Directed By: Rob Savage
Written By: Rob Savage, Gemma Hurley and Jed Shepherd
Editor: Brenda Rangott
Cast: Annie Hardy, Amer Chadha-Patel, Angela Enahoro, Seylan Baxter, Mogali Masuku, Caroline Ward, Jemma Moore
Viewed through her livestream, abrasive musician Annie Hardy's night takes a dangerous turn after she agrees to help transport a frail elderly woman out of town. Annie and her friend Stretch embark on a horror-fueled road trip and livestream the most terrifying night of their lives.
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Writer/director Rob Savage’s follow-up to his hit film HOST. That was quite a bit, due amongst other things to being made during the pandemic and how believable the effects were.
The enjoyment of the film will depend on how much or how long you can stand the lead character. as she is very unpleasant and her behavior at times only seems to make things worse as she continuously makes bad decisions.
She will split the audience for this film
You do have to send through a third of the film with her as an introduction before any of the supernatural or horror elements take place.
The film does work at being creepy and scary most of the time. As we spend most of the film
The main character. The audience will be happy any time another character shows up and interacts and partially takes over the narrative.
She stays a jerk even in the worst of times always saying the wrong thing. It seems like the film wants you to root against her. She makes it political to go with the time that the film was made and released.
So you wonder if this is a commentary on people with this kind of political worldview at what seems like an apocalypse. This is a particular character.
As the film is well put together and has great direction that kind of pays off if you stick with it as it gives a commentary on social media or presentations of craft and character and story.
Though it’s weakness is that while nothing is ever totally explained everything seems like it’s happening instead of offering even a general explanation
As it is filmed in first person. You not only feel like you are a character in the film taken in for a ride. But also get a running commentary from the characters and comments on the side at times. The film feels like a hard journal.
It even sticks to the cliché of characters of color, not making it to the very end.
There are some moments where you feel like not again. Yes, it gets crazier as it goes along and her strange phrases and times of trouble and terror only helped to make it feel a little more different and strange
The film might’ve been a better shot as at times it feels like the premise is a bit stretched out even at under 90 minutes, so it almost feels like an extended V/H/S anthology story made into a feature.
By the end, it feels like an interesting experiment, though not sure if it makes the audience care one way or another the end
Grade: C