(Director/screenwriter:
Todd Nunes)
Review
Shot in seven days, ALL is a moderately entertaining and well-edited X-mas horror flick, for the most part. If it’s not suspenseful, it’s not for the lack of the filmmakers’ trying: scenes might have been suspenseful are undercut by its low budget, and flat acting by much of cast lumps ALL in a budget-hobbled, direct-to-video category. Despite those limitations, this could be a fun, late-night flick for more forgiving viewers.
Story: Rachel Kimmel (Ashley Mary Nunes) returns home from college during the winter holidays. A sense of reluctant obligation compels the twenty-something Rachel and her same-age friends (Gia and Sarah) to help her grandmother’s eccentric neighbor (Mrs. Garrett, an older woman) decorate the interior of her already-Xmas-gaudy house. The women’s reluctant sense of obligation stems from the fact that Rachel feels bad for Garrett, whose husband (Mitchell) left her under mysterious circumstances “sometime in the Nineties,” fifteen years prior, and whose daughter (Jamie) died under equally cloudy circumstances─at least as far as Rachel, Gia and Sarah are concerned. Mrs. Garrett and Rachel’s foul-mouthed, wheelchair-bound grandma (Abby) know, but they refuse to tell her (“That’s a conversation for another day,” Mrs. Garrett says, early on in ALL.)
Rachel’s arrival sparks a cycle of murders that target twenty-something heterosexual couples who are about to have sex or have had sex. A killer in a Santa Claus suit and a white-beard, silver-painted mask, wielding a big pair of gardening shears, stabs female breasts and castrates the men (male violence is off-camera). Eventually, Abby, Rachel and her friends become targets and must fight to survive.
The first two-thirds of the film are quick character and story set-up, shadowy and Christmas-creepy shots interior shots of Mrs. Garrett’s house and a series of 1990s-esque, humorous, soft porn-ish kill scenes with nudity and impressive, practical FX and blood. The third-act twists are solid, though genre-familiar viewers may glean them earlier on.
Acting-wise, the standouts are: Ashley Mary Nunes (Rachel); Cathy Garrett (having fun with her role as Rachel’s spitfire grandmother); and Melynda Kiring, as the pleasant but obviously “off” Mrs. Garrett. A notable actor, for his real-life connections, is Justice Lee, Ashley Mary Nunes’s son and Todd Nunes’s nephew─he plays “Young Jacob.”
Fans of Seventies-era Alice Cooper might enjoy the appearance of one of the late-in-the-flick character reveals, and its ending is fun (if key character-illogical). I also appreciated the scenes that screenwriter/director Todd Nunes used to effectively bookend the movie.
If
you’re looking for something pays a well-directed, direct-to-video homage to
more iconic/memorable slasher films, this might be a good match for your
late-night mood.
