The Last Victim

(2021) The Last Victim SUSPENSE THRILLER

Co-produced, co-written and directed by Naveen A. Chathapuram that has Jake (Ralph Ineson) entering a diner in the middle of the night. He goes in there with two other people waiting for him outside. And only to see a single person, eating by himself we find out his name is Manny Randowski (Tom Stevens). The waitress/ cook of the diner asks Jake what he wants to eat and while she is cooking his food, more babbling occurs and Jake shoots and kill Manny before he kills the lady in the kitchen. Old guy hears this and he comes toward the diner guns a blazing successfully kills one person, injuring the other. Jake succeeds killing him as well. Jake's friend comes in through the door, we find out his name is Snoopy (Paul Belsito). Jake is barking orders to grab the bodies and stick them in the back of their pickup. And upon trying shut the back, he cuts off one of Manny's fingers off. The following morning has the sheriff, Herman Hickey (Ron Pearlman also credited as co- executive producer) notices the finger lying on the ground picks it up before he brings it inside the diner while the other deputy, Mindy Gaboon (Camille Legg) is taking photos. The next scene introduces a young couple of Susan Orden (Ali Larter) and her husband, Richard Orden (Tahmoh Penikett) and are on vacation. We are then introduced to brothers, Bull (Kyle Schmid) and Tad (Dakota Daulby) are practicing shooting at bottles and cans. And as we see what their social life is like, it was during then Jake and Snoopy shows up, and he asks Bull where they can dump the bodies. And Bull suggests them a good place to be is the nature reserve Yay Oola. That also happens to be one of the so called hot spots the couple of Susan and Richard happen to plan to visit. Once they find out it is closed, they decide to drive around the nature reserve anyway. And it is not long before Susan is on the run forcing her to fend for her herself.

This movie would have made a great experimental perhaps as a social commentary project but not as a two hour movie as the movie left viewers with more questions than answers. I mean, I do not mind ambiguity but not that much as this movie have shown, such as why did Jake shot and kill Manny in the first place? Was it about the money or was it about a former girlfriend he had lost to him? And in all places, why shoot and kill him in a diner when their may be other times to kill him. Viewers are obvious the connection of each character considering there isn't a large population. The social commentary occurs at the end but it is like too little too late.

It wasn't a movie you had to watch, but it wasn't bad at all. However, it's a bit boring.

Action was a bit slow. But good movie to watch Friday night. Good job!

That is my recommendation to Hollywood. If you try it, I think you will find it is win win. As for the film, the cinematographer was in love with the locale, every shot is perfectly framed. Perlman could not give a bad performance even if he wanted to. Larter, in her 40s, still connects with the audience. The dog is well played. Basically the kind of film where you spend more time thinking about how to improve it than actually enjoying it.

Hate the drag-on slow pace. A thriller should avoid such slow-burn tempo. The totally unnecessary narration is another letdown, couldn't quite understand why the screenplay or the director needed to insert such unwanted blah, blah, and blah. Camera work is fine but too traditionally cliched and formulaic way of shooting, such as shot the person stepping out of the car, the shoes touching the ground, driver-side car door closed, then the camera following pair of shoes walking forward, the camera following them, then gradually raise up from legs, thighs, to upper body, but still only showing the back of the person...That, really sucks big time, man.

Then, there's a scene showing the sheriff and the female deputy sat on the rear of the police truck eating (lunch or supper?) in broad daylight. Then again, same eating scene, but it's totally dark. How long a meal could be last so long and so slow for just couple of sandwiches? Are the eating scenes that dragged so long for the purpose of building up the tension or just for the purpose to make the movie itself longer? So many unnecessary scenes could be smartly cut off and edited, but no, those scenes just have to stay to fill up the empty on-going. Man, why we have to watch a throw-back deadbeat thriller like this? An eatery in the middle of nowhere still opening for business at late night? It even equipped CCTV? One old woman running the diner?

Also, the killing spree is just kinda clueless and totally exaggerated, just to serve the hollow screenplay.

It's such a shame, this had so much potential, especially with the stellar performances. As a neo-noir wester thriller, this was beautifully shot by Naveen A. Chathapuram in his directorial and writing debut.

But the jointly written story by the three writers was a disjointed convoluted mess, riddled with plot holes, and not as smart or as thrilling as it thought it was. It started off with promise, but the last act became so unbelievably dumb and lazy, that it will leave you feeling you wasted your investment is staring to watch it. I'm baffled how all three writers thought this would be an adequate and thrilling story.

Cinematography was excellent, and the score on point. It's too bad the actors wasted their talents on what could have been really great, but instead was a missed opportunity. It's a generous 5/10, all for the cast and cinematography.