Prime Time: Knucklebones (2016)

Sometimes you want something intelligent and sophisticated from your horror movie fare, and sometimes you want something simple and bloody. Knucklebones is very firmly in the latter camp. It doesn't want to explore the complex nature of humans. It doesn't want to use the genre to make some point about our society. It just wants to throw some characters together and have them tortured and killed by a demonic entity that also has a few wisecracks to make. And that's just fine.

Julin Jean (AKA Julin) plays Neesa Avery, a young woman we meet just as she has attempted suicide. This happens as she is trying to process the end of the relationship with her boyfriend. What do you do when your friend is in such a low place, mentally? Samantha (Katie Bosacki) thinks they should all go on a ghost hunt in an abandoned warehouse. That's where they end up playing a game with some "dice" made from knucklebones, and end up summoning the titular demon. He sets out to kill them all, as well as some random characters who come along in the second half, to fill out the bodycount numbers, and it's a race to find out just how to put a stop to him.

The feature debut of writer-director Mitch Wilson, Knucklebones has a lot going for it. Fans of entertaining schlock should find enough here to entertain them, and Wilson knows exactly what he's doing when it comes to the expected beats and sense of fun to be wrung from the premise. The pacing is brisk, things kick off by showing a Nazi experiment that seems to create Knucklebones, the characters are entirely disposable, and the gore effects on display are a real highlight, being inventive and enjoyably gory.

Julin isn't a terrible lead, although she's far from the best. She does what is needed though, and steps up a level when required to help carry viewers along through the increased silliness of the third act. Bosacki is alright, with a lot less to do, and the same can be said, generally, of Cameron Deane Stewart, Taylor Tippins, and Justin Arnold. Mary Catherine Wells and Carrie Holland are relatives of Julin's character, not directly involved with the action until Knucklebones finds out of their usefulness as he tortures the lead. Tom Young is good, playing a sheriff, and Jason Duffy Klemm does very good work in his small role, Choctaw Bill.

Acting isn't the top priority here though, nor is the script. You get some fun one-liners, and there are some moments that stand out as much better than others (that Choctaw Bill sequence, the plotting of the third act, which makes up for its predictability with the sense of fun and satisfaction), but this isn't the kind of thing that bothers about depth of character or memorable dialogue.

Wilson does exactly what he sets out to do, whether you like it or not. Knucklebones is an impressive new creation in the slasher movie subgenre. I'd definitely enjoy seeing him appear in another movie, even if I suspect they would all have to follow the same template (much like the Wishmaster movies, for example). The whole film falls a bit short of the mark in almost every department, from the varying quality of the acting to the hit and miss FX gags, but that doesn't detract from the sheer simplistic fun of it all.

6/10

https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews