Last night, I watched the 1994 Danish thriller film Nightwatch on Shudder.

The basic setup is promising enough - law student Martin works as the night watchman at a morgue in Copenhagen to earn extra money. At the same time, a serial killer is on the loose in the city, brutally murdering and scalping young women. When the corpse of the killer's victim turns up at the morgue, Martin finds himself unwittingly drawn into the investigation. On paper, this had all the makings of a tense, moody thriller with plenty of unsettling locales to mine for chills.

And to be fair, Nightwatch delivers an effective atmosphere for much of its runtime.

The cavernous halls of the morgue provide an eerie setting, aided immensely by the unsettling soundtrack. Ole Bornedal clearly crafted some creepy imagery, with a few unnerving sequences. Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is also quite good in the lead role, making Martin a relatable everyman who understandably grows more unsettled the deeper he gets involved.

Unfortunately, these atmospheric strengths are undercut by some frustrating weaknesses in other areas. Chief among these is the screenplay, which meanders quite a bit in the mid-section as it devotes unnecessary time to Martin's adolescent dares and bets with his reckless friend Jens. These subplots add little to nothing to the mystery and serve only to bog things down right when momentum is needed.

Most damningly, the big reveals and climax are wildly underwhelming. The identity of the killer is obvious fairly early. And when the big explanation arrives, it hinges on absurd coincidences and logic gaps rather than clever clues or misdirection.

At best, Nightwatch is an imperfect but occasionally effective chiller that left me with mixed feelings rather than swooning admiration after the closing credits rolled. I can understand why this film achieved such acclaim upon release, but nearly thirty years later, some of its rough edges are also easier to perceive.