Director: Paul Ragsdale, Angie De Alba
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
Trying to make a sleazy exercise video, the crew is forced to take on an inexperienced woman as a favor to the mob boss bankrolling the project, but when misguided advice and repressed feelings bring out homicidal feelings in one participant must race to save her friends from the rampage.
Review:
This was a massively entertaining and highly enjoyable effort. One of the film’s main factors is the incredibly effective and enjoyable setup that serves this well as a straightforward slasher throwback. As we’re taken immediately into the video shoot featuring the ability to get to know the type of working environment there as everyone merely wants to party with the rebellious newcomer and blowing off the attempts of the goody-two-shoes to respect her perceived authority, the initial setup for this one is rather fun. By making this behavior serve as the kind of motivation for the eventual snap and rampage, this comes off nicely enough as it provides some added comedy with the sleazy goings-on also making for a generally fantastic starting point.
That setup allows the film to become a massively fun slasher as the transformation she undergoes becomes far more obvious leading to the violent confrontations. The more character-driven kind of story here, involving the rebel daughter exerting a devious influence on her that is turned around into the reasoning for snapping and taking out the rest of the staff in goofy, cheesy setups, still maintains a brutal edge due to the effectiveness of the effects. Outside of this, the fine finale where the rampage turns away from the group to the intruders trying to overtake the facility in their own methods which has quite a lot to like as the general craziness, sleaze, and comedic gags all leave this with quite a lot to enjoy here.
There isn’t a lot to dislike here and even those issues aren’t too bad. The main factor to dislike is the bizarre inclusion of the secondary serial killers running around the community which is a rather unnecessary sideplot in here. The inclusion into the story means nothing since they serve the cold open only to then be readily ignored as the main storyline is not about them which is a bit of a contrivance to bring them into the story as a means of continuing her rampage. As well, this brings up the fact that their return to the storyline in the finale changes the feel and flow of the film as the characters are forced to overlook police procedural tactics to let the story play out being shoehorned into the film. Overall, it’s really the main issue with this one.
Overview: ****.5/5
One of the finest indie slashers out there, most of the positives featured here manage to come off rather nicely and have plenty of fun elements to overcome a few minor drawbacks. Give it a shot if you’re a fan of this particular style of indie film as well as indie slasher fans or are fans of the creative crew, while those who aren’t into these factors should heed caution.
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