Synopsis:
A rookie cop’s 1st shift in the last night of a closing police station alone turns into a living nightmare. The plot echoes John Carpenter’s ‘Assault on Precinct 13’ but with a supernatural twist.
Jessica Loren (Juliana Harkavy) is a brand spanking new police officer who is starting her first shift at a police station that is closing down. Following in the footsteps of her late father, she is determined to be an honourable officer and a credit to the force. However, in true disturbing horror fashion, her limits are pushed to the brink when supernatural shenanigans cause havoc on her mental state. The dark presence of the deceased Paymon Family smothers the station with the head of family John Michael (Joshua Mikel) personifying evil.
Writers Anthony DiBlasi and Scott Poili did not let me down as the Last Shift has just the right amount of crazy psychological mind games that I love to watch in horror films. Not content in playing out predictable, Last Shift provides jump scares, which will literally make you jump scared. I would never say that the pace was set to a slow burn as from the moment she walks into the station, there is an immediate underlying invisible threat. A sort of white noise silently rumbling away in the background provides a feeling of impending doom.
As the story unfolds we are given clues and then answers to those much needed questions. It is not laid out on a plate for us, which is good because we are kept guessing and even until the very end there are still moments that are unexpected.
DiBlasi directed this little gem of a horror film and in my opinion it is far greater than his most recent Most Likely to Die, which starred the infamous Perez Hilton. Although Most Likely to Die was fun and had a tremendous amount of entertaining death scenes, Last Shift is a lot darker and so much more sinister.
As a viewer you get drawn into the hopelessness and desperation that Officer Loren is feeling when everything around her is not making sense, the pressure of living up to her fathers reputation and no one is on hand to help her.
I’m uncertain if DiBlasi will be making anything soon but I think his fingers should keep on typing as he is a talented writer and director.
Words by Amanda Hunt
@man_ders11
