"There are actually a couple of good scares and laughs along the way"

Up All Night is a film that’s sort of based on a CBBC entertainment programme called The Friday Download. The show’s five main presenters all play themselves (or at least versions of them) in a fictional comedy/horror/adventure that, while being completely all over the place, does at least have the occasional moments of entertainment.

When the latest series of The Friday Download ends, Bobby, George, Richard, Shannon and Dionne head off on holiday in a rickety old van. They stumble on the mysterious camp of Sunny Meadows and when the van crashes in mysterious fog, they take refuge in an old house occupied by two mysterious siblings. The gang are then individually haunted, meet up with an amateur ghost hunter (‘is there any other kind?’ they ask) and wind up putting on a teen pop festival…

As you can probably tell, the plot is all over the place, much like the tone of the film. The horror/comedy/adventure is almost forgotten about two thirds of the way through in favour of getting bands such as The Vamps to come along and sell, sorry, sing their songs to the teen fan base of the TV show.

The somewhat adolescent behaviour of the leads (who seem to both act younger, but look older than they are) can be excused by the fact that they’re children’s TV presenters. There are actually a couple of good scares and laughs along the way, with David Mitchell cameoing as a policeman which is a highlight.

Overall, this is something of a mess. As if the filmmakers didn’t quite know what they wanted to do with the ‘big screen adventure’ for the crew. The net result may well provide entertainment for Friday Download fans, but for the rest of us there is little to see here.