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Released by: Scream Factory
Released on: September 20th, 2024.
Director: Alan Scott Neal
Cast: Jessica Belkin, Taylor Kowalski
Year: 2023
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Last Straw – Movie Review:
The directorial debut of Alan Scott Neal, 2023’s Last Straw introduces us to Nancy (Jessica Belkin), a pregnant twenty-year old who works as the manager at a diner named The Fat Bottom Bistro owned by her father, Edward (Jeremy Sisto). Nancy's mother passed away some time ago and her dad is now ready to start dating again, so he's asked her to cover the night shift. She isn't especially happy about this, but Edward doesn't really give her much of a choice, and lets her know that something is going around and a bunch of the staff have called in sick.
As the evening turns into night proper, Nancy gets into an argument with Jake (Taylor Kowalski), the cook/druggie who works in the kitchen. Despite the fact that they had a friendship once, Nancy is pissed off at Jake enough that, after their argument, she cans him on the spot. Jake talks waiter Bobby (Joji Otani-Hansen) and mentally challenged busboy Petey (Christopher M. Lopes) into leaving with him in protest.
Alone for the rest of the shift, save for a cook (Douglas Sakmann, may he rest in peace), Nancy isn't super thrilled when a quartet of young men on dirt-bikes show up wearing Halloween masks, clearly not just stopping in for a late night coffee. Nancy isn't putting up with this, and so she calls the cops and the guys split - temporarily. It isn't long after that when they return, and then things get ugly.
Set to a great score from an from Alan Palomo, Last Straw opens with Jake making a call to 911, asking for help as he's found Nancy covered in blood and possibly dying. From here, the movie flashes back to the day before and shows us how the characters got to this point. We see that Nancy didn't have the best day before going in to work - she wasn't expecting to be pregnant and suspects that Bobby might be the rather, she doesn't want to work the night shift and on top of that, her car breaks down. We see this play out from Nancy's point of view and then, in an unexpected twist, see it play out again from the point of view of her four attackers. This might sound gimmicky, but Neal manages to make it work fairly well, allowing the audience to appreciate little details that do have an effect on the outcome that they may have missed the first time around.
Throughout all of the bloodshed and mayhem that comes after the initial setup is the recurring theme of empathy. As we get to know the main characters, we understand who they can relate to and why but, just as importantly, who they can't relate to and why. The script from Taylor Sardoni does a pretty good job of giving the characters enough background information that their respective social standing comes into play in the story as well. This, again, ties into their respective abilities to empathize and as they get fed up with their situations, the title choice begins to make sense.
Production values and performances are pretty solid. The makeup effects are well-done and the cinematography from Andrey Nikolaev is quite good, giving what is for all intents and purposes a home invasion thriller placed inside a dinner, some polish that accentuates the tension inherent in some of its key scenes. Jessica Belkin does a solid job in the lead. We don’t always like her character, we’re probably not supposed to, but she doesn’t deserve what happens to her. Likewise, Taylor Kowalski as Jake can come across as a jackass more often than not, and we can’t always buy the friendship that’s supposed to exist between these two performers, but he handles the material well enough. Supporting work from Jeremy Sisto, an underused Douglas Sakmann and a scene stealing Christopher M. Lopes are also noteworthy, and the four young men who play Nancy’s attackers also do a solid job. On top of that, it’s paced well and builds to an interesting conclusion.
Note that Last Straw comes to select theaters and digital on September 20th, 2024. There is currently no news of a physical release for the film.
Last Straw - The Final Word:
Last Straw is an effective and sometimes even thought provoking horror picture that manages to offer some scenes of strong tension and effective gore alongside well-written characters, resulting in a genre picture worth checking out.