The mastermind that gave us the 2006 cult classic "Special Dead" and 2007's Rattle Basket, has come back to deliver yet another blow to the indie film psyche...Only this time, the knockout was inevitable!! When I saw this I was attempting to multi-task, but the first scene alone thwarted that idea pretty damn quick, therefore keeping me glued to the screen for the entire hour and a half. Very few movies have the ability to do that to me anymore, but with this one, I actually caught myself doing double takes and out loud saying "Seriously, Really and OH COME ON!" quite frequently, as it's literally one horrible thing after another for these poor kids.
Thomas L. Phillips has put together a film that almost defies genre. Some would probably classify it as a horror, myself, I found it was so much more than that. This film not only brings a healthy body count and a good amount of blood spilling to the table, but it also keeps the watcher on their toes by adding the key elements of a variety of genres, including but not limited to; Comedy, Thriller, Horror, Action...and Baywatch. This film is a rarity in the fact that the entire cast did such an amazing job and was so tightly knit that if you replaced any one of them at any point, a lot of the effect this movie has would have been lost.
I have to go out of my way to tip my hat to both Sasha Ramos and Erin Cline as their ability to go from portraying the dread, stress and emotional instability their characters were enduring, to snapping out of it to quickly pull off a momentary banter of back and forth wit that can only be matched by the likes of Kevin Smith. I truly hope to see them receive an award or some sort of official acknowledgment towards their performance, and I hope to see them in more upcoming pictures in the future. I strongly suggest checking this flick out if you get the chance, weather it's at a festival or weather you get the DVD, as there's something for everyone here, no matter what your respective genre may be.
In closing, the best description of what to expect with this one...I dunno....If films could interact with each other, think of what the outcome would be if there was a drunken debaucherous night behind closed doors with Clerks, Very Bad Things and Dead Hooker in a Trunk...while Scream and Thelma and Louise video taped it for later use VIA blackmail.
P.S. - If you're wondering why I only gave it a 9, it's because I never give out 10's, giving something a 10 seems too fake and too doctored.
--Don
