Rating: C-
Dir: Anthony DiBlasi
Star: Jessica Sula, Kevin Wayne, Natalie Victoria, Clarke Wolfe
This is a remake, and a somewhat unusual one. The original film was Last Shift, made in 2014, and which I reviewed over on Girls With Guns. Nine years later, we get this “re-imagining,” and what’s notable is, it was made by the same director, DiBiasi opting to revisit his own film. Apparently, he’s the first American film-maker to do so for over fifty years. It seems to have been a decision based on now having more money, DiBiasi saying, “I wouldn’t say it was that there was more story to tell from the first film, but rather that there were ways to tell a bigger story.” The problem is, I never felt a lack of resources was the constraining factor in the original.
The basic idea remains the same. Jessica Lauren (Sula) is the last officer on duty in a police station which is being relocated. There’s a lot of history here, as a year earlier, her father, who was also on the force, killed two fellow officers and committed suicide, after being instrumental in breaking up a cult which had kidnapped young women in the area. Jessica still hasn’t come to terms with this, and there’s friction between her and her colleagues as a result. Almost as soon as she left alone in the (very poorly-lit, naturally) building, noises off and spooky incidents begin. Weirdly behaving visitors arrive; threatening phone-calls, apparently cult-related, occur; a pig (!) is left on the station doorstep.
Things only escalate from there, as she discovers the truth about her father, and his role in the cult. It has been the best part of a decade since I saw Last Shift, but DiBiasi does appear to have pushed that into a different direction. It seemed especially apparent towards the end, where the film makes most use of the additional resources. The director is a protege of Clive Barker, and that does make sense, in terms of the increasingly dark, Satanic atmosphere. However, most of the problems remain unaddressed or poorly so, such as Jessica sticking around long past the point of common sense.
This happens roughly 33 minutes in, I’d say. Not long after, the film has literally to chain the doors of the police-station shut, in order for the rest of the film to happen. The remade version of the character also feels more reactive, and less competent: that’s why the remake is being reviewed here, rather than on GWG. This one’s closest cousin, in tone if not in plot, might be Jacob’s Ladder, with its escalating sense of the central character falling apart as their world becomes similarly unhinged. As before DiBiasi loves him an old-fashioned jump-scare, and as ever, these diminish in effect with re-use. While technically, this is a sound piece of work, with some impressive, practical FX, it never achieved the necessary engagement with my psyche. As a result, it ended up not much more than watching someone creep round dark corridors for 90 minutes, occasionally firing her weapon.