OPEN 24 HOURS (2018)
Mary (Leatherface’s Vanessa Grasse) is on probation and suffering from paranoid delusions after setting her serial killer boyfriend James (Cole Vigue) on fire. Trying to get her life back together, Mary lands a job on the night shift of a 24 hour gas station convenience store in the middle of nowhere. Strange things starts to occur and Mary starts to think someone is stalking her on her first night. Is it her hallucinations acting up? Has a scarred and vengeful James somehow gotten out of prison?…or has someone else indeed targeted the young woman?
Flick is written and directed by Padraig Reynolds (Rites of Spring, Dark Light) and if you can overlook a few plot-holes, like a police officer’s death, and thus disappearance, not alerting anyone at the PD to send more cops, this is an intense, suspenseful and sometimes bloody violent flick. Reynolds establishes Mary’s tendency to hallucinate very well and then plays with the concept, so even we aren’t sure what Mary is really seeing, even though we know someone dangerous is indeed out there. There are some red herrings as to who that someone may be and once things really get going, there is a nasty and intense last act, as Mary confronts the individual who has targeted her and has been killing anyone near the gas station. There is some nice atmosphere and intensity and when the gore comes, it’s very effective. Vanessa Grasse makes a very likable heroine as the troubled Mary and the remote gas station location works to establish isolation…even if it all does evoke John Carpenter’s The Gas Station episode from the anthology flick Body Bags. A solid and entertaining slasher/horror from Padraig Reynolds. Now streaming on Amazon Prime.
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