Director: Andrew Arguello, MJ Palo
Year: 2024
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
After surviving a brutal massacre, a woman who witnessed her friends getting killed by a savage killer tries to adjust to society treating her with unearned sympathy or derision for surviving, which doesn’t stop when the killer continues to strike forcing her to stop the madman before she’s next.
Review:
This was a pretty decent if flawed genre effort. One of the better features here is the solid setup that allows for the film to recap and backtrack on the traditional genre elements while also introducing a fine character study of the survivor. After opening on the titular showdown with the killer that shows off some great stalking and slashing that introduces the fun of the group getting picked off and setting her up as the last victim by disappearing so everything is left open with multiple questions about the situation that are clues to uncovering the truth about what happened. Wondering why she survived, why the others were targeted, what the killer wanted with the group, and who they are is just a hint of the questions presented here and it handles them quite well with the outcome of the situation bleeding over nicely into the treatment she gets from her peers and classmates trying to help get her through the experience since everyone else keeps blaming her for the situation.
Due to this solid work here, the series of attacks and encounters present here makes for a fun time trying to work out who the killer is and what their motivation is. The attacks on the student bullies that try to pull a prank on her at the school take some great twists that showcase the deviant nature of the rest of the students as that leads nicely into the proper setpieces towards the later half where it’s a real killer. These scenes bring about the more pronounced stalking around the community involving scenes around the school, attacking her friends at home, or getting to the various individuals present around the periphery of the story leading to the fun finale where the killer strikes the group during a closed-off celebration. The final reveal doesn’t make much sense in the grand scheme of things since there are parts where it’s a blatant lie to cover what’s revealed here, but it does come off as a surprising twist giving this one some decent elements for a lot to like.
There are some big issues with the film that hold it down. One of the main issues with the film is the way this one manages to make everything happen either through sheer stupidity or inherently illogical actions. The way the students at the school continually blame her for what happened and being the sole survivor because she was the killer all along because of how her friends treated her is simply asinine and stretching trying to provide a motivation for red herrings that are so stupid it’s hard to believe the mental logic to bring them to that conclusion. Even worse is that the stupidity of the students to carry out pranks designed to unhinge and unnerve her in this situation without any kind of reprimand is excessively moronic, their behavior towards her knowing there’s a killer on the loose which gives them the right to sneak up on her scaring her at school or at home just so there’s more psychological trauma inflicted about the situation strains credibility to the point it’s so hard to believe the idiocy and incompetence around everyone just so there’s some sense of mystery here. It’s pretty detrimental and holds this one back the most.
Overview: ***.5/5
A generally fun indie slasher that has a few issues, there’s still quite a lot to like here that manages to hold this one up quite nicely as the few drawbacks presented keep this down just enough from where it could’ve been. Those who appreciate this type of feature or are curious about it will want to give it a shot while most others out there might want to heed caution.
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