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Film: The Last Resort
Year: 2009
Director: Brandon Nutt
Writer: Nathaniel Bozen, Nathan Oliver and Martina Papinchak
Starring: America Olivo, Paulie Rojas Redding and Marissa Tait
Review:
This was a film that I believe I added to my Netflix list back in college, as it came out around the same time as films like Club Dread and Rest Stop. I didn’t know much about it, but I assumed it would be a slasher film from the cover. The synopsis is a bachelorette weekend goes awry when the girls are robbed, stranded and forced to take shelter in a deserted Mexican resort that is haunted by the unspeakable atrocities of the past.
The film kicks off back in the day. It doesn’t say how long, but the film looks grainy to show us this happened previously. We see a man known as The Founder (Ian Patrick Williams) as he is writing things down. Beside him is a woman who is bleeding. Outside we see a group of men busting in and shocked by what they see.
It then shifts to the present. Kathleen (Marissa Tait) is a bride to be. Her friends are celebrating her bachelorette party in a small Mexican town. Jessica (Arianne Zucker) was there first and decorated the place they are staying. Also along are Sophia (America Olivo), Amber (Paulie Rojas Redding) and Beth (Sita Young). I will give the film credit; it does establish the girls pretty well at the bar. Kathleen is really mean and while drunk we see she really doesn’t have morals. Amber is a bit too skinny and she seems self-conscious about it. Beth is considered a prude and Jessica is the one that is there to keep everyone safe. Sophia is probably the most normal I would say.
Sophia ends up meeting Rob (Nick Ballard). He is with his friends in the town as a vacation as well. His friend, Jeremy (Jeremy Glazer) is hitting on Beth who tells him that they aren’t going home together. Sophia and Rob do though, with the blessing of Kathleen.
She isn’t so happy the next day when Sophia oversleeps. The rest of the girls find a couple of guys, Benito (Jamil Mena) and Hector (Sandro Del Casale), to take them on a tour. The problem is they rob the young women, leaving them for dead in the desert and shoot Kathleen as she is trying to flee. Beth does call Sophia to tell her what is happening before her phone is taken. The girls seek refuge in an abandoned resort nearby. They find weird artwork and things aren’t as they seem.
Back in town, Sophia gets Rob and Jeremy to help find her friends. It leads them to some interesting discoveries as to the truth of the place where they stayed.
Now I made the story sound better than what it was and that was what frustrated about this film. I really like the concept. The ground that the resort is built on is tainted somehow and it seems that The Founder was looking to have a place where people could come to be free with their desires. The problem though is that people are dark by nature from how the film portrays it and it is hard to argue this, looking at our history.
I also like that at the resort, it plays on the traits that we got to see in the bar earlier. Amber has things with food; Kathleen becomes even meaner and has an interesting transformation. Beth explores her desires and Jessica takes charge to the extreme. It is interesting to see how these all play out amongst them.
The problem though becomes, why is all of this happening? I’m glad that the film only runs 75 minutes, but it left me wanting more. I feel like there is a story here that the film just didn’t explore which bothered me. I think even 15 more minutes to establish what is going on here would have really helped the film. I actually found this film to be boring, because we get a decent set-up and then there is a long stretch of trying to figure out where they are. Many of the deaths that happen are off-screen so we just aren’t given what we need in a film like this. The ending ends up being too abrupt because we don’t feel anything.
The acting isn’t great either. We actually get the characters established, which would have made it a solid a slasher film, but that’s not what it is. It is more supernatural. Olivo was fine as the hero. I thought her performance was decent and she does drive the story. Redding really doesn’t have a lot of depth. I thought an insult thrown at her was shocking, because it wasn’t established earlier. Tait I thought fit her role well. Young did as well and so did Zucker. The guys in the film are fine as well. None of it was great, but fine for the film we got. I will say that all the women were pretty attractive and there is some quick nudity.
The effects that we actually do get are fine. The blood is a bit too dark, but it doesn’t look bad. It actually isn’t too far off what it really looks like. The problem for this film is that it doesn’t build enough of a story, so the effects needed to carry it and we just don’t get enough. There’s too much that happens off screen and it hurts the film. It is shame because of the ones we do get are pretty solid.
Now with that said this film I came in with no expectations and was still disappointed. The poster makes it look like a slasher film, which we get some elements of, but it is definitely more supernatural. I thought the build up of the film was actually pretty good, but it doesn’t go far enough. The acting is fine in establishing the characters. The effects we do get are solid, but there isn’t enough there to carry the film. Soundtrack of the film really didn’t stand out to me, but it also doesn’t hurt the film. I can’t recommend this film as I found it to be below average. There are much better vacation horror films out there.
My Rating: 3 out of 10