I had seen some coverage of Last Shift over the last couple of years, which got me interested in seeing it. I hadn’t seen anything about the movie until I saw several people talking about it and making videos about it. I didn’t even remember seeing the immediately iconic cover until I saw the coverage for it. I even started seeing it on the streaming services that I had though it would end up leaving the services before I could watch it. It was finally added back, and I made sure to watch it.
While I did enjoy Last Shift, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the ending. I say that even if the ending fits thematically with the rest of the movie. I think that Anthony DiBlasi did a great job of with the movie. The script he wrote with Scott Poiley was an interesting supernatural horror movie with a psychological edge to it. The weird stuff that happens is slow to start and the reveal of what is going on is even slower. I can imagine people losing interest in the movie early on but when everything starts, they’ll enjoy the ride if they can stick with it.
This is Juliana Harkavy’s movie. You spend the entire movie with her as she goes through what might be one of the worst first nights I’ve ever seen in a horror movie. Joshua Mikel, J. LaRose, Mary Lankford, Natalie Victoria, and Sarah Sculco do a great job supporting her. I was wondering why J. LaRose looked familiar and it was because I had seen him in The Righteous Gemstones which surprised me. Mikel does a great job of being unsettling as the leader of the Paymon family, and that name will ring a bell if you’ve seen Hereditary.
The effects in Last Shift are fantastic. The makeup for the leader of the Paymon is iconic and so much so that it makes the cover iconic. The makeup for the followers with him are deeply unsettling. The makeup for the three characters do a great job of selling the supernatural nature of the entities. That’s not even mentioning the rest of the effects used for the other entities, which are sold by the sound design as well as both practical and CG effects. The music by Adam Barber does a great job of accompanying the movie.
Last Shift is a solid supernatural psychological horror movie that’ll keep you on your toes til the last minute. Even with my issues with the ending I think you’ll enjoy the movie if you’re wanting a slow burn movie that’ll keep you guessing. You can stream Last Shift on several services but I watched it on Amazon Prime Video. I give Last Shift 7.5 collapsible batons out of 10.