Last Shift (2015) | Are you prepared for a supernatural assault on Precinct 13?

Rookie cop Jessica Loren (Juliana Harkavy) gets her first assignment patrolling an outdated police station undergoing transition. It’s a thankless task with little to do other than transfer calls to the new station down the road and wait for a Hazmat crew to come and collect some biomedical evidence.

But Jessica’s shift proves anything but quiet, as things start going bump in the empty corridors and spooky apparitions led her to unearth the truth about a mass involving a Manson-styled cult leader and his followers…

It’s a bit of a stretch calling director Anthony DiBlasi’s latest supernatural thriller, Last Shift (which follows 2011’s Cassadaga and the award-winning 2009 horror Dread) ‘one of the best supernatural thrillers in years’ as there’s some nagging issues that looses it a couple of all-important fright stars. It is, however, an unnerving exercise in suspense that had my viewing companion rushing off to bed, fearing that if she watched the film all the way through she might have nightmares.

As the haunted hallways of the cop shop reveals itself in the form of spectres – some friendly, some anything but– while a homeless man breaks in and a young woman calls the station for help, we see and feel very emotion that Jessica experiences. But as the scare-factor is cranked up, Jessica needs to find an inner strength to keep it together in order to prove herself worthy of wearing a badge. It’s an engrossing performance by Juliana Harkavy (Walking Dead fans will remember her as Alisha in season four) who totally carries the film.

But what follows is a bit of a disappointment and begs more questions than answers – like, what’s Jessica’s connection to the evil spirits (her dead cop dad?) and why didn’t anyone warn her the police station was haunted in the first place. I was convinced that someone had put her in this terrible predicament on purpose, but it’s never explained or made clear, which only makes that payoff downright annoying. Of note, however, is Adam Barber’s chilling satanic score (which should get its own release).

Available on DVD and digital from Solo Media and Matchbox Films from Monday 18 January 2016

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