All My Friends Are Dead - New Release Review
Director: Marcus Dunston
Starring: Jade Pettyjohn, Jennifer Ens, JoJo Siwa, Justin Derickson, Ali Fumiko Whitney, Julian Haig
Written by: Josh Sims, Jessica Sarah Flaum, John Baldecchi
Produced by: John Baldecchi, Sarah Donnelly, Stephanie Rennie, Kirk Shaw
Cinematography by: Andy Hodgson
Original Score by: Mike Thomas
Synopsis:
A group of college friends rent an Airbnb for the biggest music festival of the year. A weekend of partying quickly takes a turn, as the group is murdered one by one.
Thoughts:
Marcus Dunston loves a wee trap doesn't he? From the Director of 'The Collector' and co-writer of 'Saw IV', 'V,' 'VI' and 'Saw 3D' comes a modern slasher for the streaming generation that borrows from 'I Know What You Did Last Summer', 'Se7en' and of course the 'Saw' franchise. And it's really a film of two halves of varied quality.
Jade Pettyjohn stars as Sarah, the newest member of a group of friends who are all travelling to the Karmapalooza music festival. But on the way, a tyre from their borrowed van pops and they must rent an Airbnb for the night until they get a replacement. The house they manage to nab at the last minute is basically a mansion in the middle of nowhere but the gang get to work quickly picking bedrooms, getting drunk and preparing for the amazing night they all think they're going to have. Sadly things don't turn out the way they expect as each of them gets taken out one by one in bizarre traps influenced by the seven deadly sins. Clearly this house picked them, not the other way about.
'All My Friends Are Dead' is a very stylish, trendy take on the slasher genre that actually really kicks into gear in the final third but unfortunately the first two thirds are deathly dull and quite tedious to watch. The characters are all horrible. They're all either influencers and people obsessed with living their lives for the benefit of other people or the often overused stoner and sex addict characters. Not one of them are likeable and I guess that's the point since they're all going to be just slabs of meat eventually but it still makes it difficult to get through.
With the exception of an overlong and honestly slightly overwhelming prologue featuring JoJo Siwa's character, nothing of note happens until about 28 minutes in and by that stage I had already decided that I despised every single one of these horrible human beings. Sarah is the protagonist and she's the only one I didn't want to kill myself and it's even baffling why some of this group are friends with each other.
I want to stay away from spoilers here because the reveal towards the finale is quite convuluted and drawn out. As mentioned above I actually enjoyed the final stretch of the film and the 'Scream' like revelation, which has become an almost necessary part of any slasher, is decent.
The acting is quite poor until the serious shit starts to hit the fan. Shout out to Jade Pettyjohn and Jennifer Ens who really shine during the highly tense sequences, but for the most part there's little to invest in. There's some laughable scenes that really don't feel like they fit in here at all and the killer traps, that are supposed to be deep and meaningful and add some mythos and substance to the deaths, don't have the desired effect. The deadly sins gimmick felt pointless.
The killer's mask is awesome and a cool, fairly original aspect of the film but I'm not a fan of this trend where mobile phone screens pop up or the overuse of internet browser tabs on-screen. It rarely looks good and feels like a bit of a cop out unless done correctly. However I do understand that with the mask and phone/internet visuals, it was a constant reminder that today's society just cannot survive in a screenless world.
The last 20 minutes is fun and entertaining enough but I think most people will struggle to even get to that point. 'All My Friends Are Dead' is difficult to take seriously but not funny or tongue-in-cheek enough to watch with a big smile on your face, it sort of lands somewhere in the middle and is less than because of it.
Verdict: ⭐️⭐️
-Gavin Logan
'#AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead' is available on Digital on November 18th from 101 Films
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