, man-child boyfriend Max (an amusingly annoying John Gallagher Jr.) have decided on an impromptu getaway to a rented forest abode as part of an ongoing dynamic in which he constantly dares her to be more adventurous.In “Gone in the Night,” Horowitz lays down strong eeriness early: He harnesses the inherently unnerving atmosphere of a place amid nature and toys with the language of cabin-in-the-woods films that immediately raise flags in the viewer.

For example, the camera makes us hyper-aware of a large storage container near the home — too bad, we won’t know its significance for a while.Once at the location, Kath and Max discover the place was likely double-booked and is currently occupied by a couple of 20-somethings with an uneasy vibe, ghostly Al (Owen Teague, also at SXSW with “To Leslie”) and vivacious Greta (Brianne Tju, Amazon’s “I Know What You Did Last Summer”).