Director: Tory Jones
Year: 2026
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Slasher
Plot:
Preparing for the Halloween festivities, a teen in a small town trying to help her friends get through the holiday is suddenly forced to deal with a savage killer striking back at the town for the treatment of his actress mother years earlier, forcing them to survive his rampage.
Review:
Overall, this was a solid enough, if somewhat problematic, slasher effort. Among the better features here is the immensely likable starting setup that manages to offer up plenty of old-school charm and a fun group of central characters. The main setup here, focusing on the lives of these friends in a small town as Halloween approaches, who are going through their own struggles and next stages of what they want to do, including hanging out together, renting horror films, and hooking up with everyone, gives this a fun sense of immersion into the main friend group. Getting to see them relaxing at the video store, hanging out at their house watching movies together, or going to local hangouts where they have to interact with the rest of the town in their own sleazy antics provides this with the kind of mundane small-town life that creates a great way to introduce the main group and the life they lead. With everything here also bringing about the backstory about the town and how it's known as the homeplace of a legendary actress who killed herself years ago as a fine setup for the killer's rampage, it wraps everything together rather nicely with a fun starting point.
As well, the resulting stalking scenes that take place once this goes for the killer stalking the group of friends are just as much fun, giving this some wholly enjoyable aspects in that regard. The hulking killer himself, with the crochet-style mask and unique, homemade clothing design for the rampage, gives this a wholly impressive main killer who gets brought into a series of wholly effective and enjoyable stalking scenes where he springs out of nowhere to attack, including brief ambushes in the local video rental store, the double-bill of victims being attacked out on the town, or the ambush outside of the dock between the couple that turns into a chase through the area. These are all built into a wholly fun and likable finale where the series of stalking encounters, where the survivors have to battle against the killer knowing what they do about who he really is and what his purpose for chasing them is, helps to make the action here immensely fun and likable. Alongside the great effects work for the gruesome, bloody kills, these all make for a lot to like overall.
This one does have a few minor ideas that hold this one down. The biggest issue with this one is the series of setpieces in the first half that focus much more on the world-building between the group of friends that keeps the killings contained until the final half. Focusing on the lives of the group in their town and how the upcoming holiday season is affecting them, not just with their individual lives but with the different friends coming back into the picture in an attempt to reconnect with each other, this makes for an immensely likable part that builds a sense of empathy and connection to the characters. However, this also means that the lack of killing action is present during all of this except for a brief backstory bit that explains the killers' motivation, so it can feel like it takes a while to get going, as this is a bit longer than it probably should be for this type of genre fare that might be somewhat off-putting for some viewers. There are also some issues with some obvious low-budget qualities that are present within here, which isn't truly detrimental but is enough to also lower this one somewhat.
Overview: ****/5
An immensely effective and enjoyable indie slasher, there’s a lot to like with this one that comes off incredibly well for what it does, which makes this quite likable despite a few minor issues present here. Those with an appreciation for this kind of genre fare, who are curious about it, or who are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here, while most others out there should heed caution.
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