Director: MJ Dixon
Year: 2014
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Attacked by a raging killer, a group of teens caught in his wrath are soon caught in a never-ending cycle of brutal rampages with the killer appearing every Leap Year to carry out a bloodsoaked rampage against a specific series of targets in his hometown and must find a way of stopping him.
Review:
This was a generally fun if somewhat convoluted genre effort. Among its better features here is the strong setup that offers a fun alternative to the usual old-school slasher antics. The whole idea of the killer cursed to appear every time a Leap Year arrives and having enough mystical powers that prevent him from being killed by traditional means makes for a solid concept that gets a few intriguing elements along the way. With the whole thing including a strong touch of the occult as well as a claim about a mystical cult controlling the masked killer and being at the forefront of his repeated summoning and appearances over the years works nicely to aid that setup. Even more, is the time-hopping going on where it shows what happened to a group of teens caught in his rampage as the modern-day scenes show them going out and stopping him based on the knowledge they get from the flashbacks in the previous rampage several years earlier giving the scenes context and becomes quite enjoyable for how unique the whole thing appears.
That sets the stage for a solid enough series of stalking scenes featuring the inhuman and hulking killer going around knocking off the group. Splitting this into the two different periods offers up a fun way of handling the killer where a character is knocked off in the present only to be involved with the group getting targeted in the past so it feels like a far bigger cast is concerned than expected. These stalking scenes are quite fun, with the opening ambush trying to electrocute the killer coming off fairly well, setting the stage for later scenes to come. Whether it’s the ferocious gunfire against the ineffective SWAT team trying to stop him or the massacre of the cheerleaders practicing their routine in a gym that includes some far more effective kills and splatter than expected, the kills here are incredibly fun and bloody with how graphic they become. With a finale that makes this one a lot of fun as they try to put a plan into motion to stop the killer while they’re under a deadline, this one manages to be quite enjoyable overall.
There are some slight issues here keeping this one down. The biggest issue is the somewhat more convoluted than necessary setup of having the film take place in different periods and shift around where it is in the timeline. Starting at the present to then go back and see what they were doing and what they did and then going back to the present to continue on the story is a bit of a difficult road to take with how the whole thing plays out, especially when killed characters appear in the past. It’s a bit disorienting and distracting the first time, which could’ve been handled a little easier. There’s also the general lack of context for what’s going on as the killer appearing on every Leap Year to why the teams are working with each other so the confusing timeline is further confused by an approach that doesn’t lead to a lot of questions answered to get things going. These few issues are what end up bringing it back.
Overview: ***.5/5
An overall fun if somewhat confusing genre effort, there’s a lot to like here which manages to hold this one up over a series of issues that do hold this one back. Those with an appreciation for this kind of genre effort, are curious about it, or enjoy the creative crew will have a lot to enjoy while most others out there might want to heed caution.
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