Director: Garett Kruithof
Year: 2019
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Trying to get his son asleep, a man begins telling a story about a guy who gathers several friends and other girls together at an abandoned prison to try out a wild party game of his, and when a batch of devil’s acid is brought into the mix their psychedelic trip causes more problems than expected.
Review:
This was a wholly flawed effort. What really works here is the atmosphere of the situation as the abandoned building features some great images. The prison being out in the middle of nowhere and obviously not being used for a while creates an appropriate air of creepiness that mixes together with the usual motifs of the abandoned building with endless corridors, whispering voices and flickering lighting. That this is then furthered by the heavy drug use which brings plenty of fantastical visuals in the various encounters throughout the prison which goes along with the frenzied action each of them undergoes due to the situation. However, these here are all that works for the film.
There are quite a few flaws here. Among the main issues here is the fact that the disjointed plot never really allows for any kind of momentum to be built-up. Just as the film is attempting to build to something potentially creepy or chilling, the film cuts away to show the kids needing something to eat or drink in order to finish the story or interject with their own thoughts and ideas as to how it should be instead before the father takes control again. This is incredibly frustrating and leads to a choppy feel with the pacing that never allows the film to gather any kind of energy as it’s always interrupted cutting back to them.
That also comes into play with the next factor as the kids interrupting to tell their stories makes it difficult to tell what really happened. There’s no clue what’s the final version of events in the real story or even what was supposed to be horror about these scenes as the film’s nature of having everyone on acid tends to really short change the atmosphere and dread. Nothing that happens in any of these stories comes across as scary or thrilling regardless of who’s telling it, and to blame the whole thing on a drug-influenced series of hallucinations without any of it really happening is a cheat and a total disservice to the atmosphere it had built up.
The last real problem here is the absolutely bland and unfunny characters that populate this one. As we spend the entire time with a group of brain-dead, clueless, misogynistic and racist characters that are intended to be funny based on a very light tone and the continuous usage of jokes at their expense, we grow to despise them rather than side with them. As no one tends to utilize any common sense in spotting what’s wrong because they’re too busy playing up to the jokes that are being offered about the situation, this grows tiresome and bland really fast, making for the biggest issues that hold this one down the most.
Overview: 0.5/5
A supposed horror-comedy that’s not funny, is too confusing to know what’s supposed to be scary and too disjointed to stay interesting, there’s so little reason to watch this one that’s it’s really questionable why. The only appeal this might have would be for those that prefer the drug-based humor and absurdities on display here, while almost anyone else has no reason to give this one a watch.
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