Director: Jaime Bailey
Year: 2024
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Working in an after-hours arcade, a woman tries to keep it running smoothly when a group of friends gather at the spot to have a special party, but when they realize that a disgruntled former employee is stalking them inside the facility they must uncover who’s killing them and stop him.
Review:
This was a decent enough if somewhat flawed effort overall. One of the finer features here is the initial setup that allows for a generally fun time in the first half as this starts rather nicely. The format of retelling everything in the aftermath and going back over the night looking for details that can help prove her innocence which lets us get to know the couples and the general friend group enough to be somewhat sympathetic to them as the group features the usual assortment of teenage issues from jealousy, resentment, or bragging rights. While not being in the slightest bit original or endearing, the fact that it still serves the purpose of offering enough to get to know the group, who they are, and what they’re about so that the mystery over the killer’s identity is handled nicely as it carries out a somewhat solid mystery angle trying to figure out who’s doing everything.
When it comes to the stalking going on in the second half, there’s some solid enough work here to be somewhat decent. The initial appearance of the necking couple in the jungle gym is mostly notable for the eerie red lighting going on in the sequence that makes the figure seen visibly stalking them in the background feel a bit more chilling. That becomes even more apparent in the later scenes where the later stalking or stumbling upon the last victims in the same lighting scenario offers some decent elements, and a fun ambush on the antagonistic friends makes for an entertaining encounter with the teasing of his victims before the strike. A frantic finale chasing them around the arcade offers some intriguing ideas about how the supernatural-seeming killer gets away with everything, giving the scenes some solid antics knocking them off and giving everything enough to like.
There are some big issues here that bring this one down. The biggest drawback here is the asinine sense of fear or suspense driven by the killer during the scenes as the setups here are some of the most infuriating ones in the genre. Almost every single encounter revolves around someone mistrusting what’s going on and standing around waiting for him to do something rather than attacking at once, which is especially frustrating when everything takes the same route after the group has managed to learn some offensive tactics to use as a defensive measure. As that also includes the inability to care about the friends while this is happening as everyone continually makes sarcastic quips against each other or just fails to acknowledge the situation, it takes a lot of fear out of this as the reaction takes out of fear out of the situation.
The other big factor with this one is the usual assortment of issues that come with the structure of doing a film in this manner. By going through the motions of taking a survivor and recounting back what happened to them in a flashback to the previous event, tends to bring about no real tension or suspense to the individual retelling the story since they’re going to be the one telling the story to everyone at the end. As well, there's also the idea of how they’re able to know what’s going on at times when they’re not present to know what’s going on or have any survivors left to know what happened so it only incorrectly paints everything as a red herring for no reason. Finally, the whole thing is such an obvious ripoff of the other more famous intellectual property that the reaction to the treatment of the character will be one of if not the biggest stumbling blocks here that holds it back the most.
Overview: ***/5
An immensely fun and enjoyable cheesy slasher effort, there’s plenty to like with the whole thing undone by some issues which might be personal preference rather than genuine issues. Those who are curious about this type of feature, are huge slasher fans, or don’t mind the issues present will have the most to like here while those who are turned off by the approach or the context with this one should heed caution.
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