When I first heard about Night of the Caregiver, I thought it sounded a bit silly. When a horror film is called “Night of the Something,” the “something” is usually the movie’s monster (think Night of the Demon or Night of the Living Dead), but caregivers don’t sound particularly scary. I was pretty skeptical, so I didn’t think this film would amount to much. But I wanted to keep an open mind, so I checked out the trailer. And you know what? It wasn’t bad. I requested a screener soon afterward, and now that I’ve finally seen the film, I’m happy to report that I had a decent time with it.

Night of the Caregiver was directed by Joe Cornet, and Cornet also stars in the movie alongside Eileen Dietz, Natalie Denise Sperl, Eric Roberts, and Anna Oris. It’s about a hospice nurse named Julia who takes a one-night job caring for an elderly woman named Lillian, and at first, her patient seems like the sweetest person in the world. However, Julia soon begins to experience some strange supernatural phenomena, so she comes to suspect that a malevolent entity is lurking in the house. On top of that, there’s also a subplot about a detective who’s investigating an urban legend, and as you can probably guess, these two stories eventually collide in a big way.

I’m not going to lie, if you’re looking for top-notch storytelling, Night of the Caregiver is not the movie for you. While I enjoyed the experience overall, I still had some big problems with the film. Most notably, a lot of the dialogue is pretty cringe-worthy, and the acting is all over the place.

To be fair, most of the performances are pretty good. I quite enjoyed Joe Cornet as the detective and Eric Roberts as a paranormal expert, and I’d say that Eileen Dietz is excellent as Lillian. However, the other two characters in Night of the Caregiver are pretty disappointing. For example, Natalie Denise Sperl plays Julia, and her performance is very hit or miss. She does a decent enough job when she just has to look and sound scared, but she struggles to deliver her lines in a believable way. Granted, by super low-budget indie horror standards, she’s not terrible, but she definitely doesn’t do this movie any favors.

But hands down, the worst thing about this film is Anna Oris’ performance as Julia’s friend Pam. Every once in a while, Pam and Julia talk on the phone, and it’s no exaggeration to say that I didn’t believe a single word Pam said. This is just not a believable performance, so whenever Pam appeared on screen, I couldn’t wait for her to hang up the phone.

On top of all that, I also had a big issue with the detective subplot in Night of the Caregiver. For most of the movie’s runtime, this narrative thread is entirely disconnected from the main story, and when it finally does intersect with Julia and Lillian’s nightmare, it feels very shoehorned in. The detective simply doesn’t do anything that the other characters couldn’t have done themselves, so he’s entirely unnecessary.

Those weaknesses are pretty tough to overcome, and in most other films, they probably would’ve been fatal. But somehow, Night of the Caregiver manages to be enjoyable despite its huge flaws. For starters, like I said before, Eileen Dietz is awesome as Lillian, and she basically carries this entire movie. In particular, she almost single-handedly makes the first act watchable, so without her, I probably would’ve checked out before I even got to the midway point.

What’s more, the horror in this film is also pretty fun. Admittedly, the scares in the first and second acts are very hit or miss, but director Joe Cornet imbues the movie with enough atmosphere and uncertainty that I didn’t care too much. It quickly becomes clear that there’s more to Lillian than meets the eye, so you just know something terrible is going to happen to Julia. You’re not entirely sure what it’ll be, but I, for one, couldn’t wait to find out.

That mystery and the atmosphere of uncertainty it creates pick up the slack when the scares aren’t quite up to par, and when Night of the Caregiver finally pulls back the curtain and goes all-out on the horror, the film gets even better. The entity haunting Lillian’s house looks pretty cool, and the cat-and-mouse action is fun.

Those strengths are just enough to keep Night of the Caregiver afloat, so at the end of the day, I had a decent time with this movie. However, that doesn’t mean I’d wholeheartedly recommend it. In fact, if you’re wondering if you should go out of your way to watch it, I’d probably say no. See, this film is a bit like cheap beer. If you’re just looking to get drunk, it’ll do the trick, and if that’s your thing, you’ll probably have a good time. But all else being equal, you’re probably better off drinking a beer that tastes good too, and that’s how I feel about this film.

If you just want to watch a spooky movie and you don’t care much about the story or the characters, it’ll do the trick. However, there are plenty of other films that package the same fun scares together with better storytelling, so all else being equal, I’d say you should probably watch something else. But if you’re scrolling through Tubi (or whatever streaming service this film ends up on) looking for a random scary movie and you come across Night of the Caregiver, then I’d say give it a shot. It’ll scratch that horror itch well enough, and I think you’ll have a decent time with it just like I did.

Night of the Caregiver is getting a theatrical and VOD release on August 15, and then it’ll hit digital platforms and DVD this fall.