Among Friends Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: A group of friends are invited to a murder mystery party only to find themselves caught up in a night of secrets and mayhem.

Review: How could I pass up the opportunity to watch and review the directorial debut from my childhood crush, and scream queen, Danielle Harris? Although Ms. Harris does not star in the movie itself, I still had high expectations nonetheless, and she does a decent job on a first attempt. Unfortunately, this film is mostly mediocre, but it is redeemed by a likable villain, cool cameos, and an outright '80s homage. I think the biggest problem is that the plot is too closely a cross between the original "April Fools Day" and "Truth or Die" without enough material to differentiate itself. At the same time, the actors are predominantly individuals who have worked with Ms. Harris in the past, and I don't think a lot of these are good choices; nobody brings their A-game, aside from the villain, or plays their part with enough conviction given the material. I should note that the characters themselves are one dimensional so I can't entirely fault the actors. The movie also suffers from a slow start, and, considering this is a slasher of sorts, there is only one onscreen kill. On the plus side, that one death is Kane Hodder's character...but, then again, what is one to do with a dancing Kane Hodder other than to kill it?

The story is that a group of sluts and assholes, who are allegedly friends, meet up for a party that is themed as an '80s murder mystery. While this would make for a promising premise, a lot of the '80s aspects are wasted with only vague references to a few movies and the clothes the characters wear. I would have preferred they played up this angle more significantly with maybe emphasis on some classic movies that could correlate to this film's plot. Anyway, the party starts off simplistic enough until the group gathers for dinner only to realize they have been drugged and cannot move their bodies from the waist down. The villain, named Bernadette, has been recording the misgivings of the group and plans to reveal their actions to one another. Her scheme is that each time someone asks a question she will inflict increasing amounts of pain. More so, if she declares someone needs punishment, she wants one of the group members to agree that the person deserves said punishment, thus, given how unlikable and idiotic these characters are, they easily turn on each other. The other problem going on is that, other than the guy who raped a chick, nobody did anything that bad unless Bernadette had more material she didn't touch on. By the end, one of the characters, who appeared to be dying, suddenly emerges and chokes out Bernadette momentarily. This is absurdly stupid, because this girl was bleeding to death for hours, is small in stature, and Bernadette already demonstrated a show of strength lifting up one of the guys who fell on the ground. Predictably, while freeing the group, this character realizes how horrible these individuals are and leaves them to their fate. During the end credits we see Bernadette plotting another party.

I know I'm sounding pretty harsh on a film I actually did like, but let me explain how Bernadette almost single handedly salvages the film and definitely steals the show. Interestingly, Bernadette is played by the writer of this film, Alyssa Lobit, and she successfully brings to life an enigmatic and personable villain. While Ms. Lobit is responsible for many of the story's problems, I kind of forgive her for doing double work and bringing to life an awesome villain. Lots of nuances like a quivering lip, neck cracking, crazed stares, and a creepy smile go a long way to enhance the already sadistically amusing Bernadette as she drops one-liners galore in a truly over the top performance. I'll give you an idea of the kind of dialogue she's delivering with genuine delight:  (after taking off one guy's wig) "That was just going to annoy me all night.", "Here, I'll give you an example of a rhetorical question. Are you stupid?", (looking for scissors) "Tongue...that is how you castrate a lesbian." At first I was on the fence about her ability to pull this character off, but the funnier she became, and her presentation of this morally driven killer, started to come off increasingly sexier; oh these bad girls always do it for me! I've read reviews where people were confused as to why Bernadette was doing all of this, but I thought it was kind of obvious she's a serial killer and has done this before and intends to continue. As for motive, besides being crazy, there are lots of hints strewn about that add more intrigue to her character. For example: she hates being called "Bernie," she hates to be called "sick," refers to the "meat" she serves as belonging to "some sick bastard who touched his little girl one too many times," is mad at bystanders to victimization, and discusses how rape will usually occur with someone you know. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume she was molested by her dad, killed him, and has been exacting her own brand of justice upon the idiots she encounters as there seems to be a great abundance of them populating the landscape. The last thing I'll say regarding Ms. Lobit is that I wonder if she's our technical first Asian female killer (outside of actual Asian horror)? I've watched too many movies to recall--it's all a blur at this point.

Overall, I can see why this would disappoint long time fans of Ms. Harris, but I think she did a great job on a first outing. This collaboration with Ms. Lobit was awesome, and I'd love to see them do more work, but hopefully they can learn from the mistakes made this time around. What this film had going for it was a nostalgic tone, interesting ideas, a sense of comradery with the crew, amusing background cameos, and, of course, Ms. Lobit's portrayal of Bernadette. On the other hand, the story felt unoriginal, the characters are annoying, the acting was shoddy at times, and there was a general sense of wasted potential. If you're a big fan of Ms. Harris, definitely check this bad boy out, but I would say this is a hit or miss outside of that fact especially if you don't even like the Bernadette character; I would say the average audience member is going to think this is typical direct to DVD quality.

Notable Moment: When we see a cameo by not only my dear Ms. Harris in her "Halloween 4" outfit but also an appearance by Michael fucking Biehn throwing a tantrum. I loooove it!

Final Rating: 6/10

Bonus: I wanted to mention that this review was meant for a long time ago, but blogger deleted the first one when I was about 90% done with it. I was pissed and skipped over this review until I felt collected enough to start it over. This is the second time this bullshit has happened! Oh, and all it took to delete everything was to press "undo" one time! Why the hell would a simple editing feature somehow clean the slate?! Oh and happy birthday to my darling little goddess, Rika Ishikawa!