Director: Mj Dixon
Year: 2012
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Waking up in a dirty prison, a woman tries to make sense of the situation with a person in with her, when they realize that they’re supposed to navigate the facility and survive a series of encounters with serial killers collected within its halls as she tries to learn her mysterious background.
Review:
Overall, this was an immensely likable indie slasher. One of the better elements with this one comes from the rather effective starting point, where the different elements added into this one manage to make for some rather fun times. The whole idea of the woman waking up naked in a strange prison and being forced to navigate her way around, not just to find clothing and means of survival but also interacting with the other strange guy who’s in the room next to her as they head out into the corridors and hallways of the prison, trying to figure out what’s going on makes this come together rather nicely. The isolation in the facility means that when they come upon someone else in there with them, the threatening nature of what it means gives them more clues about the strange, shadowy figure holding them captive, or who the psychotic killers are roaming the halls around them, giving the film more to enjoy as it goes along.
This makes these encounters pretty fun as we get exposed to more and more different figures. The episodic nature of the film, taking an introductory route to each of the killers so that we can get introduced to who they are as well as get an idea of the kind of handiwork they’re capable of, sets up a slew of solid, more suspenseful than expected situations involving the killer clown, the hunter who likes to torture victims, a hulking supernatural killer that wields a massive knife, or the final surprise killer that she ends up having a special connection to. With all of these coming with select background flashbacks showing the history and background of the individual killer, which also include some brutal confrontations with other victims, or the rather explosive reveal about her background that ties everything together in a fine twist, there are plenty of factors to enjoy in this one.
There are some slight issues at play that hold this one down. The main drawback with this one is the somewhat sluggish and slow-going tempo that, even though it doesn’t feel overly long, takes its time to get to the next setup. With a lot of the running time devoted to the two trying to make sense of the situation and roaming around the halls of the prison and stumbling occasionally upon someone else, this one tends to get slightly held up by the different attempts at navigating the place, trying to find out what they’re doing there. That means those fun encounters are pretty much dependent on several encounters but not much else in terms of action, so this does have some obvious start/stop issues in that regard. The other big issue here is the obvious low-budget limitations on display, not just from the gore and location, but also other small factors that pop up, being enough to bring it down slightly.
Overview: ***.5/5
An incredibly fun indie slasher effort, there’s a lot to like here that comes together well enough that it holds off the few slight issues present that do hold it down. Give it a shot if you appreciate this style of genre fare, if you’re curious about it, or if you’re a fan of the creative crew, while most others out there might want to heed caution.
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