Last Shift (2014)

I don’t know how to feel about this one, dude. I really REALLY don’t know how to feel about this one. I guess let’s start with the summary and work our way through all the feelings from there. Officer Jessica Loren (played by Juliana Harkavy) is a rookie cop assigned to a run down station for it’s last shift (Get it?) before it’s closed. Pretty quickly we start to see that this old precinct has some dark secrets and it has no intention of going quietly into the night.

Pretty simple concept. There were a few things that really sold it for me though. Juliana Harkavy’s performance was extremely solid. She’s very much the nervous, but determined rookie. I felt like this added a nice element to things. There’s always the “why don’t you just leave?” question when watching these movies, but this made that question answerable. That didn’t stop me from screaming it at the screen, but it did a good job at answering it. When the spooky shit hits the proverbial fan there’s way less suspension of disbelief because Officer Loren HAS to do this. She almost leaves a few times, but then composes herself at the last second because she knows this is her one shot and she wants to live up to her father’s (who died in the line of duty) legacy while also proving to herself and everyone else she can do it. And again, I think Harkavy’s performance really conveys this well.

As I’ve said before I truly appreciate horror films with one main character. It’s a very difficult thing to do when you don’t have disposable characters to offer up as sacrifice to the Slasher Gods.

You have to really work for it. You have to build the tension by forcing us to see through this one character’s eyes and you have to keep the scares coming at a decent pace, so that we don’t get bored. It’s not an easy thing to do and Last Shift does it almost effortlessly. The pacing is perfect and the scares are some of the best I’ve seen in a long time and they don’t let up. Seriously, it starts and doesn’t stop. It comes at you from so many angles. It’s like a damn Spookake. Yes, I’m aware of how bad that joke was and no, I do not plan on editing it out. Anthony DiBlasi does a damn good job at directing. The cinematography is great for such a low budget film and the make up effects were fantastic. Well, except for that one scene. It was REHEHEALLY bad. I don’t want to spoil anything, but… Do I want to spoil this? Eh, screw it. This. This is what I’m referencing.

Yeah. Take that all in. It’s even worse when you watch the actual scene. But truly, the rest of the effects are great. Aiside from that little eye sore (hehe) this was genuinely one of the best horror films I’ve seen in years. I would have given it a solid 9 out of 10 despite how laughably bad that scene was. It was damn near perfect for me… That is until it came time to wrap things up. That ending was pants shittingly bad. It was the biggest cop out (hehe) I’ve ever seen. I feel like I should ask for a manager or write a strongly worded letter, but I wouldn’t know where to mail it to. The ending could have been LITERALLY anything else and I would have liked it better. It set itself up so well and then just ruined it. It was so disappointing and stupid that it was just insulting.

So I guess I’ll leave this with a 5 out of 10. That’s FOUR freaking points it lost just for having such a stupid ending. It doesn’t even make sense for frick’s sake! If I could just ignore the last couple minutes this would be great, but alas I can not. Tis my curse and my burden. But we never know what tomorrow night may bring. Hopefully it’s something way less disappointing. See you then.

And uh… Stay spooky or whatever.