Director: Keola Racela
Year: 2019
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
Arriving at his summer job, a teen working at a Christian movie theater with the other ushers on-staff are allowed to screen a movie after closing, but when they accidentally summon a succubus demon from an old canister they race to stop it from taking over the world.
Review:
For the most part, this one was quite a lot of fun. One of the strongest features here is the film’s sense of atmosphere when dealing with the time period and the setting. Most of this is played for laughs as their naivety and innocence through the spiritual connections they share which makes for a fun time when challenged by the darker and more perverse nature of what unfurls. This is all really fun with it being character-based rather than far more traditional means which is based around their Christian upbringing coming from them working at the theater, giving this a really enjoyable and fun atmosphere.
When it goes to more extreme and serious measures, the film manages quite a lot of impressive work. The revelation of the secret basement has a lot to like as the search is played up for old-school suspense and atmosphere as they go into the darkness and explore the ruins. Once they view the movie, an ornate arthouse-styled interpretation of a satanic ritual featuring elaborate color tricks and edits, while the haunting tricks used afterward from the off-screen, ethereal whistling and female giggling or objects clanking off in the distance serve as a great enhancement of the atmospheric setup already brought about as well as providing some incredibly creepy confrontations with the succubus as she torments them one-by-one.
The action and confrontations presented here also allow for enjoyable and creative use of technical tricks to help enhance everything. The succubus attacks are aided with a sensual red light that helps this feel much more sensual, and the light adds a wholly fuzzy dream-like quality to the later temptation scenes in the bathroom or outside in the lobby. As well, there’s also the highly inventive and creepy work done for the titular movie they watch, bringing an arthouse sensibility with the unusual pans and edits, dynamic colors and layered images that look just as freaky in both conception and execution that movie like that needs to be. As the erotic tendencies are given plenty of room due to the fine work of everyone throughout here, there’s quite a lot of enjoyable qualities found here.
That said, there are a few flaws here. One of the biggest issues, itself not even all that big of an ordeal, concerns a series of revelations made in the second half that piles plenty of unnecessary beats together causing this to run slightly longer than it needed to. This is mostly based around uncovering something unusual about someone around them only to then add extra layers to that revelation which isn’t needed, especially with the information about the owner’s disturbing habits which is given far too much discussion and reaction that necessary. Likewise, several odd side-stories from the first half are brought back and given extra time here that doesn’t need it, resulting in a far longer running time than it warrants by bringing them up once again. Some might have an issue with the number of survivors to this, but overall, it’s not that big a deal.
Overview: ****.5/5
There’s a ton of things to like here, with a fantastic atmosphere, incredibly cheesy atmosphere and plenty of other enjoyable elements without too much going against it, this remains as one of the more entertaining entries in this style. Give this one a shot if you’re a fan of these high-energy horror/comedies or are curious about this one, while those not into the positives should heed caution.
This review was part of our coverage of the 2019 edition of the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. Click below to see all of our coverage of the event:
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