- Directed by: Brandon Christensen
- Written by: Brandon Christensen, Ryan Christensen
- Stars: Jessica Clement, Ryan Robbins, Summer H. Howell
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 33 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yID7jDK0HYA
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s set in the 1980s so we can have landline phones instead of cell phones and VHS tapes, both necessary for the plot. And they do a good job of capturing the 80s vibe. It hums along with suspense and some mystery for the first 2/3 or so. It’s well made, but we were both very disappointed with the final act.
Spoilery Synopsis
A little boy tells the babysitter about the “Skin Eater” that lives in his closet. As the babysitter leaves them alone, we soon see that this couldn’t be more 80s if it tried, and it’s trying hard at least until the parents open the garage door to come home. No, that’s not them, the door just opened on its own. She goes outside to smoke and finds a dead dog in the street. When she goes inside, she finds a note: “Your pretty.” She assumes it’s the kids, but the strangeness continues. When she finds out it’s not the kids, it’s too late for her. The TV comes on, and a man in a cultist’s hood and skull mask is on there. We also see the same man grab her from behind… Credits roll as the grainy VHS-ish footage continues.
Deena has come back to town and she talks to Chad and Willis. She’s decided on Criminology for her major. Deena goes to see her hyper friend Haddie, but she hasn’t gone to see her parents yet. Haddie babysits for Sheriff Rodney’s kids, and she’s hoping he’ll marry her eventually.
Sheriff Rodney finds a package outside his door that’s got no label on it. Inside, he finds a garage door opener, which upsets him. He and the deputy test the opener on the house where the pre-credit murders happened, and it’s the same one that opened their garage door.
Deena goes home to her parents and talks to them, but her father doesn’t respond to her at all. Haddie calls and says she’s sick, so could Deena do her babysitting gig tonight?
Sheriff Rodney gets a videotape in a box at the office, and it shows a camper being killed by the same guy who did the babysitter. The sheriff says Connor Davis died in the woods two years ago, but it was assumed to be an accident. He and Deputy Butch find Officer Liz on the road burying a dead dog. The two men drive on to where Connor’s body was found years ago. They find another box there. This box has a videotape showing Emily the babysitter’s death. Also in the video is Chad’s van, which shouldn’t be there.
Deena arrives at the sheriff’s house and talks to Max, his son. He shows her all around the house except for the basement, where they never go. Naturally, she wants to go down there and look around. She pays for that with a jump scare. Abby, the sheriff’s wife, died in a car crash not long ago.
The police bring in Chad, who’s a video nerd who always carries his camera with him. They watch the tape on his camera, but it’s nothing. They’ve got nothing connecting him to the murders, so they have to let him go.
Deena gets a call from the sheriff; just checking in. She’s seen someone weird outside, but she’s not too worried. She and Max watch horror movies after that. She hears a dog yelping in pain outside and goes out to investigate. When she finds it dead, she runs back inside.
The sheriff checks out Willis’s house, since he was on Chad’s tape as well. He finds another videotape there, labeled “Night of the Reaper.” Willis walks in, and he arrests him on the spot.
Deena calls Haddie, who has someone ringing her doorbell and can’t talk. Deena walks through the house jumping at every sound. She finds some objects in the house that indicate she’s not there alone anymore.
The sheriff locks himself in his office and watches Willis’s tape. This one shows the murder of the sheriff’s wife, which he thought was an accident. If he was upset before, he’s way over the top now. He points a gun at Willis, who says he was told to give the tape to the sheriff. Before he can get any more answers, the police station gets a 911 call from a girl. All the cops hurry over there. We see that it’s really a distraction at the local drug store.
We watch through the video camera as the Reaper menaces sleeping Max in his bedroom. Then we see Deena use a Taser on the Reaper.
We get a flashback montage that explains what all has been going on tonight. It turns out that everything has been some kind of really elaborate set-up by Deena to capture Liz the forestry agent (whom we’ve only seen twice), who is the real killer [I think. This is really confusing].
Deena and Liz play hide-and-seek in the sheriff’s big house. Outside, Liz finds a whole forest full of masked figures that look like the Reaper. Deena uses the distraction to shoot Liz in the leg. “You murdered my sister. You destroyed my family!” shouts Deena. She was Emily’s sister. Just then, Chad shows up and knocks out Deena– he really was involved in all this!
Deena wakes up and admits that she followed Liz after Emily’s funeral. For a motive, Liz says, “Why not?” Liz and Chad explain it all, more or less. Suddenly, Chad’s head explodes when he keys up a walkie talkie and Deena had already rigged up.
Liz forces Deena to watch her sister’s death on the videotape. Liz stabs Deena in the leg in the same way she did Emily. Suddenly, the sheriff shows up and shoots Liz. Liz tries to make excuses, but the sheriff doesn’t believe them and shoots her again. Deena admits she sent the tapes to the sheriff to set all this up.
The sheriff promises to hide the body.
Brian’s Commentary
So many horror films are starting to do the 80s retro thing that it’s beginning to get tiring. This one needs it for the videotapes and lack of cell phones.
Whatever the Hell happened at the 70-minute mark was the most incredibly confusing “twist” I’ve ever seen. I was lost for a good ten minutes until they explained everything. Even then, it didn’t make much sense. When did Deena have time to do all this? Why was she running all over the house being afraid? Why did they hide Liz’s body, when there was plenty of evidence against her?
This was really good for the first hour, and then it went straight to garbageville with the final third. This is really dumb.
Kevin’s Commentary
When Liz was revealed to be the killer and Deena set this night up to capture and punish her, I said, “Wut?” It’s a confusing and unexpected twist, but at least it is somewhat explained. But wait, there’s another twist that Chad was teamed up with Liz all this time, and Deena didn’t know about that.
It did take an unexpected turn in the final third, but I can’t say I’m pleased with it. It was too abrupt and contrived.