Last Straw

Last Straw'ss story is not entirely unique, there is a simple setup of a home invasion movie but instead of a normal house it's a Diner. Also the movie introduces a few things that I didn't expect but that weren't entirely unpredictable. The main character is flawed and it's a little bit hard to root for her but since she is making it through a very tough time in her life you get where her anger is coming from. But that doesn't explain her extremely stupid decisions throughout the movie. There were multiple scenes where she did something so dumb that a part of me just wanted to see her being killed. I don't mind when characters don't always make the most logical decisions since they are not sitting in front of a screen watching the movie, but instead are in a life threatening situation. But in this case it was really hard to root for her because of her constant stupidity. On the other hand there are also characters that just act unreasonable. This made it really hard to really concentrate on what was going on in the movie and therefore that effectively harmed the enjoyment of watching. Speaking of, I mostly enjoyed the movie and I was rarely bored which is nice. On a technical level the movie was also pretty solid and the acting was mostly pretty decent . However the final result is not to overwhelming and like I said at times you just want to slap some of the characters to come to their senses. [5,5/10]

Last Straw: Noirish film which segues into horror. We know from the opening scenes that there has been a massacre at a diner, then we go back 24 hours to find out how it came about. Nancy (Jessica Belkin) is having a bad day, she finds out that she's pregnant, her car breaks down on the way to work. When she gets to the diner owned by her father he tells her that she is also going to have to work the night shift (seeing as she is manager) as someone has called in sick. The day gets worse, mask wearing teens on mopeds harass her, bring roadkill into the doner, threaten that they will be back. She argues with the cook, sacks him. Now she will be alone on the night shift. As the night arrives the mask wearers return and freak her out, she calls the cops but the one that arrives is startled when she mentions mopeds. Then the real terror starts. Nothing is ever quite what it seems here as we observe the same scenes replayed from different points of view and more information is elicited. There are quite a few gruesome killings but Nancy isn't just a victim. Meat tenderisers, carving knives and pans of hot oil are quite effective as weapons. The results can be disturbing though and this is not a film for the squeamish. Hampered a bit by it;d low budget it nevertheless makes good use if the diner as a battleground and hunting area. A few interesting plot twists make this a Final Girl film worth watching. Directed by Alan Scott Neal, Written by Taylor Sardoni. 7/10.

This was better than most "horror/slasher/thriller" movies that have been released in the last few years. Sure it's not perfect and there are plot holes everywhere but I think that's meant to be deliberate considering who the protagonists are (backwoods americans).

There are some decent twist and turns and the story is easy enough to follow if you pay attention and use your brain.

The main actress, Jessica Belkin, carries the movie with her performance and I thought suited the character nicely. The other actors all put in decent performances.

I think the other reviewers here are expecting some big hollywood production with the same boring storyline and cgi. It's a good movie and goes for a good length of time.

What starts out as a 'siege' thriller develops into something rather original in its dissection into small midwestern lives of bored teenagers with nothing to do, ampted up on meds for bio polar and depression , smoking crack for release, and with limited funds; it also works as a pertinent tale of pranking gone wrong . Something young people should see and learn from!

It may bore those looking for gore and masked intruders looking to settle scores but that would be derivative , what it proposes is how these bored teenagers act- ok it ain't Rivers Edge but it's sharp and different.

The chilly photography and sparse soundtrack work well and whilst the title Last Straw works the (?) original title 'The Late Shift' works better.

I would have given this a 7/8 had it not been for the essentially braindead and completely unnecessary last 20 minutes. It's not the worst thing ever so would recommend giving this a view but the end was completely illogical. The acting was good, the story was good but the ending really spoils it. Everything that was built before was 'realistic' as far as a horror movie can be including decisions by characters etc but then they just decided to just mess it up by making the well woven main characters do things that completely takes you out of the movie and say 'wait, why, wtf'. The director could have done really well with this but decided to trope out.