True horror is a bunch of pretty actors and a terrible script
MORE money in the bank for Jason Blum. This supernatural horror movie involves a bunch of privileged US undergrads, a spring-break trip to Mexico, the titular drinking game and a whole lot of dying. It’s mostly pants, with a haunted church that must have cost about $5 to assemble and a stinky performance from Teen Wolf cutie Tyler Posey. Then again, the BFF heroines — sensible undergrad Olivia and troubled party girl Markie — could be worse.
Olivia (Lucy Hale, aka Aria from TV series Pretty Little Liars) is secretly in love with Markie’s sensitive boyfriend Lucas (Posey). She’s a cross between Nancy Drew and the smug, self-deluded, ruthless yuppies in Michael Haneke’s
Hidden. The film has several scriptwriters and every time Olivia opens her mouth it feels like a different writer is having a go. Hale is a decent actress (in PLL, she had to juggle endless near-death experiences with in-jokes about Nabokov). She takes the uneven script in her stride.
Markie (Violett Beane) is equally intriguing. Slut-shaming in this genre used to be all the rage. If you’ve seen Happy Death Day, however, you’ll know that to be promiscuous is no longer to be a dead duck. Sure, we may be witnessing the birth of horror’s newest cliché (It’s OK For A Girl To Sleep Around If Her Beloved Dad Has Just Died). Still, it feels like progress.
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