Director: Gary DeJidas
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
On the verge of a devastating hurricane, a group of girlfriends decide to prepare their house to rid out the event and party in the bunkered house, but when they find that voracious cockroaches have infiltrated the house and try to kill them must defend the property from the insects.
Review:
There was quite a lot to like about this one. One of the finer aspects of this one is the fun setup that's employed here where it goes to great lengths to introduce the girls and get everything started. The presence of the upcoming hurricane and the need to prepare everything gives us a great introduction to the friend group as they each have their own personal points of interest for the stay there. From trying to study the strange behavior of the insects, just looking to get high, to attempting to hook up with her boyfriend and looking to just ride out the storm however they can, there's a great sense of who each of them is which adds some sense of fun to this as their conflicting personalities and goals generate some intriguing combinations as they gradually discover the growing threat.
That sets the stage for the finale as the group tries to fight off the creatures which results in some generally enjoyable confrontations. With the discovery of the dead friend that’s been attacked by the creatures, the ability of the film to carry on with all sorts of fun work showing the group’s attempts at getting them all to safety however they can. That this is kept to a minimum of the on-screen appearances of the creatures and relies on the cast seeing them in the distance and reacting or commenting on what’s going on makes for a generally goofy enough time here that carries on the silly atmosphere of the previous scenes until then so it keeps the same type of atmosphere at the same time. There’s also a lot of fun to be had with the cheesiness of the final way to defeat the creatures, giving this some positive points overall.
There are some issues to be had here. Among the main factors holding this one back is the overlong build-up that gets us so deeply into their mindset that there are not a lot of creature attacks in here. As the idea of regular, normal-sized cockroaches trying to get inside and eat people is a bit far-fetched, the need to hold off on doing these attack scenes in favor of the number of early preparations and just generally hanging around the house makes it obvious that there's very little action here even once the creatures start attacking. With no gore or on-screen interactions with the creatures even during the big confrontations as there are no real deaths at all, this tends to bring a lot of the potential suspense down significantly so it's barely a genre effort as a result. This is really the main detriment of the film.
Overview: ***/5
An intriguing if overall problematic comedic creature feature, this is a fine enough watch with some fun if you’re willing to go along with this type of feature although some of its flaws are quite damaging. Those who appreciate this kind of indie genre effort or are curious about it will want to give it a shot while those who aren’t into this type of film or turned off by the flaws should heed caution with this one.
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