Horror Movie Marathon Day 12: Last Shift

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, the “people stuck somewhere” genre is my absolute favorite type of movie and the 2014 Last Shift is exactly in my wheelhouse.

Recently remade and “reimagined” by writer/director Anthony DiBlasi in the 2023 release Malum, Last Shift is the story of a rookie cop left alone to keep watch over the last night of a soon-to-be demolished police station. It wouldn’t be much of a horror flick if things didn’t go wrong.

I personally have not seen the new version, Malum, but I’ve heard good things. My initial thought was to question why, Last Shift is a wonderfully made film that has genuine scares in it. After hearing the director talk about his want to make a “bigger budget” version, it was hard not to understand his argument. I very much look forward to checking out the new flick as its own stand-alone movie.

“I am the dancing flame.”

In Last Shift, the main character, Officer Loren, has been assigned the final watch at a closing police station, left to walk the empty halls until the clean-up crew comes in the morning. But this particular police station has some history in the Loren family, her father died at the hands of a Manson Family-type cult that haunts the station.

At the start, Loren receives a call from a distressed girl who says she’s been captured and held hostage, as she frantically tries to help the girl things at the station start getting weirder and weirder. She reaches out to the new police station for help only to be ridiculed and ignored by the other cops as a “scared rookie.”

As the mystery progresses things begin to shift into a much more sinister tone that delves into the history of this cult-like family. Things begin appearing and nothing is what it seems as Officer Loren must battle her own mind and decipher what is real and what is madness.

Last Shift: A Review

Last Shift is a wonderfully scary horror flick, it balances story and visuals in the most enjoyable way. There is clearly a lot of passion that went into this movie and it shows. The scares are well done and fast-paced, the gross elements are just enough to make you squirm, and the mystery of what’s really going on holds up perfectly throughout the whole movie.

You can definitely tell that this was a small-budget project, but in no way does that hamper the movie as a whole, it actually kind of helps it. It feels constrained and even though we can literally see the exit, we just can’t seem to leave.

If you’re looking for the perfect “cuddle-up & get scared” movie, you can not go wrong with Last Shift.

3 skulls.

Last Shift is available to stream on Peacock Premium.