Nightrunners (2016)

Nightrunners (2016): written and directed by Rowan Nielsen; starring Grace Glowicki (Jessica), Mandi Nicholson (Isobel), Esther Asinga (Mama Achupa), Mary Etuku (Mama Esther), Christopher Oketch (Giggly), Sam Okudo (Chief), and Neville Misati (Michael): 

This solid, low-budget film seems like it's going to be about some sort of monsters given the title and the first half-hour of set-up. But it goes off on an interesting tangent, without necessarily invalidating the idea that there are weird monsters out there, outside the camera's field of vision.

I will note that the film has nothing to do with Joe R. Lansdale's classic splatterpunk novel The Nightrunners.

Nightrunners follows two 20-something American women who've traveled to a remote Kenyan island to do charitable things and record them for a film project. The Kenyans are friendly. The women are accepted easily into the community. But they're told to never leave their compound at night. And at night, strange sounds and cries begin.

Then there's a mysterious death. And the woman who films everything starts to see things that don't show up on any camera. All this while her friend starts to forge close connections with the Kenyans, especially the affable Michael.

The film plays 'fair' throughout in straddling the line between 'real' and hallucinated events, between the supernatural and the delusional. It also offers a subtle critique of White People Bearing Gifts, culture shock, and the toll secrets can take on individuals, especially when they begin to surface without any conscious control. 

And it manages some creepy moments in which the viewer (well, if the viewer is Caucasian) must question why one is creeped out in the first place. There's an interrogation of unconscious racism here, and quite an effective one. Recommended.