Punch

If you can get past the atrocious script/dialogue and some wooden acting, you're still left with a film that isn't sure if it's a seaside-town drama or a horror film. The first 50 minutes is more of a seaside teen drama, not a horror.

It comes across like it was written by a 14-year-old for English homework, with an assumption that using a scattergun approach of throwing in out-of-place swearing, references to TikTok, Instagram, knife-possessing teens, wokeness, gentrication, hippie/hipsters, veganism, a male and female gay couple, and drug taking makes it relevant and cool.

Really it just makes it laughably forced and ridiculous, it's like they've gone down a checklist and thrown it all in for no reason.

Visually it's nicely shot but unfortunately that doesn't make up for the dull schizophrenic storyline, the hilarously bad dialogue and the ridiculousness of events and conversations that unfold.

Nobody seems to question why there's a guy walking around in a "scary" mask with a bloodied baseball bat, they're instead all super friendly with him and even recording him on their phones; at one point a girl watches her friend getting killed but instead of running away waits around to be next, another keeps shouting her boyfriend's name while trying to hide from the killer, to name just some of the eye-roll inducing script-writing.

There's a particularly comedic performance by two policeman, one of which doesn't seem to care that the girl has a massive bloody handprint on her hoodie, and his partner that after seeing him gets bludgeoned just gets back in his police car and drives the killer off in his passenger seat like nothing has happened.

The identity of the killer was obvious and the reason for all the killing was at least consistently stupid/ridiculous.

As a horror fan I'm adept at suspending my disbelief, but it's so ridiculous even that's not possible. Especially the hilariously stupid ending.

Give it a watch if you think I might be wrong, but don't be surprised if you come out of it wanting the 81 minutes of your life back.

Trying to move on with her life, a teen returning to a small town with her feuding family and old friends tries to catch up with them about what they've been doing since she's been away, but when the festivities are crashed by a masked killer has to find the reason for the rampage and stop him.

This was a fairly fun slasher that does have a few drawbacks. What works rather well here is the somewhat intriguing setup that provides a great small-town folklore for the resulting shenanigans. The initial story about the childhood interactions with the figure offers a touch of the local lore in the area with how they first encountered the story of the mythical figure offers a fine way to wrap this localized figure around the secondary story about the struggles of the family and meeting up with her old friends still in town. These are fine enough at presenting the traditional returning towns member who's trying to catch up with the comings and goings of her old crew about how much they've changed since she's been away storyline while still keeping just enough of a focus on the killer running around the outskirts of the situation to make the traditional slasher setup worthwhile. There's also a rather fun series of immensely fun encounters where the imposing killer takes to the random friends and townspeople she crosses paths with. The initial encounters here, whether the confrontation with the harbinger under the pier or the stellar confrontation with the drunken bride and bridesmaid out on the town, provide a strong starting point to get to know the brutality of the killer here. As it takes far more increasingly brutal and graphic confrontations later on such as the rampage in a neon-lit nightclub or a series of bashings that take place at a seaside gathering, the action here becomes incredibly fun with plenty of atmospheric stalking, brutal kills, and some enjoyable one-liners to add some comedy to the proceedings. Combined with the frantic finale where the reveal of the killer comes across rather nicely with a fleshed-out backstory alongside some standout chases, there's quite a lot to like here. The film doesn't have much wrong with it but there are some issues. One of the main detriments is the rather British context for what's going on here that can get lost in translation. This is quite important as it includes why the killer dons the specific mask or how it ties into the motivation for everything at the end which is a bit too localized to have much universal appeal or recognition. Those that will get it won't have an issue here, while an equally problematic and more accessible one is the irritating ability to always have the killer attack others in pairs which results in one standing around watching as the killer takes out one of them. It happens several times throughout here and is equally frustrating everytime it occurs here, and alongside the somewhat sluggish first half setting up the plotlines to come that are necessary for everything even in this context are what hold this down slightly.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity, and drug use.

What starts out looking like a pretty standard slasher it soon becomes its own thing. Yes there are clear influences from classic horror movies but not just the Hollywood slashers you'd expect.

A very British movies, with some familiar faces from UK TV and horror movies. The cast are all great, especially the 3 newcomers who are the leads. So well shot, seaside towns can be as eerie as hell,the soundtrack adds to the atmosphere. Violent but not too over the top and when it's meant to be it is very funny.

I rarely say this nowadays, but I really hope it becomes a franchise. The ending left me begging for more.

Watched at Dead and SudBuried 2023.

Saw this today at the Bournemouth horror movie film festival "screams by the sea" Loved it. I wont spoil it other than to say it builds into a fantastic movie with some great twists along the way. I thought the cinematography was spot on, some great drone shot and performances by the actors. It showed a very bleak looking dying northern seaside town and the reality of living in a place like that. The killer was genuinely disturbing, my only negative, the way the audio was mixed (or maybe it was the speakers at the venue) you could only understand about 30% of what the protagonist was saying. Recommended.

The visuals in the movie are actually good, but the rest is so bad it doesn't matter by the end. Killer is hard to understand at times with the electro-voice box, characters don't react as they should to events in front of them, and the kills are all boring except for the one with the redhead on the dock. Ending was puzzling and an attempt at a twist I guess. The twist was it didn't make sense or work at all. End credits say 'Mr. Punch will be back' so the makers seemed pretty confident they made a franchise starter. Um, no. It's nice that the friends of the crew gave the movie 8s out of 10, but watch it and you'll want to have a little talk with them afterwards. In the end, I watched this on Tubi, so free streaming. I still want my money back.