Last Straw

Last Straw plays out in the course of one night when a small-town killing spree approaches a desolate diner. Managing the eatery is Nancy (Jessica Belkin), an impulsive woman who must resort to her wits to evade the killers. Matters only get intense when the ones causing the chaos seem to share a personal connection with her.

Blood-soaked spin on the home invasion thriller genre. Best represented by the 1971 classic Straw Dogs, the home invasion thriller genre is adept at capturing the real-time fear and paranoia one would feel when a bunch of strangers break into your safe space. The same claustrophobic tension exists with locations other than home, be it a police station (Assault on Precinct 13) or an outdoor camp by the water (Eden Lake). In a similar-themed "Straw" film, Last Straw shifts the setting to a rural diner. But the nocturnal violence and mayhem that takes over this diner isn't senseless. Through enough fast-paced flashbacks, Taylor Sardoni's screenplay connects the dots between the assailants and the ill-fated heroine Nancy. These connections make Last Straw an intriguing watch till the very end. As for when the sheer carnage unfolds, director Alan Scott Neal succeeds in achieving bloodshed that's enough to satisfy gore-craving genre fans but not to the point of over-the-top exploitation.

Jessica Belkin delivers an emotional lead performance, but the thrills wear out towards the end. As the hot-headed, mean-spirited Nancy, Jessica Belkin is effortlessly sassy. Her character is the diner owner's daughter, who reigns over the stuff with an iron fist. So, to see her crouching in fear with a blood-soaked knife makes for an interesting turn of events. Her journey from diner boss badass to desperate survivor makes her a compelling "final girl" in modern horror but sadly, Nancy's arc isn't enough for Last Straw to stand out. "Location" invasion thrillers suffer from sheer predictability, and Last Straw is no exception. Neal's film is immersive enough as a blood-splattering cat-and-mouse game, but the genre tropes start wearing out by the third act. After a point, the neon lights of the diner signboards and the exasperated grunts and sighs of the killers and victims start building up to an overdone sensory overload. Watch Last Straw for its closed-room violence and Belkin's compelling performance, but don't expect it to have the same momentum throughout its nearly 80-minute runtime.