Author: BRWC

Last Shift: Review. By Joe Muldoon.

Somewhat atmospherically reminiscent of John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13, Last Shift is a one-location psychological horror from the mind of director Anthony DiBlasi. Starting off with her first shift on the job, rookie cop Jessica (Juliana Harkavy) is assigned the last shift in a police station before its closure. After a brief premises tour by the curmudgeon commanding officer Cohen (Hank Stone), Jessica is left to her own devices, the shift due to be a solo operation until a later scheduled HAZMAT team visit.

Boredom rather quickly setting in, she finds herself nodding off into her book – until loud knocking snatches her away from sleep’s embrace. After finding nobody at the precinct doors, Jessica is startled to find a dishevelled man urinating on the foyer floor, either oblivious or indifferent to her disgusted commands for him to leave. After removing the pest, she returns to the office in which she has decided to take refuge for the night, and the telephone begins to ring despite the line having supposedly been rerouted after the station’s fate was decided.

On the other side of the line is a teenage girl who gives her name as Monica, claiming that she’s being held in an unknown location by an unknown party. After trying to relay the scant details from the distress call to the active police precinct, Jessica subsequently finds herself at the heart of increasingly terrifying activity around the station, and so begins the true terror of the last shift.

Last Shift is a very enjoyable spine-tingler, and with a gradually hastening buildup towards its shocking crescendo, the line between horror and thriller is deliciously blurred. Though some of its scares and Mansonesque characters border upon cliché, the supernatural factor is enough to keep things exciting. The classic ‘less is more’ mantra applies here, with the most impressive sequences being those shrouded in tension and mystery. In the vast sea of mediocre direct-to-video indie B-horrors, Last Shift offers itself as a rather welcome beacon of enjoyment.

By Joe Muldoon.

Talk To Me: Another Review. By Joe Muldoon.

Very few film companies have the audience pull of A24. Amongst my fellow Gen Z-ers, the A24 stamp over a release arguably eclipses the Marvel, or even Disney label – show us the iconic seal and we’ll turn up in droves. So devoted are A24 fans that we’ve been dubbed the Cult of A24, sometimes affectionately and sometimes pejoratively. To me, A24 is like a well-versed friend who’s really in tune with what’s hot in film; sometimes they’ll show you a dud, but in most cases, they’ll show you something great. The latter is the case with Talk To Me, the fierce feature debut of directing brothers Danny and Michael Philippou.

A rather unique take on a classic premise, our story has a group of teenagers experimenting with the occult – not through a Ouija board or possessed book, but this time through a ceramic hand that allegedly contains the embalmed hand of a long-dead medium. Sinister videos have been circulating amongst youngsters at a high school, the footage showing supposedly authentic possessions taking place during a strange party game.

Still reeling from the death of her mother two years ago, Mia (Sophie Wilde, in her debut film role) mostly avoids her father, whose company she finds to be depressing, and spends the majority of her time at the house of her best friend, Jade (Alexandra Jensen). Wanting to attend a party with her boyfriend Daniel (Otis Dhanji), Jade invites Mia along, also reluctantly allowing her younger brother Riley (Joe Bird) to tag along.

At the party, the boisterous co-hosts Hayley (Zoe Terakes) and Joss (Chris Alosio) introduce a creepy game that apparently acquaints its participants with the spirit world. The game is simple: the participant is strapped into a chair, following which they grasp their fingers around an ominous porcelain hand, saying the phrase, “talk to me”. The next step is to say the phrase, “I let you in”, whereupon the participant will be spiritually inhabited, a 90-second time window provided by spectators in order to prevent permanent possession.

Keen to make her way into Hayley’s good books, a sceptical Mia volunteers herself as a participant, torch-lit phone cameras filming the whole process. To the horrified surprise of the present naysayers, Mia experiences a rather startling possession, being brought back to her normal self before the 90-second window closes, the porcelain hand yanked from her iron grip. Thrilled by her paranormal experience, Mia longs to do it again, and a gathering is soon organised at Jade’s house behind the back of her mother, Sue (Miranda Otto). Several attendees opt to take their turn with the porcelain hand, soon realising that they’ve made a grave mistake.

With a devilish hellscape of hair-raising scares, grotesque practical effects, and terrifying imagery, there’s a very strong case to be made that the Philippous’ debut is the best horror release of 2023. In my cinemagoing experience, few films have elicited such a visceral reaction from audiences as has Talk To Me – in my screening, yelps and violent jolts echoed throughout the room, one poor cinemagoer audibly wheezing in shock throughout a particularly intense sequence.

Many horror films have attempted to speak to the youngest generation of horror fans, but few have done so successfully. At best, they’ve been a little off the mark, but at worst, they’ve been excruciating misfires, with 2022’s utterly pointless Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel being a prime example. Likely helped along by the Philippous’ experience with their wildly successful YouTube channel RackaRacka, the so-called ‘social media generation’ has been catered to wonderfully here. Youthful woes –anxiety, grief, loneliness– are handled with genuine care, and they find themselves seamlessly woven into the story without feeling forced.

Aussie horror has been the recipient of long overdue attention as of late, due in part to the social media-fed resurgence in popularity of 2008 supernatural mockumentary Lake Mungo. With the release of Talk To Me, Aussie horror has now again taken centre stage, and with keen eyes pointed down under, the question is “what comes next?”

By Joe Muldoon

Past Lives: Review. By Nick Boyd.

“Past Lives” is a richly thought-out and tender film about relationships, fate, and self-reflection spanning 24 years.  The movie first looks at two 12-year-old Korean kids – a boy named Hae Sung and a girl named Nora.  The two close friends share a special bond – competing for the higher grade in school and playing among the structures in the park.  One day, Nora and her family decide to immigrate to Canada for better opportunities, which saddens Hae Sung.  From there, the film checks in on the two every 12 years.  

Nora (now played by the actress Greta Lee) becomes a playwright, while Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) after completing military service, is an engineering student back in Korea.  When the two reconnect at the age of 24 (they find each other through Facebook and begin to Skype), Hae Sung is still in school, while Nora has already started her career.  Their online interactions become deeper and more serious.  However, when it is clear that neither of them is willing to visit the other either in New York or Korea, Nora abruptly ends their communication and their lives move on in different paths.  At this point, Nora decides to begin a live-in artist residency.

During this time of self-reflection, Nora meets fellow artist Arthur (John Magaro).  They slowly begin to develop a relationship, and later the two become happily married.  

After years of being with Arthur, Nora discovers that Hae Sung would like to finally take a vacation to New York City.  Of course being that she is married, this complicates things somewhat.  Once Nora and Hae Sung finally do meet again in person and she shows him all the sights of New York City, it is awkward at first, especially as Nora has been Americanized in many ways, but the two are able to rediscover that shared connection they once had. 

Much of that connection is shown, not through words spoken but rather with the subtlety of lingering glances and excited smiles, somewhat of a rarity for a big-screen romantic drama. Their feelings are reignited and neither of them knows what decisions will be made. When it comes time for Nora’s husband Arthur to meet Hae Sung, there’s understandably awkwardness and tension, but they are able to warm up a bit to each other.  Naturally, when Nora and Hae Sung are speaking Korean over dinner, Arthur looks left out, watching and wondering.  This even causes some observers to wonder how the three of them could be connected.    

A deeply emotional experience, the film looks at all the what-ifs in our past relationships and how fate plays a role in our decisions.  Very well-written and acted, this is one to be savored.

Talk To Me: Review. By Daniel Rester. 

Talk to Me feels like a Gen Z answer to Flatliners (1990). Instead of getting a rush by temporarily dying though, the characters in this get exhilarated by becoming possessed by spirits for ninety seconds or less. How? They grab onto a ceramic hand (with a mysterious embalmed hand inside) and invite supernatural forces in. Instead of being terrified by their discoveries and by having blackened eyes and contorting bodies, the teens gleefully take turns while others film them with their smartphones. The fun doesn’t last.

Sophie Wilde is the heart and soul of Talk to Me, playing main character Mia with commitment. Mia struggles to fit in as she handles her depression from her mom committing suicide two years earlier. After going to a party with her close friend Jade (Alexandra Jensen), Mia tries out the hand possession ritual and finds it to be a temporary escape. After Jade’s little brother Riley (Joe Bird) tries it though, Mia begins seeing her mother’s spirit.    

Danny and Michael Philippou show great promise as directors with Talk to Me, with the film being their debut; the two are previously known for a popular YouTube channel called RackaRacka. The themes of grief and awkwardness in the script (co-written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman) come through expertly in the filmmakers’ hands. The film also looks very polished considering it is a first film, has clever spins on possession tropes, and favors disturbing images over cheap jump scares.

About two-thirds of Talk to Me presents some of the best horror I have seen in the past few years. The film opens with a surprising scene using a long tracking shot before delivering fresh scene after fresh scene with humor and scares. One shocker involving the smashing of a face is particularly intense and well-handled; it perfectly transitions the film into deadly serious territory after previously giving audiences a funny and energetic montage of possessions. 

The final stretch of the film becomes more familiar and predictable. The rules for the possessions start to feel muddled by the end as well as Mia crosses in and out of sanity. A central relationship involving Mia and her father Max (Marcus Johnson) could have used a few more minutes of development too in order to sell the dramatic weight of certain moments.     

Despite its minor issues, Talk to Me is still a hell of a debut feature and an excellent Australian horror picture. Wilde is absolutely terrific in it as Mia and the Philippous inject new ideas into ancient formulas. Talk to Me rises above the pack of tired studio products in the possession horror subgenre and delivers an inventive and terrifying experience.      

Rating: 8/10

What Ever Happened to Jonny Faith: Review. By Richard Schertzer.

This Benjamin Pollack-directed film certainly packs a punch even if it might miss a few steps along the way.

Frank Noon portrays the disheveled, has-been country star Jonny Faith as he sets off across the country to visit his son who he abandoned about 30 years ago after the death of his wife. He has a multitude of teary-eyed flashbacks that illuminate his person and peer into the veil of his own psyche.

Faith is terminally-ill with cancer and longs to reconnect with his son trying to make up for lost time. He feels obligated as a father to venture into the world and try to make up for his lack of contact with his only kid. It makes sense that he would feel some modicum of guilt behind his lack of parenting.

The film proves to be an enduring and heartfelt endeavor from director Benjamin Pollack with Faith’s absorbing character being broadcasted on the screen. The performances are truly captivating, to say the least. It’s great to see a slew of actors coming together for a good-old-fashioned country film that any American can enjoy.

However, there are some drawbacks to the film that need to be mentioned. First and foremost, it never feels like it can be all that it can be and falls short of its true potential. While the audience gets a fair amount of Faith’s backstory, we only get fragments of it and it feels like something else about him is still missing from the fabric of the narrative.

Despite all of that, it seems that there is enough talent both in front of and behind the camera. It’s pulpy, raw, American feel and nature is something that nobody else could deny.

Regardless, this film proves to be a neat and ambitious ride even if the film misses a few marks and doesn’t always land on its feet.

Ranking 7/10