Judgment Night | The Wrong Turn That Became a Cult Classic

This week on Forgotten Cinema, we take an ill-fated shortcut through the industrial wasteland of early ‘90s Chicago with Judgment Night, the 1993 urban thriller starring Emilio Estevez, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jeremy Piven, Stephen Dorff, and Denis Leary.

If you’ve never heard of this one, you’re not alone. Judgment Night didn’t exactly set the box office on fire when it debuted, but over the years, it’s built a reputation as one of the decade’s most unique, if uneven, thrillers — and for having an absolutely killer soundtrack.

The setup is simple: four suburban friends head into the city for a night out. One wrong turn later, they witness a murder and find themselves hunted through a maze of dark alleys and abandoned buildings. It’s a classic cat-and-mouse formula with a lot of promise and, in some ways, the film delivers.

We both agree Judgment Night is a movie with strong bones. The direction is stylish, the atmosphere is tense, and the performances — especially from Estevez and Gooding Jr. — are committed. Even Jeremy Piven finds ways to make his weaselly character memorable.

But then there’s Denis Leary, doing his best to play a menacing gang leader but never quite escaping the feeling that he wandered in from a stand-up set. And let’s not forget the script, which leans heavily on contrivances and characters making one questionable decision after another.

That said, the movie is never boring. Between the tense chases, the gritty production design, and that now-iconic soundtrack mixing rock and hip hop (seriously, go play some of the songs from the embedded Spotify link), Judgment Night is the definition of a flawed but fascinating ‘90s relic.

So does it hold up today? Is it worth revisiting if you’ve never seen it? Or is it destined to stay in the shadows of better thrillers from the decade? We dig into all of that and more in this week’s episode.

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