12 Hour Shift (2020)

You don't get too many dark comedies about an attempt to steal a kidney from someone, but writer-director Brea Grant is here to change that with 12 Hour Shift.

Angela Bettis plays Mandy, a nurse who likes to use her position to gain access to drugs and other things that might fall into her pockets. She's helping her cousin, Regina (Chloe Farnworth), to deliver a kidney to some dangerous criminals. Unfortunately, Regina is a bit of a liability. She mistakenly leaves the kidney behind, an error that leads to a night of multiple deaths in the hospital as Mandy tries to regain control of the situation while Regina gets more and more desperate in her attempts to procure a kidney. The other staff quickly grow more wary, and there's a prisoner (Jefferson, played by David Arquette) who might cause more problems.

Dark and twisted for almost every minute of its runtime, 12 Hour Shift is the kind of black comedy that will annoy just as many people as it entertains. There are very few characters who are outright likeable, and none of the leads are people that you'd want to be stuck in a crisis with. But Grant is smart enough to make people unlikeable in different ways. Bettis is savvy and ruthless, Farnworth is a bit of an idiot, Nikea Gamby-Turner plays Karen, who has been used to turning a blind eye to the "antics" of Mandy, other staff snap at one another, often with good reason, and there's at least one patient (played by Tom DeTrinis) who is so high maintenance that you might start wishing for him to be the one to lose a kidney.

Bettis is as great as ever in the lead role, someone struggling to keep hold of a situation that becomes increasingly twisted and slippery by the minute. Farnworth gets to have more fun, willing to embark on a murder spree to get what she wants, to hell with the consequences, and the scenes that work best have her manic silliness juxtaposed alongside the eye-rolling of Bettis. Arquette is a lot of fun as the cop-hating killer who might just prove to be a valuable patsy, Gamby-Turner is enjoyably weary and resigned to things playing out however they will, and Kit Williamson does well as a police officer hoping to stop more people from dying. Tara Perry, Brooke Seguin, Taylor Alden, and Missy Stahr Threadgill all do well, part of the supporting cast portraying staff, visitors, and patients, and the aforementioned DeTrinis is amusing enough with his annoying manner.

Admirably getting the tone perfect from start to finish, this is an unabashed triumph for Grant (in what is only her sophomore directorial feature, despite positioning herself near the very top of the tree when it comes to influential film-makers working on the independent horror scene in recent years). I could pick some other blood-soaked dark comedies to compare it to, but that would be unfair. It feels like such an enjoyably unique film that any comparisons would only set prospective viewers up for disappointment.

9/10

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Shudder Saturday: Lucky (2020)

Brea Grant plays May, a woman who has a few problems in her life. Things are a bit rocky with her husband, Ted (Dhruv Uday Singh). Her book sales have dwindled, which means that career path may be coming to an end. And every night a man comes into her home and tries to kill her. She can wound, or even seem to kill, the man, but the body disappears a moment later. The police don't seem able to help, and they offer advice that doesn't take into account the strangeness of her situation.

Directed by Natasha Kermani, who is really hitting her stride now with this, her third feature, and the film preceding it (Imitation Girl), Lucky is a horror that extrapolates a very real, and constant, problem. The script, written by Grant, is enjoyably clever in the way it weaves so many familiar horror movie clichés with the kind of experiences that women go through every single day, whether that is having their concerns dismissed, having friends offer extra criticism when simple support is needed, or any number of other problems that seem to only really affect the female half of the population.

It may seem like the wrong time for Lucky to have been released, those who like to keep their heads in the sand may think that people are now facing consequences for behaviours that were once just accepted as standard, but it's actually a perfect extra reminder of everything that needs to be worked on. Mansplaining, gaslighting, domestic abuse, victim-blaming, expecting women to change their behaviour because of the actions of men, all of these things are covered in Lucky. There's also a great moment in which May is worn out and worn down, and snaps at someone who calls the result of her hard work a stroke of good luck. Although that particular issue isn't one just experienced by women, they tend to have their hard work shrugged off more often than men. 

It's not the best performance I have seen recently from Grant, but she does good enough in the lead role. Singh does well alongside her, playing his character in a fairly neutral way that allows for most of his dialogue to be reconsidered as the main point of the film becomes clearer with each passing scene. Hunter C. Smith is "The Man", doing a good bit of stalk 'n' slash work, and there are good turns from Yasmine Al-Bustami, Leith M. Burke, and Larry Cedar, with the latter a standout as a cop who seems to be acting in the best interests of May without actually offering any real help. 

The one weak performer isn't actually onscreen, it's Jeremy Zuckerman, responsible for a surprisingly poor soundtrack throughout. Zuckerman may be trying to riff on one or two well-known slasher movie themes, or maybe he isn't, but the end result ends up detracting from the visuals on one or two occasions.

Perhaps not sitting as comfortably within the boundaries of the horror genre that some fans want their movies to stay in, and with a central message that is about as subtle as a brick to the face, Lucky is an impressive and smart film. Subtlety be damned, especially when the message STILL isn't getting through to those who need to hear it, and Grant and Kermani lead viewers to a rewarding, if ambiguous, finale.

8/10

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The Stylist (2020)

I admit that my review of the short film of the same name that The Stylist was developed from could seem a little harsh. I said that it had decent first half squandered by the second half, and that it was ultimately not very good, although was at least polished and lovely to look at. A lot of people will disagree with that, and I wouldn't spend too much time arguing with them. Because The Stylist was a very well-made short. It just didn't work for me, certainly not as well as it worked for so many others.

And now we have the feature, once again allowing director Jill Gevargizian to get a wonderful performance from her lead, Najarra Townsend.

Townsend plays Claire, the stylist of the title. It doesn't take long to see that she's not your usual hair stylist. She is a bit of a psychopath. Which makes things dangerous for Olivia (Brea Grant), a bride-to-be who needs Claire to help her with her wedding day hairstyle. Olivia acts like a friend to Claire at times, not just a client and service provider, not really noticing any warning signs until it may be too late. Will Claire manage to keep herself under control as the wedding draws ever closer?

Let me start with the good things here. Gevargizian is an excellent director, and has a great eye for making even the more macabre moments look visually appealing. Having co-written the script with Eric Havens and Eric Stolze, she also has a knack for building moments of discomfort and keeping everything moving well as she leads viewers towards an unsurprising finale.

There are also two superb lead performances, from both Townsend and Grant, that help to make the more ridiculous moments feel plausible. Grant has been fairly ubiquitous in the horror genre within the past year or two, and long may it continue, she's always a welcome presence. Townsend may not have quite the same profile, but her portrayal of the sympathetic and deadly Claire should ensure that she is now on the radar for many horror genre fans.

What doesn't work? Without wanting to sound completely dismissive, this feels like a feature that should have remained a short. I know that I started this review with my own harsh criticism of the original short film, but tweaking and fleshing that out slightly could have led to a better end result than this feature. Once the chain of events has been kick-started, and it won't take most viewers long to see where everything is going, The Stylist becomes little more than an okay "punchline" preceded by a number of scenes that don't flow into one another as smoothly as they should. You get those impressive moments I mentioned above, but they're small diversions, and it's irritating to see some scenes create a tension that is then dismissed by the time certain characters next talk to one another.

Despite my thoughts on how this feature would make a better short, and how the original short could have been improved upon, I didn't dislike The Stylist. Gevargizian is someone to keep an eye on, as are both Townsend and Grant, and the film has a certain something that manages to keep you hooked throughout (whether that is the lead performances, or perhaps the potential that's so obviously there in the fascinating central character). I won't rush to rewatch it, but it's worth remembering that I seem to be very much in the minority here. Again.

6/10

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After Midnight (2019)

I've fallen behind in my appreciation of the work of Jeremy Gardner, who wrote this movie and co-directed it with his long-time collaborator Christian Stella. Okay, he's only actually directed three full features right now, and I am only missing out on one of them (Tex Montana Will Survive!, also co-directed with Stella, and one I have been meaning to see since finding out about it due to their novel approach to covering costs and then distributing it in various places for free), but his acting performances, and presence within the horror community, means that me even falling slightly behind feels like I am not doing enough to support someone who really deserves it. And Gardner certainly deserves your support.

After Midnight is the tale of a man, Hank (Gardner), left by the woman he loves (Abby, played by Brea Grant). While Abby is away from their home, Hank starts to be visited every night, after midnight, by a monster. It tries to get into his home, tries to attack him, and nobody will believe him. It's a strange tale, after all, and perhaps much easier to accept that this is a call for attention from a man who no longer knows just how his life is going to pan out.

If you enjoyed the fact that The Battery was a zombie film without too many zombies populating it, you should love the fact that After Midnight is a monster movie that uses the monster sparingly, and actually plays out for the most part with viewers unsure if the monster even exists. We see what Hank sees, but what is it that Hank is really seeing? What's easier to believe? That a monster comes along every night to terrorise him while he is alone and fragile, or that his mind wants to give him some strange challenge to distract from his heartache?

Gardner has always done well in the acting department, and has just managed to get better and better over the years. He knows his range, the kind of characters he likes to play don't seem to verge too wildly from a certain type, but he does very well in that sweet spot. Grant is very good in her role, although the plot requires her to make more of an impact with her absence than with her time onscreen. Justin Benson (who also produced with Aaron Moorhead, and it's clear to see why this appealed to them) does well in a supporting role, as does Henry Zebrowski.

If you want something easy and obvious then After Midnight is not for you. It's a film that gives you a monster and then teases you with the fact that it may or may not be real. It's more concerned with what it takes to push the central character on to the next stage of his life, for better or for worse. These kinds of movies are what horror fans should be seeking out, movies that make the most of their resources to craft a story that doesn't rely on the jumps and easy box-ticking that a lot of mainstream horror movies utilise. This is thoughtful, interesting, fare. Sadly, that will put some people off, but those who give it their time and patience will be rewarded, not least by an ending that delivers quite the cathartic experience.

8/10

After Midnight is available to watch now on VOD.