MovieChat Forums > Last Shift (2015) Discussion > Awesome first two acts. 3rd not so much.

Awesome first two acts. 3rd not so much.

posted 9 years ago by super16g
2 replies | jump to latest

This was an interesting movie that had me hooked from the beginning with its unique setup. To have the main character as a policewoman was a great plot piece as it solved the general "Why don't they just leave?" questiom that plagues most horror movies. Her desire to keep her job and not look like a scared and easily rattled rookie unfit for duty kept her from leaving or even calling for help during the initial stages of the movie while the demon's power built up and eventually consumed her.

I have to assume Cohen was offering her as some sort of sacrifice to the demon.

I do not get the homeless guy's angle to get into the files unless that was just typical crazy homeless dude stuff.

The movie broke down for me in the end because who powerful the demon suddenly came in being able to warp reality and get the hazmat guys in the building and Cohen suddenly being there to rescue or kill her. It was a shame because the first hour of the movie had me scared and tense and most all horror movies dont do that to me any more but the end turned into to standard ghost around every corner jump scare movie.

Still a lot better than I expected and great acting from the lead.

[–] thesubtlebody 9 years ago

I have to agree with you. It's a pity, though...I felt enough tension from the movie to wish it had simply been made better, plus I thought Julia Harkavy was a really strong B-movie lead. She deserves better; definitely not a typical 'scream queen' or woman in distress or even beleaguered "lady cop". No new ground broken here, but in good B-movie fashion, it does seem like some tiresome cliches are being tipped over a bit or at least bypassed. I thought there was an appreciable amount of gender critique happening; but the movie wears it so lightly, you could miss it, or better, "confuse it" for any number of other factors (universal rookie jitters, devotion to a deceased father, questions of inherited mental illness, etc etc etc). I don't know how much of this was planned, but I've seen enough crummy B horror flicks to know that there are some things happening with this film that aren't typical of the genre.

Unfortunately, visually, the tiresome cliches only pile up until the pathetic (demonic) last shot. (And here I'd watched the first half of the film thinking that the film's stupid poster betrayed its psychological weight and mounting-dread virtuosity. Oops, so much for that. Joke's on me.)

I think this movie just confirmed something I've suspected about my own Horror Metabolism: the slower the scares get, the more tension I feel; the faster and joltier things get, the stupider they seem, especially after the first several moments. And in this movie, the faster the scares, the more likelier they are to seem sleepily ripped whole-cloth from other, often better horror movies. Diminishing returns pulling the rug on a promising build-up. Damn!

[–] doormandiaries-311-452332 9 years ago

... If Natalie Victoria would have been topless at some point...