Director: Zach Lipovsky, Adam B. Stein
Year: 2025
Country: USA/Canada
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Supernatural Slasher
Plot:
Troubled by strange dreams, a young woman starts to look into the connection her dreams have with a strange restaurant disaster decades earlier and learns that her ancestry’s premonition that saved dozens of people dying is being rectified by Death coming to claim the survivors.
Review:
Overall, this was an intriguing if somewhat problematic entry in the franchise. One of the better elements in this one is the way it manages to set in motion a solid storyline that puts the context of the series into a fine working order. The strong opening involving the skyview restaurant succumbing to a strange mechanical malfunction that kills everyone there and serves as the premonition of the main character rather than the group being followed, is a great way to turn around the main selling point of the series into a different motivating factor for the film itself. Realizing that the whole thing is an elaborate ploy by Death to wipe out the families that were never supposed to spring up from the survivors that should’ve died but now had extra time before it circles back to the family of the one who saved everybody had they died is a solid way to go about this one. It ties together multiple plot threads throughout the series and explores the far-reaching confines of the meaning behind the premonitions and how others are saved or spared before they die.
This makes great use in the film when it starts exploring the series of impressive and enjoyable traps that are set up to actually carry out the design at the heart of the film. Starting with the normally effective starting point, with the chain reaction of mechanical malfunctions and chaos sprung forth from the restaurant failure that continually causes fatalities to emerge for the rest of the film’s encounters, to have some great context for what’s happening around them. The mix of quick-cut unexpected deaths that show up out of nowhere and the extended, suspenseful setups, where it’s impossible to guess which of the ten possible killing blows will come to fruition. These scenes are generally engaging and keep the energy going incredibly well. The creativity here is in keeping with which of the incidents is the actual killing blow, making for some suspenseful moments, including standout moments from the family barbecue, waiting to see who’s got the ice shard in their glass, or the sequence at the hospital involving the MRI machine, providing some great gore along the way. These all manage to give this some likable moments.
There are a few drawbacks to this one that bring it down. The biggest issue here is the utterly bizarre lack of focus on the different means of death around them for as long as the concept has been at play around the family. Most of the older members of the family are around at the time when the grandmother became aware of the whole concept and started babbling about it to anyone who would listen, yet so much of this is reliant on multiple opportunities to beat the truth into their heads that it feels repetitive and drawn out. This type of material would’ve been quite easy to spot and recognize, especially with physical proof and visual aids to enhance the presentation on top of how it all corroborates the physical interactions they’ve experienced, which all come off as padding for a film not really needing it. As well, there’s also the confusing behavior exhibited here by some of the characters at points where they try to move the plot along, but do so with some outrageous behavioral points that no one should rightfully think of, so it drags the viewer out of the scene entirely, for how frustrating it all is. With some ropy and rather underwhelming CGI also included, these all come together to hold this down.
Overview: ****/5
A fun if somewhat flawed revival of the franchise, there’s a lot to like here, which manages to make this a worthwhile entry that gets held down at points by some rather big flaws as well. Those with an interest in this style of mainstream genre fare, who are hardcore fans of the franchise, or who are fans of the creative crew, will have a lot to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
Comments
Post a Comment