Last Straw

Set mostly in a rural small-town diner, writer and director of Taylor Sardoni and Alan Scott Neil respectively don’t deviate too far from the not quite white trash of the trailer parks that audiences are familiar with these days. That’s not to say they haven’t anything to offer.

Nancy (Jessica Belkin) is late for work as the manager of her father’s Diner, The Fat Bottom. It’s a promotion that hasn’t gone down well with the more experienced staff who resent it. To make matters worse Nancy has to work an all-night shift with Jake (Taylor Kowalski) whom she terms ‘The Freak’ and whom in a peak of power sacks, which causes with the rest of the diner team to walk out in protest.

Nancy now alone with the night closing in turns the diner lights and glitter ball on and dances her frustration away. Only to hear mid-dance a loud knocking at the diner door. Seeing the masked men she suspects they are the delinquents that she told to leave earlier in the day.

To say much more will give too much away suffice to say that midway the film changes perspective. In some sense it becomes a Jake and Nancy see-saw with the others closely involved.

This has an interesting effect on the story and one that some may find more troubling than anything else. Nancy has her personal problems with a mother who passed away when she was young, a father trying to run teetering business all while Nancy is enjoying her life. Jake too has his problems kept on the level while he has his pills though out of control once they are substituted for the illicit stuff.

These are deeply flawed people whom the filmmakers try and bring some sympathy to. But that only really goes one way once the story develops and Jake mentally collapses which is unpleasant to watch. As such the film works on a psychological level as much as physical.

The violence is bloody and to some extent perfunctory though Scott Neil does keep the tension up and the pace fairly even throughout making effective use of the inside of the diner when it (they) all come crashing in on Nancy.

Last Straw had its UK premiere at Glasgow FrightFest 2024.