Last year the Russian import horror/fantasy movie Night Watch was much hyped and made a moderate splash in the United States. In the ex-Soviet Union it was one of the biggest hits ever, though, guaranteeing the planned sequels. In the time since it has been unsure what the American fate of those films would be, despite early sneak footage of Day Watch, the second film in the planned trilogy (Dusk Watch rounds it out).
Fox Searchlight is now putting out Day Watch on June 1st, smack in the wake of Spider-Man 3, Shrek 3 and Pirates 3 (hoping for overflow crowds from the blockbusters, maybe?). The version that is being put into US theaters is the ‘international’ version – I’m not sure what that means, but I am guessing it means cut in some way. I saw the original Russian edit of Night Watch at the Tribeca Film Festival almost a year before it opened in America, and I do have to say that I found the domestic cut much more coherent and easier to follow – I was almost completely baffled by huge chunks of the Russian version.
There’s a trailer for Day Watch, and it shows some familiar faces from the first movie and it reveals that this film’s plot revolves around… magic chalk. The trailer also has the most gratuitous use of reverb since the psychedelic rock era. Click here to watch!