Director: Stewart Sparke
Year: 2019
Country: UK
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
Troubled by a traumatic childhood incident, a teen and her friends decide to throw a wild party for her eighteenth birthday, but once the guests arrive a deadly ritual is invoked unleashing a horde of monsters looking to complete a dangerous ritual and forcing them to stop its plans.
Review:
For the most part, this proved to be an exceptionally enjoyable effort. One of it's strongest aspects is the manner in which this one works the fear of growing up into a decidedly fun effort. With a fantastic start that provides a reasonable and wholly necessary motivation for the fear she has towards the event and colors her emotional memories of her mother's incident, there's a great start to this one that gets played out rather nicely here. That opening sequence detailing the events is not only suitably creepy with the thunderstorm blaring and the overall chilling action of the attack on the mother that includes every possible trick in the book for playing up the childhood fear of the incident by going through her screaming being pulled under the bed in front of the child and seeing the creature emerge from the shadows to bed in the room with her. These events are rightfully psychologically scarring but to also see this hasn't affected her in most stereotypical manners is quite refreshing with the way the early goings of the party which is rather fun.
It's once the creatures arrive at the house where this one really turns into a full-on blast. The creatures running wild on the guests at the party offers up scores of highly-enjoyable antics here as they get ripped to pieces, pulled in half, have their heads ripped off and various other forms of grotesque carnage which are all the more fun due to the practical nature of the effects. Given that the various and multiple monsters and creatures are shown to have memorable and unique designs that are driven by that manner of practical costumes for them, there's an added sense of fun in seeing the spike-backed ox creature or the gnome-worms running around the party as there's a sense of realism in seeing that occur. Given that these also manage to unravel the mystery behind their appearance and the ritual that's at the center of the creatures appearing at the house, this prepares us nicely for the overall fun of the finale where it tackles the creatures being taken out in rather fun fashion and unleashing plenty of over-the-top confrontations and action-packed encounters that leave this with a lighthearted tone alongside the thrilling sequences. These here hold the film up over it's few minor flaws.
This one has several small problems with it. The biggest issue is the absolute lack of clarity as for what's going on as the decision to keep the information about the creatures' appearance until the very end doesn't mean this makes any sense. The running time is spent with everyone around the party wondering what the purpose of them appearing is supposed to be for, and even their attempts at figuring out the translations in the book don't amount to much with several questionable aspects. Even the issue of what the purpose for bringing the book down to them, having been hidden in the bedroom during the initial sacrifice ritual, is entirely problematic with the group slowly revealing the history behind its contents which runs the risk of exposing a plan it wants to be hidden at that point and really making for a genuinely confusing point about the main plan here. As well, there's also the rushed finale which handles the action in a decidedly quick manner, making this one feel like the final boss battle between them and the most dangerous demon is a tad underwhelming. Otherwise, there isn't much wrong with this one.
Overview: ***1/2/5
Managing to get plenty of enjoyable elements to it with its old-school approach and comedic attitude while also keeping some questions unanswered, there's a lot to like here with only a few minor detrimental elements. Give this a go if you're into these indie creature features or looking for a fun, enjoyable effort while those who don't prefer this kind of film should heed caution.
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