It seems fitting to close this feature with our closing film and what a blast it was. One of the most hyped and anticipated films of the festival it certainly didn’t disappoint and really blew the festival out with a bang! Tyler MacIntyre’s follow up to his successful 2015 hit Patchwork is fun, original, highly entertaining and just super cool.

 

MacIntyre’s slasher comedy borrows from the likes of SCREAM, MEAN GIRLS, and HEATHERS but puts his own incredibly authentic stamp on it. Seniors McKayla (Alexandra Shipp) and Sadie (Brianna Hildebrand) aren’t your typical High School students. They are obsessed with popularity and being at the top of their social media game, namely as murder investigators. They have taken this to levels so extreme that they have used their online show to send their town into a chaotic frenzy and make sure they go down as ferocious legends. However, the deaths in this town mysteriously begin increasing and they become embroiled at the centre of it all.

 

Right from the opening credits sequence you know this is going to be something special. Its slick soundtrack and bright colours lay the foundations for a smart and stylish take on the slasher. This is down to MacIntyre’s smooth direction and genuine love of horror movies. It is also down to the dynamic duo of Shipp and Hildebrand. Both young actresses on the rise, they were snubbed just before they got too in demand and thankfully so, as they are simply superb!

 

Shipp brings a fiery persona to the pair; determined and ambitious yet also still showing her youth and innocence amongst the mayhem that ensues. Hildebrand on the other hand begins fanatical and flaming but gradually shows more of a sensitive and gentle side to her character and in return manages to get us on side.

 

As the maestro Alan Jones said at the screening: ‘These are characters you don’t like but really you do!’ That’s the beauty of this film; it takes the classic iconography of the slasher – gory deaths, unsympathetic characters and silly decisions – and turns it on its head so we actually root for the killers. The script is dazzling and the aesthetics are alluring; you almost wish you could jump into the film itself. The only real fault – and I’m struggling here – would be that perhaps there could have been more of a showdown at the end and it became a bit predictable in the last quarter but this is a really minor criticism in a film that otherwise ticks all the boxes and then some.