If the ritualistic nature of horror means higher tolerance for cliche in the genre, director Andy Fickman runs with that in this brash but increasingly shambolic slasher. You’ve probably heard it all before: a clique of supremely annoying twentysomethings convene for party girl Olivia’s (Crystal Lake Evans) birthday, and head to music festival Blue Light. With the posse packed into her boyfriend Michael’s (Jarrett Austin Brown) RV, Sarah (Amber Janea) and Gaby (Ana Zambrana) – Black and Latina respectively – wind up a couple of bigoted rednecks en route. And that’s before the more cautious Carrie (Bella DeLong) and former marine Jason (John Bucy) ask for directions in the proverbial Backwoods Bar Where Everyone Stops and Stares.
Delivered in an overcranked performance style reminiscent of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead, there’s something moreish at first about this trope box-ticking. Despite the parodic tang, it never goes full Scream self-referential – though it’s clear what’s coming when the RV breaks down on a country road where there is no cellphone coverage. Under siege from bestial, possibly supernatural forces, latent divisions in the group open up. But apart from straight arrow Jason, Fickman – who also scripted – doesn’t layer in enough contrasting personalities in this mobile bitchfest. Nominal audience-sympathy-anchor Carrie, especially, is badly underdrawn.
These limitations finally snowball with budgetary ones. Fickman works hard to wring fear out of copycat voices in the darkness, haunting disappearances into fog banks, and hallucinations of pals banging on the RV door. But none of these lo-fi scares are meaningfully supported by anything in the way of a coherent story. By the time overlooked occultist tomes are tumbling out of a locker, it’s clear Fickman is getting desperate for our attention.
There are a few lines suggesting that he can cloak the massacre more convincingly in strong characterisation: “Now let all that bad-friend woke guilt bullshit wash over you,” says resident stoner Chris (Daryl Tofa-Soriano), when his so-called friends learn he’s actually an MIT engineering student. But otherwise Fickman ends up buried by the cliches he’s invited over the threshold.
• Don’t Turn Out the Lights is available on digital platforms on 17 March.
