Last Night at Terrace Lanes

Trying to hold a dare night, a couple of friends decide to sneakily hold a date at a bowling alley where her dad works where they find the festivities interrupted by a gang of ravenous cultists looking to fulfill a special prophecy and force them to rely on their survivalist skills to stay alive and stop them.

This was a fairly fun slasher with a lot to like here. Among the better features here is the solid and likable setup that puts everything into place with enough elements to have a solid starting point. The initial start here with the group arriving at the closing facility to try to have the chance to hook up with each other since the couples are secretly in love with the other against their knowledge but she can't let them know the truth about her dad being a worker there sets this one up rather well. It's enough to enjoy the human drama of the situation as the couples try to make their moves on each other in the date which makes everything with the intruding cult looking to use the inhabitants to fulfill a prophecy in their order and begin to slaughter everyone for that purpose that all propels the film along nicely. That allows the film to feature a wide variety of encounters with the cult trying to take over the facility killing off the various guests. The initial ambush when they emerge from the bowling lanes in unison and take out the guests in gruesome, brutal encounters all throughout the central lanes as the surprise of the whole scenario allows them to take advantage to great effect. The later scenes, where the group are able to fight back against the cult with their survivalist tactics or the cult trying to overwhelm the group with their superior numbers as they try to complete their mission statement behind the slaughter, not only generate several solid gags based on the location for it's kills but has enough to like with the light-hearted atmosphere to keep things moving along to a fantastic pace, providing a lot to really like about it. There's not much that holds this one down. The main issue with this one is the seemingly underwhelming structure about the cult itself who are pretty much left to the barest of threads to figure out what they're all about. Given just a glimmer of their purpose in the cold open that never really answers anything about them or what they're all about, the entirety of their assault at the bowling alley is glossed over as well and is pretty much given a barely there explanation about needing bodies to finish this special event in their lore but that is never spelled out. This makes everything feel quite confusing and rather underwhelming about who they are and what they're doing, and it highlights what happens in the finale which is quite confusing to see plat out with no context as it serves to conveniently get everything sorted out without doing anything so there's just a few issues here to being it down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

I won't lie, I wasn't expecting a masterpiece here. The film was clearly made with an indie budget, and I went in knowing and respecting that. I'm also a huge fan of novelist Adam Cesare, who wrote this film (although not the original story).

The first 30 minutes or so had me hooked - the cult was creepy, their motive was mysterious, and the confined setting of a bowling alley is perfect for a close-quarters slasher. At a certain point, it started to completely fall apart. Horrible acting by the lead guy in particular. I wasn't sure if they made his character intentionally ridiculous or not but it did not serve the film - he was neither funny nor convincing.

And after a cringe-worthy climax, the movie literally just sort of ends. No explanation. What was the goal of the cult? What was their grand mathematical plan? A lack of explanation can be very effective, leaving certain things to the viewers' imaginations. This was not the case here.

Horror comedies are obviously difficult to make - they mostly end up either filled with jump scares or too much "comedy" that rarely, if ever, sticks the landing.

Steer clear of this one, but don't let that stop you from checking out Cesare's novels - the man knows horror and he knows how to write it well.

When I stumbled upon the 2024 horror comedy "Last Night at Terrace Lanes" here in 2024, I immediately was drawn to it, given the movie's cover/poster, which looked like something from the campy and cheesy 1980s. And the horror movies were plentiful and enjoyable back then, so of course I opted to sit down to watch this movie, even without ever having heard about it.

The storyline in "Last Night at Terrace Lanes", as written by Adam Cesare and Jenna St. John, was watchable enough for what it turned out to be. However, I would be lying if I said that I wasn't disappointed with the overall impression of the movie. The narrative was just a bit too mundane and generic. And the movie was fully and wholly without comedy, so it wasn't much of a horror comedy. And since "Last Night at Terrace Lanes" wasn't exactly a proper horror movie either, then the movie was somewhat of a bland experience.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but the actors and actresses actually managed to put on fair enough acting performances, despite the fact of not having all that much material to work with from writers Adam Cesare and Jenna St. John.

There was actually a fair amount of blood, violence and good old fashioned mayhem in "Last Night at Terrace Lanes", and that certainly helped to make it bearable to sit through the 75 minutes that the movie ran for.

Ultimately, I was disappointed with what director Jamie Nash delivered with this 2024 movie. And while I did manage to sit through the ordeal, then I can in all honesty say that this is not a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time. Nor is it a movie that I would recommend for fans of horror comedy to rush out and get to watch.

My rating of "Last Night at Terrace Lanes" lands on a very generous four out of ten stars.

Something of an 80s vibe, but with gore effects even more primitive than what was being done in that decade. A lot of the people we're introduced to get killed pretty quickly. The kills themselves are quick too, no bother being taken to add any suspense. The bowling alley location felt underutilized, like they should have taken more time to study the place and storyboard.

Having a Heaven's Gate-esque cult was a decent idea.

"Grab Your Balls, We're Going Bowling" was an amusing song.

Francesca Capaldi is certainly cute. She's not given much to do. None of the characters here have depth or development.

I can't recommend it. Best advice that could be given to a prospective viewer would be to keep looking elsewhere. Odds are pretty good that they'll be able to hit on something better.

Really enjoyed this thriller! Keeps you on edge of your seat , I don't scare easily but this had me jumping! The scenes were gory , and had me wondering what could happen next! I recognized a few actors from other shows and movies , so it was refreshing to see them in a different light. Had a few hero funny moments too! Definitely worth the watch. Especially if you're familiar with the area it was made and you bowled at this establishment. Very nostalgic and brought back memories from when I was a kid at the bowling alley and hanging with my friends laughing and listening to music! Great job to all that was involved. I enjoyed it!