The Overnight Screening Review (PC)

One Last Clip has taught me one thing: that theaters are arguably one of the most somber places to visit after hours. It isn’t a place that you would naturally associate with silence, or even paranormal behavior; on the contrary, it’s somewhere that you would refer to as a communal haven for cinephiles and socialites. But after hours—in the dead of night once all of the guests have left a breadcrumb trail of punched tickets and popcorn, the air tightens, and the atmosphere becomes somewhat unsavory. It’s there, in that ill-fated moment, where The Overnight Screening casts its shadow.

There are no global premiers to screen, and there are no guests to serve. The lights are without energy, and the warm ambiance of an otherwise friendly complex is bitterly cold and unpredictable. In any other case, you would clock out and active the deadlocks before heading home. But here, in the center or a cinematic world where visual effects orbit the theater and not the screen, you have no choice but to watch the world unfold from the front row. The only problem is, it isn’t a visual experience, and the horrors that manifest aren’t fictional apparitions that flock to the projection of a movie. No, in this world, the terrors are real, and unfortunately, they much prefer to take center stage in your mind and in your usual routine.

With all of the above in tow, you have the basic setup for The Overnight Screening, a first-person horror comprised of cinematic frights and, true to the nature of indie pulp, a lot of loose teeth and technical flaws. But let’s not jump into the spoilers. Instead, let’s start from the beginning, with the prelude to the thick of the plot.

The Final Viewing

The Overnight Screening is, first and foremost, a first-person psychological horror that centers its focus around two things: chore core work, and supernatural happenings that congregate deep within the dark and dreary depths of a theater during a twilight shift.

It goes like this: a part-time theater worker whose job is to tend to the complex after hours, finds himself at the heart of an unusual chain of supernatural events. At first, the world feels normal, but as time passes, the atmosphere begins to transition into something more sinister and the apparitions soon begin to feel closer to home. The silhouette of a guest sitting down at the front row illuminates within a faint cone of light, and suddenly, the protagonist finds themselves lost deep within the reel. A movie begins to unfold, and the hero of this tale, against their will, becomes the primary target for a mysterious cinematic affair.

The game itself invites you to spread your time across two backdrops, one being the theater—a world where vague details blossom into ominous threats, and the movie itself, where secrets lurk beyond a veil of subtle clues and disturbing events. It’s your job, as the only person who knows the theater and its vast secrets, to step behind the curtain and connect the dots, so to speak. What is happening in the theater, and how do you play a role in its supernatural downfall?

Sticking Around for the Credits

The Overnight Screening boasts two distinct endings, with each one revolving around the decisions that you make over the course of your shift. Like a lot of titles, the climax essentially aligns with the clues you gather, the actions you make, and how you go about making use of your time. To that end, I’d say that there’s just enough here to warrant a couple of retries.

Unfortunately, while The Overnight Screening does offer a couple of unique endings and a good amount of tense moments, the game itself is still under the guise of a few technical drawbacks. Visually, it isn’t half bad. But from a technical standpoint, it does suffer from a worrying lack of fluidity and sustainability. For example, the game has a habit of preventing you from progressing past certain story beats; the forest, for instance, stops you from overcoming an obstacle, and this forces you to restart the game and opt for an alternate route. There are other issues with the UI, too; specifically, the menu and the options, of which there is a bug that prevents you from jumping back into the action without having to reset the game. Small errors, I’ll admit — but notable ones, at that.

All in all, The Overnight Screening has some good bones to it. Along with the on-screen horrors that tie in with the flip book of movie settings, there are also plenty of good scares, tender moments, and a lot of unique locations to explore. Again, it isn’t structurally sound, and the game does often struggle to promote an airtight experience. Having said that, it does make for a surprisingly enjoyable B-movie thriller, warts and all.

Verdict

If you can bypass the slew of technical issues that The Overnight Screening harbors, then you should be able to find a pretty decent indie horror here. While it isn’t perfect, much less worthy of sharing the same stage as a lot of its competitors, it is a game that deserves to be kept on the radar, if not for its plot or design, then for its surprisingly impactful jump scares and quality ambiance. If it can remove the creases from its UI and technical burdens, then it will certainly amount to a lot more than a mediocre thriller, too. But only time will tell on that one, I guess.

Anyway, if you are fresh out of One Last Clip’s screening rooms, and are suddenly on the prowl for another theatrical experience to sink your teeth into, then you should definitely consider stopping by to watch The Overnight Screening unravel its cards on the silver screen. It isn’t a cinematic masterpiece, so I wouldn’t expect perfection if I were you. That said, if you’re looking for a quick palate cleanser, then this ought to suffice.