(ESP-ENG) Last Straw | Murders everywhere - Movie Review!
Hello friends, good vibes to all.
I've always thought that movies should be more efficient when it comes to telling their stories, stop giving so many twists and turns and get to the point, and many times films are guilty of dead content or filler and make them last two hours and more. Last Straw is the perfect example of this, a film of less than an hour and a half that tells a story of survival in the middle of a deadly siege full of murders. It has to be said that this is a totally random film that I picked up on the side and found to be very straightforward and effective; that's not to say it was good but at least it fulfills the premise of being a psycho-horror film with gore to match.
Nancy (Jessica Belkin) is a young woman who works at her dad's diner as a waitress, a thankless job that she dislikes but does anyway. She was recently appointed as the manager of the business, somewhat against her will. In a fit of authority and to make herself respected, she decides to fire one of the employees, perhaps the one who had been there the longest, which causes some dissatisfaction and discomfort with the rest of the workers. To complete that terrible day for her, her father asks her to work the night shift, which means staying alone in a place in the middle of the road in some town in the United States.
All this is the perfect recipe for a horror movie to gain momentum. It turns out that in the middle of the night our dear Nancy begins to experience certain things that make her nervous and it seems that in that town there is a group of young people without a job who are dedicated to bother anyone who crosses them but especially her. The reality is that little by little everything becomes darker and murkier to the point that jokes are no longer funny and it becomes a struggle for survival, a struggle full of death and blood. I always start watching this kind of movies with curiosity because I don't know anything about them and I don't know where the plot is going to go; having said that, I have to admit that I was surprised by the background, maybe not so much by the form.
It's the typical mass murder horror thriller, if you've seen one before you can more or less get an idea of how it goes. Being something short it doesn't beat around the bush, it's true that in the middle of everything they put a part of the story to give the necessary context but for me that lowered the intensity with which it came. It is also true that this plot change surprised me, I honestly did not expect it, I think it was a plus for the story. In this genre, anguish and desperation are handled, things that are a little appreciated here and that make the fim a little more enjoyable. The truth is I didn't get bored, I thought it was going to happen but it didn't.
The plot as such does have its inconsistencies, its holes in the script that make you question many things, as is normal in this type of film. It has its gore scenes with the respective blood, it is nothing alarming but as always it gives it a certain showiness and makes everything slightly more entertaining to watch. Talking about the script we should refer to the characters. Lucy I liked, I think she acted well, she did everything the character asked of her, a performance full of drama and anxiety. Now, Jake (Taylor Kowalsk) if for me leaves much to be desired, not his acting but the construction of his character, for me is a bit meaningless the decisions he makes, weird and rushed. You understand why but he does it but that's as far as it goes, with more coherence it would have been better achieved. And well, one of the most anticlimactic endings I've seen.
In short, just another film in the pile that is perfect to watch and disconnect, that's all. It's not terrible because there are worse ones, but it's not a masterpiece of cinema. I give it 5.5/10. I feel like I wasted my time but it could have been much better. It's an hour and 20 minutes long. I leave the trailer here.
¡Un abrazo a todos, nos vemos en la próxima!
Well my people that's all for today, I hope you liked it.
¡A hug to everyone, see you next time!