FPS: First Person Slasher
I have just finished watching You Are Not Alone which is being released via Sharp Teeth Films for the UK market on 22nd February 2016.
An idyllic summer day becomes a living nightmare...
With school finally over, college graduate Natalie Wilner returns to her hometown to celebrate the Fourth of July weekend. But beneath the flags and fireworks lurks a dark, malevolent figure. After a night of drunken parties, she tumbles home and drifts off to sleep, only to be woken moments later by a loud knock at the door.
Experiencing one night of terror, through Natalie's eyes as she fights to escape a relentless, knife-wielding maniac.
Remember in the remake of Maniac where it was kinda cool to see the whole events through the eyes of the killer? Well this flips it, this time we see everything through the eyes of the victim, the similarity with Maniac kind of ends right there. This is a good twist on proceedings and I give them credit for not copying Maniac flat out, however this does mean we have to see a lot of Natalie's (the victim) life before the killer appears to do his evil killery things.
This sadly means 48 minutes of nothing much going on, we get to go to lunch with Grandma, a party, buy pot and hang around with 2 friends, who we never see again for the rest of the movie and stumble home. I do love slow horror, I really do, but this was a little too long of a build up for my personal liking but it does pay off, slightly, once the action starts.
Once all the partying, boys, pranking, and fireworks are done, Natalie stumbles (or ricochet's depending on your point of view when judging drunkness) home, passes out, good night everybody woohoo. However, she is rudely awoken by knocking noises, and instead of hiding under the blanket and hope it goes away she goes downstairs. Once downstairs she see's a creepy guy standing staring at the house (who strangely resembles an early Nick Cave). This is where the most tense part of the movie happens and i'm not ashamed to say I jumped a few times whilst also shouting "Run!" "What are you doing?!" and the like. The movie takes this route and runs with it for the rest of the runtime.
I don't want to give too much away about the movie as I feel the tension holds up on it's own once it hits it's stride. Yes there is moments where you shout at the screen calling this poor girl every name under the sun as she runs her way through the neighbourhood, but it's part of the movie's twisted ride. If you can get past that long slow opening (which to be honest doesn't really give you that much information) then you can enjoy the final part. It's a home invasion slasher seen through the eyes of the victim and it works, just. I would also like to give a shoutout to what is clearly a homage to Leatherface (you will know it when you see it), very nicely done.
It's worth a look and brings genuine tension (hey a reflection of a lamp made me jump out of my skin at one point I was that engrossed), not many questions are answered but not too many chances lost either. Worth a shot if you are at a loose end one evening.
RATING: 2.5 / 5