Review by Chris Rennirt
Hallucinations in movies are rarely done right. If done correctly, visual hallucinations should be cowitnessed by the audience, only when the affected character is also looking in the direction of the hallucination. If the audience sees an objective view that the affected person does not see, then the event seen is not an hallucination. It is reality. No, I’m not a psychiatrist; I just have common sense. Open 24 Hours, while a great exercise in bloody horror and special effects, gets off to an early start with confusing perspectives, intentional or not. What’s of value nonetheless is a movie that delivers the thrills and gore as a tradeoff, despite its occasional predictability, borrowed plot, and confused points of view. What it lacks in inventiveness and logic, it makes up for with great performances and pure, bloody goodness!
Vanessa Grasse (as Mary) covers her ears in Open 24 Hours. Is it real, or is it an hallucination?
What’s it all about? Mary (Vanessa Grasse) is a young woman out on parole, after being sent to prison for the murders committed by her serial-killer ex-boyfriend Cole (Cole Vigue). Rather than participate in the murders, Mary watched without attempting, in any way, to stop him. Thus, she is mentally screwed up from her experience (if not before it). As the movie begins, Mary is terrorized by what seem to be hallucinations of her past, as well as those of the present. But again, as in any horror movie with hallucinations, are they really hallucinations?
Yes! There’s always a late-night call on the graveyard shift…and the news is never good!
As for acting, Vanessa Grasse does a great job in the lead role as Mary. Grasse is actually such a great actress that I’m not surprised to see her filmography on IMDb growing as I write this review. Her performance grounds the movie in reality, as someone experiencing, genuinely, the movie’s terror. With this, Grasse does what is most needed; giving life to fear, dread and tension, she makes it infectious. And we feel it. She makes Mary someone we know, like and identify with, as much as we see ourselves as different and unlike her. Even actors with bit parts like Glendon Hobgood as Ed–the Deer Market store owner–is a standout, developing his character solidly, in little more than five minutes of screen time. Hobgood makes Ed, easily, another familiar person you’ve never met before. Tomi May delivers a memorable performance as a trucker who just stops in for gas, but gets a lot more. Emily Tennant (as Mary’s best friend Debbie) is a young, albeit already veteran actor, with a resume including well-known titles such as Supernatural, Project Blue Book, and Riverdale; Tennant, of course, gives the veteran performance you’d expect, making Debbie another minor yet memorable character, not just for her suffering.
Mary (Vanessa Grasse) and Bobby (Brendan Fletcher) take no chances in Open 24 Hours!
One of the things I like most about Open 24 Hours is something I disliked in the beginning. Just when you think you’ve figured out the difference between reality and hallucinations, you haven’t. Writer Padraig Reynolds inserts cleverly-timed, not-so-fast moments to keep the mystery alive, as an ultimately vital part of what makes the movie work. One such scene involves the use of a shotgun and who’s coaching who about how to use it…oddly. When bloody death lurks around every corner, in every opening door, just take the damn gun and use it yourself if you know better…and if you’re really there! (Look for it, and let me know what you think.) In a scene involving a badly injured victim, great dark humor is added, most unexpectedly (and surely hallucingenically), as a scheduled pickup time is remembered…post mortem. Here, the contrast between terror and sudden humor is priceless, possibly more memorable than the film itself, and well-worth quoting. And you won’t need to look for this one; it’ll hit you like a claw hammer to the jaw. (Cryptic, intriguing, nonspoiler reference to the movie intended.)
“My boyfriend did horrible things.” ~ Mary
“What kind of horrible things?” ~ Ed
“He murdered people.” ~ Mary
A major complaint I have with the movie is its ending. While I have no problem with open-ended endings (and actually love many), Open 24 Hours needs help with its night-shift closure. Yes, “Help Wanted” is never more true, as a should-be sign in the window for this one. It’s another dreaded WTF moment as a finale, in a movie that couldn’t afford another one. With most films, telling the ending would be a major spoiler. Here, it wouldn’t reveal a thing.
When there’s nothing else around, you have to be creative!
The questions in Open 24 Hours are many and mostly never answered. Is Mary hallucinating horrors or really living them? Does she really enjoy watching murders? If so, does she enjoy more than just watching? Is her serial-killer ex-boyfriend really still in prison? Or, is he still stalking her? Does Mary still, deep down, beneath her bloody memories and witnessed carnage, really still love Cole? Will Debbie still pick up Mary at six? (Ha, ha, ha!) Will we ever again see a movie where a taxidermal elk is used as a weapon? (See screenshot above.) And, will Ed’s Deer Market ever be open 24 hours again?
With scenes like this, what’s left to want?
Open 24 Hours is a movie I recommend for gorehounds and fans of 80s-style slashers, with only slight reservation. (It just squeezes in with the minimum seven rockets required.) It’s a movie that gives horror lovers what they crave, plain and simple–blood, carnage, lots of kills, and death served with a double tap. While some say “Let them eat cake,” I say, “Let them have gore!” Open 24 Hours will at least give you your day’s worth of that. Perhaps there’ll even be leftovers!
Rocket Rating – 7
Chris Rennirt (the author of this review) is a movie critic and writer in Louisville, Kentucky, as well as editor in chief at Space Jockey Reviews. He has been a judge at many film festivals, including Macabre Faire Film Festival and Crimson Screen Film Fest, and he attends horror and sci-fi conventions often. Chris’ movie reviews, articles, and interviews are published regularly on Space Jockey Reviews and in Effective Magazine. His mission statement (describing his goals as a movie critic and philosophy for review writing) can be found on the “Mission” page, here at SJR. For more information about Chris Rennirt (including contact details, publicity photos, and more), click here.
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