Director: Anthony DiBlasi
Writer: Anthony DiBlasi, Scott Poiley (Screenplay)
Starring: Juliana Harkavy, Joshua Mikel, Hank Stone, J LaRose, Sarah Sculco
Plot: A rookie cop’s 1st shift in the last night of a closing police station alone turns into a living nightmare.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Great Horror
Story: Last Shift starts as we follow rookie police officer Jessica Loren (Harkavy) on her first assignment replacing veteran officer Grip Cohen (Stone) looking after a closing police station for the final night.
Alone in the station Jessica start receive calls from a woman in distress when all the calls should have been diverted as well as strange goings on around the station, things that she can’t explain as well as having a homeless continually breaking into the station.
When it becomes clear that Jessica is being haunted by the Paymon cult that her father died taking down, but now she must face a battle against the devil worshipers led by John Michael Paymon (Mikel).
Thoughts on Last Shift
Story – The story here shows how one officer must survive the hauntings happening with her own police station. We have a good use of suspense in the story because we have a creditable lead character that wants to look past the supernatural and shouldn’t be scared around each scare. This is an easy to follow even if it is all by the book because you get the scare moment calm, slightly scary moment calm and this goes on until the outcome of the film.
Horror/Mystery/Thriller – When it comes to the horror this film is very good at build up and execution of the scare going on throughout with no false jump scares which can hold horror up. We are left on edge throughout with what could happen by the end of the film which keeps the thrilling side of the story up, the film balance pure horror and thrills together to complement each genre throughout.
Characters/Performance – We only really meet one character in this film with the Officer which means she does need to carry the whole film. We get the scares with the odd characters but we only learn about the characters from events in the past as Jessica does too which I think does help the film. Juliana Harkavy is brilliant in the lead role because if she is bad this film is bad it is as simple as that.
Settings – The whole film is set within the police station which works because you wouldn’t expect to see a location like that being the main target of supernatural horror.
Special Effects – All the effects going on in the film add to the horror making us feel like we are experience the horror with the character.
Final Thoughts – This is a good horror that is well worth a watch for all the horror fans out there.
Overall: Good scares, good suspense, great horror.
Rating
