Director Alan Scott Neal serves up a home-invasion style slasher with more than a few twists when a group of masked assailants terrorise a lone waitress in her rural diner.
Opening with a lengthy dialogue, the crass back and forth between the young waitress and her mate sets the tone for what will follow. Nancy is something of a free spirit, some might say a little obnoxious, but headstrong, nevertheless. Her friend Tabitha, perhaps marginally more palatable. The two talk about their sexual conquests with plenty of talk about small dicks, and then following this rather brash introduction, we are introduced to Nancy’s place of work, and her equally unappealing workmates.
On a particular shift, after dealing with some rather unpleasant customers at the ‘Big Bottom diner’, things only get worse for Nancy. A group of thugs harass and refuse to leave the premises, then her work friends all get shitty leading to further confrontation.
That evening when Nancy is all alone, she finds herself besieged with no one to turn to for help, and we find ourselves assailed by familiar ‘home-invasion’ tropes.
The film is consistently and deliberately abrupt. The characters are all thoroughly unlikeable by design and the whole tone and atmosphere in the movie is one which reeks of downtrodden anxiety and desperation; befitting the films backwoods location.
I felt the films atmosphere was a definite strength, this includes the films authentic locations and overall style, and whilst I found the characters initially jarring, I got that I was supposed to and persevered.
The film clearly wanted you to do so, as the film has its fair share of plot-twists which show at least an intent to offer something more than typical genre-fayre.
To an extent the movie does succeed and whilst the films twists and turns are welcome, the only issue I really had was that they didn’t make much difference to the films overall inevitable adherence to the genre play book.
As you’d expect, Nancy must survive a range of escalating threats, starting off both outnumbered and outgunned, and then as the threat escalates her confidence (and character) builds.
To this end the film does a serviceable job, and whilst none of the movies violent content is either standout or original, the pace and tone of the movie is kept consistent with some violent, bloody assaults involving knifes and other opportunist weapons.
As the film goes on, the characters dwindle and their identity becomes less and less important, and this poses my only real gripe with the film; there isn’t much of a point to it.
I recognize that most slashers/home invasion movies aren’t really head-scratchers, but the ‘Last Straw’ struggles to offer even a shred of a subplot or even the most basic of redemption arcs. Nothing.
Whilst I wouldn’t specifically criticize the movie for any specific feature or critical failing, I equally find myself struggling for points to recommend it on either. Overall, the ‘Last Straw’ is a perfectly OK home invasion slasher. Its more on the bloody side than the creepy, and for fans its going to deliver exactly what you expect, but it lacks any identity of its own, especially when considered against heavy weight hits of the genre or even contemporary examples such as ‘Hush’. That said, for a debut feature, there are far worse efforts, and I could see it being a good opener for a movie night.
