Director: Richard Rowntree
Year: 2022
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural Slasher
Plot:
Trying to get her family off her back, a woman takes a job on the set of an adult production company as an assistant, but as they continue the shoot, they find that they’ve brought a cursed African tribal mask as a prop that has possessed a cast member and sent on a murderous rampage.
Review:
This was a generally fun and likable effort. Among the better features of this one is the cheesy overall setup that provides this one with the kind of workable full-throttle starting point for what takes place. Seeing the initial recollection of the mask in the opening flashback allows for everything to take place to get a proper context for the curse to be passed down properly, much like the first half here getting to know the girl and her need to get out of her family’s hold that brings her into the realm of the industry individuals where she starts in on their films in the way she does. This all goes together alongside the first scenes of her going around the background of the set meeting the cast and crew while getting the behind-the-scenes look at the production of it all which not only gives this a fine means of propelling things along but also has some funny moments with her prudish reactions to their free-spirited ease with performing adult content to start this rather nicely.
Once the mask has been introduced and it starts in on getting the more horror-based content setup, the film picks up incredibly well following up on the opening idea of the curse being passed through the mask onto the performer in the shoot. As we see the starting point with the performer putting it on and succumbing to the series of facial deformations every time he tries to put it on, the resulting possession takes place in the background as the main focus is on the inability to acclimate to performing her particular duties on this type of film means there’s a nice slow-burn build for the slashing to come. This amounts to a fine series of indie-style stalking scenes throughout the darkened quarters of the shooting location with the vicious kills featured here generating the kind of brutal splatter not just dished out to the victims but also on the indestructible killer themselves that gives this section a great time with these factors all making for a lot to like here.
There are some issues present that hold this back. The main detriment present is the low-key nature of what takes place on the porn shoot that it’s somewhat hard to buy into the atmosphere generated on a porn set. With the idea of a porn shoot being consumed by an evil entity working nicely enough, the lack of sleaze during this section as its coy nature foregoing any type of sexual thrills or shenanigans makes it feel remarkably tame on top of the dull tone presented. Since there’s not much in the way of gore or kills featured during this period, a sleazy atmosphere would’ve been a fine way to overcome it but since it’s denied this can make the film a bit of a struggle to get going for the wrong reason. As well, there are also the somewhat obvious low-budget limitations present where the flimsy CGI, scaled-down production values, and a general air that doesn’t help hide its origins all make this come down somewhat to be its few drawbacks.
Overview: ***.5/5
A generally fun indie supernatural-tinged slasher, there’s a lot to like with this one that holds itself up over a few minor drawbacks that do show up in this one. Those with an appreciation for this kind of genre effort or are fans of the creative crew will have a lot to enjoy with this one while others that are turned off by these factors should heed caution.
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