Menopause (2021) by Joshua Nelson


Director: Joshua Nelson
Year: 2021
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher

Plot:
While preparing for a special eclipse, a series of couples in a small town find their issues compacted by the events of the eclipse that result in the women turning into homicidal psychopaths tormenting and killing any male they come across forcing them to find a way to deal with the situation.

Review:

This was a pretty enjoyable genre effort. Among the better features here is that the setup for what’s going on here provides a lot of fun for what’s to come later on. Getting a bunch of quick snapshots involving the various couples in the town and what’s going on with them, from the couple straining to keep their relationship afloat, the mismatched married couple with the nagging ex-wife always around, the sisterhood that lives together because they have nowhere else to go and the rest that we get to meet who all have their own relationships to sort out manage to get quite a fun setup going. Since this part also drops a lot of hints about what will happen later, from the visions featuring the women suddenly bursting into homicidal fantasies rage over the men around them, or just blaming the upcoming celestial occurrence that will spring into action for the last half of the film. When the film finally lets the girls loose and allows them to do some physical damage to capitalize on its premise, this one becomes quite fun as the series of build-ups to the graphic punishment being dished out which has some fun indie-style gore setup. These are the film's best features.

That said, there are some minor drawbacks to this one. The main issue is that, with the film focusing on dialog detailing the issues and relationship struggles between each of the couples rather than doing any kind of action, the set up in the first half goes on way too long to the point of boredom. The point’s already been made long before about the man-hating woman gripping about their status in life, how women should be held as equals for their personal and professional lives, and all the burgeoning marital strife between everyone that everything else takes such a backseat it becomes repetitive after a while. As well, with the entire film seemingly based on the notion of acting on men and turning their homicidal urges into reality with their attacks and kills being conducted in a more cathartic stage, the film feels quite hypocritical with the finale where it all wraps up with the idea that everything was just due to a celestial event so there are some conflicting themes here brought about by it’s rushed nature. It’s not a big deal but it does bring this down somewhat.


Overview: ***/5
Featuring plenty of enjoyable aspects although some of that can be a detriment at times, that there’s a lot to dig into here makes for a decent enough time to be had is what works quite well here. Give this one a chance if you’re a fan of the style or approach here, while most others who don’t enjoy any of those factors should heed caution.

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