Director: Troy Escamilla
Year: 2020
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
After arriving at a high school, a man learns a group of teachers are forced to attend a weekend seminar at a co-workers’ house which turns into a troublesome situation when a deranged serial killer arrives looking to seek revenge on a prank gone wrong years earlier and tries to get away alive.
Review:
This was an incredibly enjoyable effort. Among the more impressive aspects here is the main setup involving the group at their main seminar meetings. The idea of getting together under the pretenses of improving their students’ chances at school, including strategies to enhance their ability at scoring higher instead of actual learning and their resistance to those tactics, creates a fun setup here. The veiled commentary on the current status of public schooling, forsaking the actual teaching in favor of finding ways to get them to graduate, offers up a fantastic topical entrance point as the back-and-forth conversations offer enough to get acclimated to the characters in a fun way.
As well, the film has a lot to like with the stalking scenes here. As these feature the striking use of red filters to evoke stylish giallo-like sequences, the stalking here is quite fun with ambushes in the school, at one of the teachers’ house or the final attacks at the bar showing some great technical skills. The ability to be at ease with both the extended stalking and far shorter outbursts where the suddenness of the killer appearing has a great balance, keeping the pacing up in between everything while doling out stylish kills and plenty of suspense, is the best part of the film.
The other positive aspect to like is the simple slasher setup for the killer to start their rampage. The initial prank from the past, one that indeed seems to be a plausible idea to think of and seems pretty worthwhile to put into effect in that manner, manages to serve as a worthwhile and humiliating inciting incident that’s appropriately traumatic. What works as a simple, believable prank that would’ve served as the proper overarching factor to spur that reaction which is a fine if simplistic slasher setup, giving this a lot to like overall here.
There are a few minor problems here. The first problem here is the clueless rationale for going after the teachers. The far more likely targets should’ve been the people who put the prank together originally or the ones who let it happen, yet the rationale here to try to sell what’s going on here as the proper motivation to begin the rampage is somewhat underwhelming. An attempt at making it connect doesn’t really make sense with what it wants to pull off as the jumbled delivery is clunky and awkward, furthering that aspect even more. Some might find the red filter for the kills confusing, but beyond that, there isn’t a whole lot really wrong here.
Overview: ****/5
As the majority of the flaws present aren’t even that detrimental in any way, the positives here come off far more overwhelming into making for a highly enjoyable effort as this continues his ascent as a fine indie-based slasher director. Give this a look if you’re a fan of indie genre films in general, a hard-core slasher fanatic or enjoyed his previous effort while those turned off by the films’ origins won’t be entertained.
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