A Review of ‘Last Straw’: A workaday attempt at bloody horror
A waitress at an isolated diner is in for a night of terror when unidentified assailants show up.
‘Last Straw’: A workaday attempt at bloody horror
Cast: Jessica Belkin, Taylor Kowalski, Joji Otani-Hansen, Christopher M. Lopes, Jeremy Sisto, Glen Gould, Michael Giannone, Tara Raani, Brian Wolfe, Jack DiFalco, Sebastian Delascasas, Cole Tristan Murphy, Levon Panek, Kayla Harrity, Iryna Scarola, Doug Sakmann
Critic’s Rating: 2.5 Stars out of 5
Director: Alan Scott Neal
Duration: 1 hour, 22 minutes
Genre: Horror/Thriller/Mystery
Language: English
Release: 2023
What’s it about?
A waitress at an isolated diner is in for a night of terror when unidentified assailants show up.
Review:
Last Straw is a disappointing slasher/horror flick with a fair amount of gore but not hardly enough chills. Though it plays around with narrative timelines and flashbacks, the plot development is somewhat predictable and the characters are not particularly interesting. There are confrontations, intimidations and warnings, but the payoff is hardly worth the attempt at building suspense. This flick is nothing more than a mediocre “stab” (pardon the pun) at making a bloody shocker with an implausible twist (of the knife) towards the end. Still, fans of the genre may be inclined to keep watching even though the slim surprises might not warrant their full attention.
The story opens with a 911 distress phone call over images of perforated human bodies. Then, the film switches to the previous morning with the young and attractive Nancy (Jessica Belkin) discovering she is pregnant - news she almost nonchalantly shares with her confidante Tabs (Tara Raani). What’s more, the expectant mother (and compulsive partyer) can only conjecture as to who has knocked her up. Later that morning, it’s the start of another day of waitressing at the small town diner that her father - Edward Osbourne (Jeremy Sisto) - owns. Or is it to be just another dull day on the job? To begin with, her late mother’s car breaks down en route and her Dad informs her that she has to work the nightshift with the shady Jake (Taylor Kowalski).
Even though the patriarchal Mr. Osbourne has just promoted his daughter to manager, Nancy doesn’t seem to be getting the respect befitting the post. It seems her only real ally at the eatery is her fellow co-worker Bobby (Joji Otani-Hansen). In fact, the young man has the hots for her, but the sentiment isn’t exactly mutual. This, despite the fact that they both like partying. After her Pop leaves the place in Nancy’s charge, a gang of masked teenage trouble-makers invade the diner, and that too, with the decaying carcass of a dead animal. A flustered Nancy makes a phone call to the cops, which coerces the youngsters to leave - albeit with a parting threat that they will “be back”.
Having had enough of Jake’s mockery, Nancy abruptly gives him the sack. He, his spastic brother Petey (Christopher M. Lopes), Bobby and a couple of other employees split - effectively leaving her to do the nightshift alone. As night falls, the silence at the diner is eerily broken with rattling on the windows. In response to a panicked 911 call from Nancy, Sheriff Brooks shows up in his cop car. Though not exactly sympathetic to the distraught young lady’s complaint, he sticks around. What follows are chases in and around the diner, traded blows, wielded knives, identity revelations, and of course, bloodshed. We also see the events of the preceding hours from another point of view, which leads to the face-off with Nancy.
This turning of a diner into a fortress is not as scary as it should be, neither are the instances of danger “creeping up” on the imperilled characters. However, the film’s saving grace to some extent, is Bilken’s frightened yet feisty performance as the preyed-upon Nancy. But the perpetrator/perpetrators’ actions are lacking a convincing degree of motivation. It’s hard to image they would go off the rails so suddenly and without any real provocation. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the cinematography, background music and editing, are at best, uneven. The food served at this diner would be more appetising than the horror it dishes out. Yet, if 80 minutes of moderate jolts is what you want, you couldn’t do much worse than Last Straw.
