Last Shift is the new single-location scare fest directed by Anthony DiBlasi. It stars the very watchable Juliana Harkavy as a rookie cop following in the footsteps of dead ol’ dad. Our leading lady in blue starts her first shift on the last night of her dad’s old precinct. There is a transition to a new building and Jessica (Julianna’s character) is charged with care-taking and waiting for a clean-up crew to remove some hazardous waste. She is alone for the night and it’s not long before things start to go very wrong.
The film is best described as the bastard lovechild of Helter Skelter and Assault on Precinct 13. It was really creepy in places but relies mostly on jump scares and flashes in the dark. Harkavay, in my opinion, did a fantastic job and was pretty believable at the start. Her level of acceptance and/or disbelief of all the haunted happenings had way too high a threshold later on in the film.
The action, the scares, the set, the story, the cast…all of these were above average for what passes as a horror movie these days. My biggest issue with the movie however, was it’s pace. The movie seemed to drag on and on. When you are filming with so few characters and on such a small set, you need to have something that can hold the attention of the audience while your story unfolds. This film failed to do that. It needed, for lack of a better word, content. Each scene felt like a slightly more spooky repeat of the previous scene with tidbits of background being added each time. This movie took an hour and a half to tell a story that would have fit comfortably into a 30 minute short.
Pace aside, it was nonetheless enjoyable. Not something I’ll add to my favourites list, but worth checking out if you like the cult sub-genre, hauntings and jump scares.
Watch the trailer below.
