Last Shift (2014)

Running Time: 90 minutes

Release Date: October 6, 2015

Review by: Stacey

 

2015 has been a great year for indie horror with films like It Follows, Cooties, and Creep.  Anthony DiBlasi's (Dread, Cassadaga) supernatural flick about a rookie cop and a cult fits right with the likes of those listed and gave me some major creeps.

 

Last Shift follows rookie cop, Jessica Loren (Juliana Harkavy), during her first shift on the last night at a closing police station.  Alone overnight, things start to take a supernatural turn for Jessica as she finds out that cult leader, John Michael Paymon (Joshua Mikel), and two of his followers committed suicide at the station a year ago to the date.

Holy shit, this was surprisingly scary.  Last Shift isn't filled with cheap jump scares, rather it uses dread and terror in the way of truly creepy characters and frightful imagery.  The cult backstory was unnerving because you're only told and shown just enough to get that they aren't a Satanic cult per se but they're all about something far more sinister and intense.  Through police interrogation videos and an odd meeting with a hooker outside of the station, you find out just how evil the cult is and how they murdered a number of girls before being taken in and ultimately hanging themselves in their cell.

The majority of the movie is focused on Juliana Harkavy, which isn't a terrible thing.  While her acting was solid, her character's actions were questionable more than once.  Where most of us would have hauled ass out of there the second we even heard a squeaky door, she stayed and powered through her shift right up until creaky-boned lady ghosts were crawling around.  Even through that, you still totally understood why she didn't abandon her post.  Jessica's backstory with her father, who was also a cop and killed in the line of duty because of the cult, completely justifies her reasoning.  

The performances by the minor characters weren't completely awful but some felt a tad forced.  The three cult members were pretty damn effective in playing batshit crazy.  They weren't your regular Manson Family members.  Despite a few holes left in the story and some things that were never expanded upon, I feel like it actually helped the story because it left that creepy, lingering tone well into the credits.

Last Shift starts to mess with your mind (as well as Jessica's) from the beginning of the film up until the final scenes and at that point, you have no idea what the hell you have just seen and whether or not it was real.  This is most definitely a movie that you need to watch (while checking over your shoulder every once in a while).

4/5 giant nopes out of that police station