Director: S.N. Sibley
Year: 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
After pulling off a successful murder, a serial killer blackmails the husband of his victim to help him dispose of her body or become the culprit of the crime, but when the car they’ve stashed the body in is stolen by thieves, they must band together to get back their property at any cost.
Review:
Overall, this was a fairly strong and likable low-budget slasher. One of the better features of this one is the immensely strong and involved setup that brings together some rather fun elements throughout. The opening to this one gets the film going with the proper amount of bad luck when the whole murder scene is pulled off accordingly, only for the husband to arrive at the wrong time and be forced into helping him take care of the body so that the killer can get away with the crime by framing the husband. The series of errors that arise while trying to make sure this gets taken seriously, when the car is stolen and taken to a music video shoot in the woods, where they get mixed up with the various individuals on set and get dragged into the mess being left behind. That this is darkly comedic, with each bit of good luck getting them deeper into something else while forcing it to be resolved before the next issue arises, is a lot of fun and gives the setup here some likable qualities.
By the time this gets to the various slashing scenes as the killer tries to get the body back, there’s plenty to like with the stalking scenes at play. The opening scenes showing him prowling around the city and taking several victims are a great introduction to the brutality he’ll display later on, as the scene taking out the wife is a worthwhile bit involving his calm demeanor, mixed with her obliviousness at it all. With these scenes focused on his methodology and effectiveness, it prepares us for the later scenes involving him sneaking onto the crew of the music video shoot as the proposed killer and taking out everyone involved one by one, leading to a lot of fun when he goes through the woods as they all believe it’s part of the act. Given that they don’t realize until it’s too late, mostly because they’re too concerned dealing with the carjackers who are trying not to appear as if they’ve committed the wife’s murder to the disbelieving group, it’s a bit more understandable even though his scenes stalking them and taking them out in the woods offer up the kind of worthwhile sequences and low-budget indie gore that, combined with these other factors, give everything a lot to like.
There isn’t much wrong here, but there are some minor detrimental elements. The biggest drawback to the film is a bizarre series of scenes that provide some severe tonal whiplash with how they’re presented. The whole point of going along with the body-removal scene makes no sense, yet the whole sequence is played as a comedy of errors with the duo mistaken for police officers before ending up losing the body when the car gets stolen by bumbling thieves who are unaware of what had just happened or what’s in the trunk. This is matched with the potshots and goofs on the faded rock star and his entourage on the video shoot, even though the whole thing with the killer and the carjackers interacting with everyone is far more serious and threatening. It becomes rather jarring with the various shifts being handled somewhat poorly, and alongside some obvious limitations from its low-budget origins, these all bring this down slightly.
Overview: ****/5
A really likable and effective low-budget slasher, this one contains quite a lot of fun elements throughout that manage to hold this up over the few small issues keeping it down. Those with an appreciation for the kind of genre fare attempted here or who are fans of the creative crew will have a lot to enjoy here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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