WATCH: Is it “Game Over” for this steamy romance in virtual reality thriller ‘Eat The Night’?
any escape—into fantasy is at the core of Eat The Night, a queer French apocalyptic thriller where are everyday lives are more dangerous than any video game world.Oh, and it also happens to be set around Christmastime, so….
happy holidays?Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.From filmmaking duo Caroline Poggi & Jonathan Vinel (Jessica Forever), the dystopian drama centers on siblings Pablo (Passages‘ Théo Cholbi) and Apolline (newcomer Lila Gueneau), who have grown much closer thanks to their shared love of the high-fantasy role-playing video game Darknoon.But Pablo has a few hobbies outside of the game, including his side-hustle as a small-time hallucinogenics dealer.
And when he meets the handsome, enigmatic Night (Erwan Kepoa Falé, also from Passengers!), the two begin a steamy affair that keeps him away from the virtual world.This doesn’t sit well with the younger Apolline, who spends most of her days playing Darknoon, feeling a sense of freedom and identity she doesn’t experience in her day-to-day life.Things only get more dire when Darknoon abruptly mentions it’ll be shutting down its servers on Christmas day, sending Apolline into a spiral, all while her brother is AWOL, getting lured deeper and deeper into a criminal lifestyle.Eat The Night inventively splits its time between these two worlds, creating and animating an expansive, fake video game that looks believably playable.The future is now.And as we watch Pablo and Apolline’s virtual avatars explore the vast realm of the game on the back of large blue lion, embarking on perilous quests battling massive monsters, it becomes increasingly clear that our reality is a much more dangerous one, filled with monsters of its own.But it’s not entirely doom & gloom.
