Director: Dan Brownlie
Year: 2015
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot
Working for an erotic call-in show, the ladies working their regular shift find themselves stranded for the night when the power goes out in the studio, and as they get picked off one-by-one come to believe any number of suspects are responsible and try to survive the night against the deranged madman.
Review:
This was an underwhelming if still somewhat watchable effort. What works the best here are the general stalking and confrontation scenes which are quite fun and brutal. The opening stalking through the darkened hallways of the studio before getting knocked off manages some creepiness and suspense while the stand-out features here include the attack in the nightclub where one is taken out with cleaning fluid while a second gets slashed up with a broken beer bottle creates some fun brutal encounters. Likewise, the big rampage in the studio knocking off the performers and crew contain some decent indie-flavored shock scenes of the killer appearing suddenly and providing some decent gore effects for these scenes. The other strong positive here is the wacky and bizarre finale where this one gets to really let the performer go wild delivering a crazed, frenzied display that offers a nice bit of camp to this all. Combined with the cheesecake shots of the hot-girls in lingerie or little else, there few elements hold this one up.
There are a few issues to be had here. The main problem is the setup of the killer which is incredibly troubling on several fronts. The idea of coding the killer as such due to the behavior he exhibits, playing with makeup and mutilating dolls in sexual locations as automatic codes for being predetermined to murder are just absurd and completely insensitive in this regard. Tagging everything as a result of the frustration of the male performing these actions due to being upset about his gender association is highly suspect and feels really insensitive towards that movement by not giving credence or respect to that notion by hiding it under the veneer of gender conformity. Even the usual standard ploy of going after the girls for the addiction to plastic like the mother doesn’t do much to bring the issue any clearer with a rambling, incoherent mess of an explanation scene.
That ties into the other issue here where there’s little getting into the killers’ motivation for what’s going on. As a central premise, the idea of doing the rampage against the girls for their advocacy of plastic surgery which killed the mother works rather well in why the main girl targeted yet the film sorely mishandles this sequence. The sequence that explains everything out is such a rambling, incoherent mess of a scene that there’s no rational or coherent thought behind the scene, leaving it to feel as awkward as the actual wording behind used. On top of that, the various attempts at making red herring people due to trying to make this a surprise tend to come off lame by ignoring this backstory as it would be impossible for them to be connected to the backstory. While not completely sinking the film, these do lower this one significantly.
Overview: **/5
While it has some worthwhile aspects to it in the stalking sequences and a few campy moments, by and large, this one is pretty disappointing with a wholly insensitive treatment for who the killer is set up and some flimsy elements. Really only give this one a watch if you’re a hardcore low-budget slasher fan or fan of the creative side while those who don’t have any of those interests should heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment