B Movies Blog

Hello, Movie Mavens! Welcome back to the ol’ B Movies Blog. Today, we’re popping Anthony DiBlasi’s Last Shift into the VCR. 

With the announcement/release of Malum, I wanted to revisit Last Shift. Since we’re all friends here, I’m going to be honest: I didn’t like Last Shift the first time I watched it. However, I’ve become a convert in the years since. 

In my humble little opinion, the subtle and simple scares are the most effective tool in Last Shift’s belt. The sounds of bones cracking, the phone all but rattling off its cradle, and the video clips from interviews with the Paymon family do it for me; I could do without the bigger scares, like the scene where the bodies of the Paymon family are all vibrating in the background of the holding cell akin to something you’d see in a 90s nu metal music video. 

I was honestly really impressed during this viewing. The scenes where Officer Loren turns for what only appears to be a moment to find something unexplainable are “chef’s kiss.* The cutaways to the stacked chairs and the hallway-lined photos are brilliant, and they’re both examples of low budget horror at its finest. 

Also, the dialogue in the interview clips is extremely well-written, and one line has stuck with me for days. When Kitty Paymon is talking about bludgeoning someone to death, she says, “She didn’t even look like people anymore.” The delivery of the line and the line itself are both haunting, and they show us how disconnected the Paymon family is from reality. 

I also have a wild conspiracy theory I’d like to throw out. What if the entity the Paymon family is worshiping is the same entity from Hereditary? Think about it. Both groups discuss a king of Hell, and one of the girls even slams her face into the table in the investigation room a la Peter. I’m just saying. 👀

My only complaint, and I use the term lightly, is the timeline. It feels out of time because the interview clips are reminiscent of the 60s or 70s. But, in the interrogation room scene where Officer Loren watches a woman shoot herself to commemorate the death of John Michael Paymon, she says he was killed a year prior. Additionally, the photo Officer Loren finds in her father’s old locker makes it seem as though her father was killed when she was young. Maybe it’s an old photo? Regardless, this mystery doesn’t hurt the movie’s watchability in the least. 

Last Shift is a welcome addition to the “sins of the father” horror subgenre, and I’m interested to see how the story is reimagined in Malum.Last Shift is another shining example of low budget horror, and shows how big budgets don’t necessarily make a better movie. My recommendation would be to watch Last Shift with all the lights off and to pair it with the Father’s Day segment from Holidays as your pre-show.