We are so close to Telluride Horror Show and we’re are all getting excited here at Sickle and Efrit! We are also really lucky this year to get a few movies early. One of which was the awesome dark comedy 12 Hour Shift. So let’s talk about it!
In 12 Hour Shift, we follow Mandy, a strung-out nurse who we very early and very clearly figure out is killing patients at a hospital and selling their organs. So right from the get-go, we get a tone for the film. These people are kinda the dregs of humanity. So once a sale goes astray we are invitees to watch some horrible people dealing with the tiny sliver of humanity they have left in an effort to fix a situation that is all messed up.
One major criticism of this film is that it doesn’t truly escalate if you already accept that these people are terrible. It is really hard to be surprised by terrible people when you already know they are terrible. That being said, it does get far more violent as the movie progresses and the characters are put into more and more stressful, crazy situations.
The main actress does an amazing job of making you feel unsettled, but in a very new and inventive way. Mandy is an addict and watching her steal and use drugs and then go about doing her normal nurse work makes one incredibly uncomfortable. As much as people rely on hospitals to be clean and working in an operational manner, seeing how this hospital is run was disturbing.
The comedy was pretty spot on, which is good cuz there isn’t much horror in it. But that is all good as some of the interactions in this film are absolutely hilarious. A cop walks in on an organ harvest and doesn’t bat an eye or a person posing as a nurse is able to just wander around a hospital and “assist” with random stuff. It was a nice juxtaposition between the depressing main character and all the people just randomly being in funny situations.
As a huge fan of dark comedy recently, I think 12 Hour Shift was a perfect entry into the genre.
If you have time, try to check it out as we enter the few weeks before we get into Telluride Horror Show!
Horror Rating System
Horror Qualifier: 5/10
Horror Rating: 6/10
Film Rating: 5/10
#telluridehorrorshow #horrorcomedy #12hourshift #breagrant