Last Shift

Last Shift was a nice little surprise, yes it's low-budget & straight-to-dvd but it's better than you would think.

Last Shift is about rookie police officer Jessica Loren (an really good JULIANA HARKAVY) who has been assigned the last shift at a closing down police station & must wait for a hazard crew to collect biochemical evidence. That crew will come at some point through the night & into the early morning hours & Jessica is told not to leave the premises under any circumstances but no one knew that the old police station would be a nightmare of horrific incidents that terrorise poor Jessica. I loved the simple setup, just like how great John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 was in a similar setup, but here the threat comes from inside the closing down police station & not from outside. Actress Juliana Harkavy is great & she is the main focus & the lead solo star of the entire film & she holds everything together & she's excellent to be honest. Juliana gives a strong woman performance but also has the vulnerable & emotional sides to be totally believable, a great actress that i had never seen before so she's an unknown new comer to me & a damn good one.

The scary stuff is all done so well by director Anthony Diblasi (a director that's new to me) & he crafted a psychological horror with the police procedural thriller & made a real treat. I love films set over a night shift (i really like The Possession of Hannah Grace) & someone who has to deal with strange happenings. There's creepy cult stuff going on here & horrific ghostly figures & lots of psychological torment that our rookie endures throughout this night shift. This is a slower paced horror that concentrates on building suspense & an atmosphere of fear & dread & uses its isolated setting to unnerve us, as we feel for rookie Jessica & want her to get the hell outta there. Last Shift makes for a great late-night movie.

I was pleasantly surprised by this little horror gem, a simple setup, a strong lead & a gory good time.

Will Jessica survive the night? Check it out.

"And the commotion the next morning... I got a glimpse into their cell. And the bodies were gone. But...pure evil covered those walls."

My first thought after watching "Last Shift" was : "Damn, Jessica Loren surely deserves a medal for her perseverance". If I was in her shoes I would have abandoned that police station the first second while putting up my middle finger to Sergeant Cohen. I wouldn't stay there a minute longer. But despite all suspicious noises, apparitions and supernatural events, she remains loyal to her post. Is she afraid to fail in her task so she won't be allowed to join the force ? Or doesn't she want to be inferior to what her father meant as a police officer in the past?

I must admit however that it's been a long time since I've seen such an extremely creepy film, although everything is soberly portrayed and there's minimal use of special effects. A rookie is trapped in an office all alone without a living soul to keep her company. All she has to do is get through the night until a cleaning crew arrives in the morning to clean up abandoned evidence. The end result is a series of terrifying scenes, terrifying noises and disturbing images. The film even managed to scare the crap out of me sometimes. Something I'm normally totally immune for.

Despite it being a low-budget film and it all takes place in one place only, they still made very good use of (although well known) horror techniques to make a lengthy horror-trip out of it. Maybe that's already a minor flaw. It all took too long. But eventually it was scary and creepy with a threatening atmosphere and constantly ominous. Especially the gradual tension buildup was successful. The full story is patiently clarified. Although I'm sick and tired of paranormal movies, I was pleasantly surprised.

Juliana Harkavy carries the whole movie in a convincing way. The movie focuses practically entirely on her. Even the group of crazy devil worshipers who start to haunt Jessica can only be admired briefly. There was even a sort of "Sixth Sense" moment with the assistance of police officer Ryan Price (Matt Doman). I just wondered what the tramp actually had to do with it all. Did he just pass by in search of his shoes? A rather bizarre person who served as filling. And despite their brief appearance the three Paymon family members were convincing enough to conclude that this family was extremely insane. Bloodcurdling testimonies which leave nothing to the imagination.

Unfortunately, the end ruined it all again. Uninspired and in terms of originality certainly not of the same level as the rest of the movie. The rest was certainly of a high level. Both the structure of the story, the sound effects and the editing were excellent in this psychological terror film

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Rookie cop Jessica Loren (Juliana Harkavy) spends her first shift manning the desk at a soon-to-be-decommissioned police station, waiting for a clean-up team to come and dispose of some hazardous material. Inexplicable occurrences turn Jessica's first night on the job into a nightmare, as it becomes apparent that the cop shop is haunted by the ghosts of murderous cultists who committed suicide there, as well as the restless spirits of their victims (including Jessica's own father).

A person left alone in a creepy haunted location is hardly a groundbreaking idea for a horror film (indeed, this film reminds me a lot of a film I saw a few nights ago, The Possession of Hannah Grace), and the majority of the time is spent watching Jessica investigating the rooms and corridors of the station after hearing strange noises. It all becomes very repetitive, director Anthony DiBlasi resorting to mechanical jump scares to keep his audience from zoning out entirely. Harkavy does a pretty good job, looking convincingly disturbed by what she is experiencing, but one does wonder what it would take for Loren to call it quits and get the hell out of dodge. I think that a bloody levitating corpse with a bag on its head would be enough for me chuck in my badge and call it a night.

Jessica, however, is made of sterner stuff and sticks it out to the end, which doesn't work out that well for her. Sometimes, it's better to be a coward and live to see another day.

For a seemingly very indi movie on a low budget made almost ten years ago, the creepiness in this really held up. I think this was quite successful in its own right, but more so than anything I seem to be focused on is the potential this has.

The story was not wildly original, but still interesting a pretty captivating. It was chock full of scares and creepiness. Sure, some of it was cheap/cliche and definitely had too many jump scares, but a lot of it was pretty darn dope.

Again, I don't want to seem like I am hating on this, because I'm not, but if this was redone with some tweaks I think it could be a real banger. A little more elaboration on the backstory would really set up the scene and felt a little lacking in the beginning. Also just really fleshing out the storyline because there were definitely some parts that felt silly or like potential plot holes. Also with a higher budget is going to come a better quality picture and better effects which on both fronts I think it would really benefit from. Also the acting was... not amazing. Main girl did not do a BAD job, she just didn't fully sell me on the terror. Also I wasn't wild about the ending but it wasn't offensive.

Regardless of its potential, this movie as is was entertaining and definitely creepy. Would recommend.

I've been meaning to watch this for a while, and since it's October, seemed like time.

Overall it wasn't a bad movie. Nothing really too surprising in it...typical of this type of movie where you never know what may be real or in the characters head.

What was impressive was the use of light. Almost all of it is in a building with white walls and decently lit hallways, yet there are areas of pure darkness. Whoever did the lighting for this movie did an amazing job.

The whole movie just has a very uncomfortable vibe to it, but very few jump-style scares. (or at least not to me...I've seen so many of these I can pretty much call out when there will be one).

The main actress does a pretty good job. For the most part, she is the movie. She has an interesting job to play between scared and someone assuming she's tired. Other characters are such bit parts that you don't get much opinion, other than the guy playing Sgt Cohen. Guy nails being a jerk!