Director: Anthony C. Ferrante
Year: 2023
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural Slasher
Plot:
Preparing to throw a New Year's Eve party, an event planner planning a lavish celebration finds that a series of disappearances are part of a regular pattern of events happening at the hotel where a figure arrives and murders guests forcing her and a guest who knows the truth to try to stop it.
Review:
This one wasn't too bad of a genre effort and has some rather likable elements present. One of the finer aspects of this one is the rather fun setup present which makes for a really fun time here. With the initial background of the curse haunting the specific hotel where the series of murders repeats every decade or so, the connection between this and the figure staying at the hotel that's continually involved in the crime sprees every time but no one can do anything about it provides a wholly intriguing and rather solid background for everything. The resulting rampage that occurs here at the party as it sets out carrying out the curse at the location once again while the others try to find out what's going on with the disappearing bodies while investigating the possible connections is all handled incredibly well here serving up an immensely fun storyline.
That gets the film set up for the series of supernatural-tinged rampages that take place as a means of featuring the cloaked figure acting as a slasher-type being. The incidents being made to look like suicides or accidents before realizing that the figure is running around doing everything gives everything a great touch as there's some fine suspenseful stalking at play throughout here. The exaggerated nature of the killers' powers generates a great series of confrontations here including the attack on the couple who sneak into the party, a fantastic ambush on a couple partaking in a pool game, or the chilling encounter with the family guests who arrive at the hotel which all manage to bring about some thrilling motivations for everything on top of the great action utilized to make it come to life. As they finally learn the truth about the killer and how it all ties together with his past coming in to explain how it all works, this comes to a fantastic finale where everything comes into fine form featuring some great gore, some surprising revelations, and a nice sense of fun to make for a great time here.
There are a few minor issues here that bring this down. The main drawback to be had here is the incredibly illogical way the finale spreads out the reveal of everything regarding the killer. While the setup for the most part works quite well due to the setup, that only highlights how little this starts to make sense with the history of the location and the events at play. The series of events takes place in a recognizable and clear-cut pattern yet what happens here is seen as something that only makes sense if the individual in question isn't an undead lord of space and time they figure it as so this whole section is a bit underwhelming. As well, some of the low-budget limitations in the wonky CGI do become a bit of an issue here but not enough to be as detrimental as the other factor.
Overview: ***.5/5
A highly enjoyable genre effort that's better than expected, this one comes off rather well overall even if this does have a few factors that lower it in the end. Those who enjoy this kind of genre fare, are curious about it or are fans of the creative crew will like this one the most while most others out there should heed caution.
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