Last Shift - Movie Review

There are movies that you watch immediately upon seeing the thumbnail or reading the summary on your favorite streaming service. They hook you and you can’t resist to at least give it a cursory watch. Then there are the movies that you see pop up in the recommended section and you add them to your watchlist, but never actually give them a viewing. Last Shift was firmly in the latter category for me. So, did this single location horror-thriller exceed the mundane expectations I had for it? Well… Yes and No.

Let’s Discuss….

Last Shift is is a horror-thriller from writer/director Anthony DiBlasi. You might know DiBlasi best for writing/directing criminally underrated Clive Barker adaptation Dread (2009). The film revolves around Jessica Loren. Having just graduated from the Police Academy, she’s excited to start the first day of her career. To her surprise, she’s called for desk duty at the old decommissioned station. She’s to stand the last watch as the final remnants of the evidence room are picked up sometime between 10PM and 4AM. She’s forbidden from leaving the building for any reason prior to the evidence room being emptied. So, she hunkers down for a fun time reading the Police Handbook. That is until a strange homeless man somehow keeps breaking into the station and the voices of little girls start singing hymns in the halls. What follows is an unrelenting ride into madness that works for most of the film. The atmosphere, the special effects (for the most part), and especially the sound design are far above what you’d expect for a production of this budget. However, the movie falls flat in the final twenty minutes. Why?

Let’s take a deeper dive…

…Spoilers Ahead

I want to start with our lead actress. She’s really the basis for the nightmare. Single setting stories rely on the lead character to be the avatar for the audience. The avatar provides us an emotional compass and really is what lends believability to the piece. Unfortunately for this film the lead actress Juliana Harkavy just doesn’t have the chops. She’s incredibly beautiful, but her performance in this movie is below average. Her vocal delivery is so wooden and disconnected you’ll be pulling splinters from your ears. Her facial expressions and mannerisms are as disjointed and nonsensical as the actions she chooses to take along the way. It’s sad because even with a poor lead performance the film’s scares are still incredibly effective. If there was a better actress in the role this film probably would have gotten a lot more hype. Take someone as talented Amber Goldfarb or Jenna Malone and you would have had a much better film.

I hate to blame the actress for this in full as it was apparent the direction and writing didn’t do her any favors. The film has a highly effective atmosphere, but the storytelling and structure is so non-committal that it’s obvious they couldn’t decide on what ending they wanted to use. The film has some extremely frightening elements and set-pieces, but they are done in an almost Choose Your Own Adventure layout. There are multiple monsters and entities within the police station. Some are implied to be good and others evil, but this switches on a whim. I feel like the script wasn’t completely when filming began and the lead actress’ performance could have suffered due to this fact.

I’m really dumping on this film right?

Let’s get into a few things I liked.

The sound design is incredible. We are talking topnotch work by Dave Chmela and his team. The unnerving sounds of the contortionist ghost snapping and popping around the station made my stomach churn. Every knock, door slam, footstep, and scream sounds original and new. Where a lot of low-budget films reuse sound effects to save money, the team here went over the top to deliver fresh audio terror in each scene. Team that fantastic work with the anxiety inducing score by Adam Barger and you’ve got a feast for the ears. There are many scenes where the scares are purely due to the sound due to either the screen being totally black or the performance of the lead actress being flat. It’s quality work wasted on a film that went direct-to-dumpster.

The same could be said for the creature designs and practical effects. The film’s creatures, though derivative of Clive Barker’s Cenobites and Silent Hill’s various perversions, are gorgeously executed. The main villain seen on the Thumbnail of most streaming services in the US is actually the least effective of the lot. His two subordinate demon/ghost/Manson Cult members are much more frightening with the heads melding with the sackcloth backs in which they died. It’s just unfortunate that the fantastic work of Jeremy S. Brock went to waste.

And then there’s the ending.

So, the film has a shitty lead performance, but incredible practical effects, sound effects, atmosphere, and music. It’s got to be worth seeing right?

WRONG

The last twenty minutes of this film flush any feeling of good will down the toilet. Throughout the film we are given brutally subtle, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it storytelling about Officer Loren’s father and his death at the hands of this Manson Family type group. You’re given hints that the cult is still running around and that they are probably the ones causing all the mayhem in the station. Does this pay off?

NOPE.

The ghost of Officer Loren’s Father’s partner shows up at first acting like he’s alive and there to help. The next time you see him, he blows his brains out with a finger gun (cool effect until they added in MSPaint level CGI). So, in effect he went from a helpful spirit to being there to frighten her more. The ghosts/demon/whatever the hell they are things in the film have no rules. They can warp reality, control minds, take physical forms, stack chairs, etc. There’s no limit. There’s no hope. At no time is the heroine of the film given any kind of weapon or mission to stop what’s happening. There’s also 0 explanation of what happened or what is happening. Now, if the film had been set-up in the first two acts to be a fever dream film ala Beyond the Black Rainbow or Mandy, that would be fine. However, this film is set-up as a traditional Good vs. Evil affair. The new officer on the job believes that she can make a difference and is going to solve the mystery.

That Doesn’t Happen…

Instead we have the first two acts which set-up about a dozen red herrings for what’s going on. The film could have ended with the Sergeant who ordered to stay overnight in the haunted station being a cult leader who lured her there to sacrifice her to demons. Another set-up option is that Officer Loren is actually the ghost of one of the murdered girls and she’s reliving the trauma in a new way. This is set-up by the word SOW appearing on the ceiling above her, referencing an earlier flashback where the cult members talk about stabbing a girl who squeals like a pig and also when Loren hears multiple pig noises around her at various times in the film. There was also a set-up using the homeless guy in the file room, hunting for some evidence of an injustice that once solves would lead to banishing the spirits.

Can you guess which path they chose?

How about ALL OF THEM!

You get the ghost-demons warping Loren’s mind so that she kills the team sent to clean out the evidence room. The sergeant shows up exactly had 4AM and shoots her without any warning. She dies and is transformed into the final victim of the cult and is transported back to the compound and then sucked into a hell dimension. The homeless man turns out to be the second ghost of the cult leader, even though you’ve seen the homeless guy being attacked by the demon-ghost of the cult leader.

It’s a goddamned mess.

The first 2/3 of the film are a fun group film. The final third is a slog.

Don’t watch this movie. It’s just not worth the investment, even at an 83 minute runtime.