Director: Michael J. Ahern, Christopher Dalpe, Brandon Perras
Year: 2021
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Moving back to a new city, a guy takes his old job back at a nightclub where he runs into a series of backstage drama associated with the drag-queens who perform in the shows, but while dealing with those issues a masked killer’s rampage against the group forces him to solve his identity to stop the spree.
Review:
This was an incredibly fun and enjoyable genre effort. Among the more enjoyable features here is the fun and engaging setup created around the world of the gay nightclub scene. As the majority of the focus here revolves around the characters frequenting the hedonistic nightclub with the lavish design and layout obviously designed for those in the community to live out a fun time out complete with gloryholes, karaoke plays, drug use, and drag-queen performances that favor the flamboyant setups that are common here. That this is all done in conjunction with the different day-to-day lives between him and the various aspects of their lives including the backstage drama and interpersonal antics that revolve around the nightclub on the outskirts of the deaths that are occurring to the regulars or the workers. Given a nice dose of comedy from time to time, there’s a lot to like here
There’s also a lot to like with the brutal slashing scenes. Offering a fun visual dynamic that matches the flamboyance of the rest of the activity around the nightclub, there’s a lot to like with the brutality inherent in these scenes with the black-leather-and-glove clad killer appearing to victims and unknowingly letting him stab or slash them With some inventive death scenes thrown in including being forced to snort spiked coke that causes them to start gushing blood, a meat grinder used on a male unit stuck in a glory hole, having a face shoved repeatedly into a broken mirror, and getting cut open with a meat carver that spills entrails all over the place, these are quite enjoyable and have some intriguing setups that provide plenty of fun in the finale. The back-and-forth confrontations here provide some nice action with the way the situation goes has a lot to like and holds this one up over its minor flaws.
There are some issues that hold this one back. One of the biggest issues is the films’ rather overlong running time that doesn’t need to be as long as it is. Featuring several unnecessary setups and subplots that are nothing more than time-wasting with the heavy focus on the backstage drama between the performers at the club really coming off with very little purpose or interest throughout here despite all the setup work it does to introduce the world of the characters. With these scenes come several of the other useless moments here including the corrupt detectives incompetently solving the crime, the motive of the club owner trying to keep it all underwraps for no reason, or way too many false endings, this one comes up with several points that could’ve been on top of this, there’s also the slight issue of the easy ability to guess who the killer is but it’s not that big of a deal and doesn’t detract from the rest of the film.
Overview: ****/5
An impressive and enjoyable slasher that has a few factors to hold it back, overall the rest of the film is impressive enough that there are aspects to give this a likable quality for the most part. This is mostly for those who are looking into this kind of slasher-styled affair or are a fan of this kind of outsider genre cinema, while those turned off by the flaws should heed caution.
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