(upbeat music) - We're gonna carry on and plan the sequel 'cause that's face it, baby, these days! You gotta have the sequel! (whooshing) (upbeat music) - And welcome back to Microqueers. It's our Queer Horror Film Roundup, and I'm Jep. - And I'm Trace, and we are discussing Marcus Dunstin's All My Friends Are Dead, or #Yup. - You gotta put that hashtag in there because there's a Polish film of the same name! - #AMFAD, which, okay. This is kind of a heel turn of aesthetic and style and tone from Mr. Dunstin, isn't it, Joe? - Well, I mean, he's always been a very stylish director, so the pieces where it was a lot of editing and it kind of looked a bit like a saw film, I wasn't too surprised by. But there are some interesting creative choices. Like, there's that moment where we see the purple liquid from somebody's drink and it turns into the map of the car driving on the back roads. I thought it was interesting. I also don't know how much it actually added, but cool! - There was a lot of showiness, but I actually enjoyed a lot of that stuff. 'Cause, in case you all know, Marcus Dunstin, he is the director of films like The Collector and The Collection. He's written several of the mid-entry saw films. And so, I guess this movie's a lot more colorful and zippy than what I was expecting from him. - Okay, yeah. - But I'll say, I actually, okay, well, we're gonna just jump into it, Joe. So, would you recommend this movie? - This would be a soft recommendation. It's, you know, 90, 95 minutes. So, it's not gonna waste your day, but also, as soon as I was done it, I started to almost immediately purge it. Like, I just don't think it's particularly memorable. - So, you're not gonna remember this is what you're saying. - I'm probably not gonna remember. - I think I'm in the same boat. Like, I very gentle recommend with this one, but I don't think I'll remember either. Truthfully, I actually think the first act of this movie is pretty good and sets up a movie that I wanted that we don't really get. - Oh, you mean getting to Karma Palooza and actually getting to experience it and not just being stuck at an Airbnb for the rest of the film? - Well, but even like, once it starts becoming a slasher film, my interest, like just plummeted in this movie because it's all so generic. - Yes, yes, and there were ideas in the first act that I was like, oh cool, I hope we like delve into that a bit more. And, I mean, 'cause what this is everyone, if you don't know what this is, it's basically like a Gen Z influencer horror comedy. - Sure, yeah. I'm thinking like comparisons of films like Sissy or maybe even Deadstream if you wanna go there, but like this is very much a slasher film themed after the Seven Deadly Sins, also killing a bunch of really unlikable characters. - Oh boy, I think that's gonna be a bit of a make or break element for a lot of folks. There's no one to really latch on to. And spoiler alert for folks who don't know, yes, we do spoil the microqueer's films. The end of this film makes it pretty clear that you're not supposed to like any of them, but it also means you still have to watch a bunch of unlikable characters for about 90 to 95 minutes. - Which, I mean, I think like Liv is a character who like, you know, you can latch on to, but she dies so early that it doesn't really matter. But like, even Mona played by Jennifer Hens, who I think this actress does a pretty good job with the role, but like she is the queen bee, the bitch of the movie. - She's the villain. I will say this was my most enjoyable performance. I didn't like the character, but I did find that every time Mona was on screen, I was the most invested. - I agree and she has some pretty good zingers, but some of them work, some of them don't. Like, I don't think she was entertaining enough to carry me through the film, but I do agree she was one of the most entertaining characters. I actually really did like Jay Pettyjohn as our final girl Sarah. She really, oh fuck, you didn't watch the original Pretty Little Liars, but she looks like Sasha Peters, who was the missing girl. - Oh, she does. Yeah, 100%. - I've seen pictures. - Okay, yeah, that's what you know. But, yeah, I mean, I just thought, yeah, generic is a really good way to put it. The climax kind of pulled me back in a little bit, but I was like, okay, we're kind of doing something, maybe not different, but like interesting hair, but then it kept going and I was like, oh, like, whatever. - Well, okay, so we mentioned this Caramel Palooza piece. So the idea is that there's this group of college AG indeterminate late 20-something kids who are all going to this concert. And it's 20 years after a massacre occurred. So the film actually opens with news reports of the 2004 Caramel Palooza when the seven deadly sin killer struck and murdered seven people. So the concert festival, whatever, was put on ice and now they're bringing it back and it's sold out and these kids are going to it. So you think, okay, we're going to go to this event and instead they end up with a flat tire. They have to stay at an Airbnb. So the other connection it has is all of those Airbnb whores, like the rental and so on. - Or, I mean, this year's the strangest chapter one. - Yes, yes. And yeah, then you're right, then they get killed off in sort of the way that they were assigned shot glasses based on their personalities. And then this all ties back to an event within the group's history where a friend of theirs or maybe an acquaintance or maybe a secret lover died by suicide or so we're led to believe this is the JoJo Siwa character Collette. And yeah, there's a couple of twist reveals at the end that I think writers, Josh Sims and Jessica Seriflam believe are more exciting or will make us invest more in this than we actually will, but we're also desperately setting up a sequel. - Really confidently to the point where the fight, y'all, if you didn't finish like through the credits, the film, there was like several mid-credits scenes in this movie, it even says next movie coming soon, like the James Bond movies used to do. - I mean, this is part of that playfulness that I think Dunstan is working with because as I mentioned, we've got this news footage and then we push in on a TV screen that literally says feature presentation. So we're doing a little bit of meta textual references which oddly the rest of the film doesn't really engage with, but we're bookending it with these sly winks at the audience. - And I think that's what was most disappointing to me about this, like I found that the most interesting, the most engaging aspects of the film. - Because it's different. - Yes, it's very different. And you know, yes, Dunstan gets to do some really good practical effects work in this film and some not really good CG work in this film. - Weird combination. - Some of this looks great and other parts I thought, ooh, somebody had a budget of $10 and an Apple computer. - Yeah, the CGI spray blood is pretty egregious. But again, like there's a couple of intestines in here that look really good, like the expanding stomach on the gluttony kill looks really good, but then it explodes and it looks like shit. Like it's such an up and down roller coaster of quality when it comes to those effects. And then the writing is... - Inconsistent. - You know what, yes. Inconsistent is a good way to put it. But the energy in the editing and the visuals, especially in that first act and some of it in the third act really kind of carried me through to the credits, but that middle chunk of episodic, like slashery, like seven deadly sense themes kills really dragged this movie down. - Well, okay, so question for you. Obviously there is that saw connection and several of these kills feel like we are doing a saw related movie, right? You know, to the point where we are labeling each of the characters with a particular sin and then we try to murder them in the same way. But that also feels like it goes out the window after the second kill and then all of a sudden it's just free for all. - 100, and I was so annoyed by that. So yeah, like, you know, we get gluttony, which is, you know, a stomach exploding, he gets filled with like a bunch of fluids. Then we get greed, which is like an acid bath. - That one I liked a fair amount. - I did too. - I don't think it was actual makeup work entirely on live. Like at certain points, it looked really good and at other points it just looked like bad, sort of CGI steam coming out of her, but it was creative, it was interesting. - And then for lust, we get a blade of dildo, which I'm just like, oh, if you really, you're already like comparing yourself to seven by using the seven deadly sins and then we're just gonna use the blade of dildo for lust. Okay. - Well, and even it looks like a super cheap knockoff version of knife plus heart, which yeah, this surprise folks, this movie is also secretly queer horror because a bunch of folks were dabbling in same sex relationships. And yeah, it just felt very, ooh, we're gonna try to eat these better known or better received films and hope for the best. - And like these characters that have like, this poor Aaron character played by Cardi Wong has, he's kind of funny, but like has nothing in this movie to work with, except he likes Sarah. - Yeah, so this is the guy who can't come on the trip because he's still working at the pharmacy and he just keeps getting cold and it feels like a way for the film to keep bringing the character in because he can't come. So we're calling him to get drugs, we're calling him to come and do ride shares because we can't get an Uber, because the festival is so popular and he just shows up and then more or less promptly gets murdered. And it feels like we're trying to be subversive. You know, ooh, you thought he was the romantic love interest to our final girl. So obviously he's going to live and save the day. Oops, no, he's dead. But it all just feels flat. - Oh yeah, I didn't care about this character. Oh, I actually, we didn't even, but we mentioned her, but not the actress, but I actually really did like Michaela Russell who plays Officer Shaw. I think her one scene where they get the flat tire is really good. - It's fun. - She's less good in the third act when she has to, 'cause spoiler alert everyone, the bad guys are Officer Shaw and our final girl Sarah, who are lesbian lovers teaming up to kill everyone. - At what point did you figure out this first twist trace? - I feel like it's, 'cause there's only one possible suspect. I didn't think it was any of the kids. And so it's like, well, I guess it has to be the cop, 'cause she was also actually pretty weird when they got the tire. So I knew pretty early it was Officer Shaw, but I was trying to figure out how she was connected to the jiu-jitsu character. - Okay, so I have a question because I don't know if I'm just too stupid or maybe I passed out for a moment or five or 20 or something, but was Officer Shaw connected to Collette's death? 'Cause yeah, spoiler alert everybody, that's the reason they're all being killed is because they more or less bullied Collette to die by suicide and then we burnt the shack that the body was discovered in so that all the evidence was gone, but then it's eventually revealed, oh no, there's more to the story. But I couldn't figure out how Shaw was connected except that she comforted Sarah when Sarah tried to die by suicide. - Yeah, so she walked across Sarah when Sarah tried to die by suicide and stopped her from doing it. So she had actually no collection of Collette. She only just found Sarah pre-suicide attempt and stopped her. - So she's just being like a good lesbian girlfriend and saying, you know what, I'm gonna help you murder six people. - That's absolutely what this is, yeah. But then the extra reveal we get at the end of the movie is that, oh, like Collette didn't kill herself, Sarah was going to lure Mona and everyone else there, sorry, at least it's Laura Mona there to kill her and Collette came to stop her and then Sarah accidentally killed Collette, made it look like a suicide, burned the cabinet, all this stuff. - Folks, this literally comes out in like the last four to five minutes of the film. So it's so late in the game. And you just think, okay. I mean, I didn't mind that Sarah was secretly in on it, but then this whole complicated backstory of, oh no, it's not just I'm doing this for vengeance. It's, yeah, I was also fucking Collette, who was also fucking Mona. And then I felt really bad when I accidentally killed her. So I decided I'm going to wait and get my revenge. - On everyone else. Yeah. And honestly, by that point, I was kind of like, okay, you're kind of pulling me back because we're just doing reveal after reveal after reveal. And it was real stupid, but I-- - Very dumb. - I appreciated the stupidity because it was like, you know, you're doing this with like such confidence that I appreciate it, which is like, in that middle section, it's just so like, ugh, like. - Yeah. Okay. Well, I think part of the other reason that the middle section doesn't work for either one of us is because this is a movie with too many characters. So even though, yes, you know, when we arrive at this Airbnb, everybody takes a shot and we have a kind of sin designation with each of them that we're supposed to use to keep them sorted in our mind, right? So yeah, we've got pride and gluttony and lust and all this other stuff. But half of the characters, you know, even when I wrote it out, I was like, okay, it's this person, this sin, and this is kind of their defining trait. Like, sloth, which is the slacker guy Will, who is played by Justin Derrickson, I still can't tell you who this character is, apart from the fact that we only ever see him on the couch. - The movie also does this really annoying thing, where, you know, as you said, you know, like, we kind of dropped the seven deadly sins theme kills after a while because three of these seven people get killed in the basement just in haphazard ways. So like, we lose Will by getting like, and he gets asked to the back, Aaron stabs in the eye and gutted, Mona has a throat slit. So yeah, we have three characters who should have their own like themed deaths that don't, did you ever see Hellfest? - I have, yeah. - Okay, Hellfest is something very similar. We start kind of killing every character gets their own kind of like death set piece, but then like when the third act starts, we just kill two or three people at the same time in a like a mob, like they stabbed in the crowd. And it's like, well, this, like, why, why? Like, it's such a waste of these characters. In some ways, it feels like we're stepping away from it because even in this film, okay, things have gotten out of control. It's a little bit madness. We're just trying to kill the people where we can because the plan has gone to shit. And in some ways, I appreciate how that's a little closer to what reality would be like, you know, sure, I've got murder set pieces, but the reality is somebody walks in, I've just got to murder them or something like that. But this is also a film. It's a narrative construction. So if you're setting something up, the audience is going to expect that kind of payoff. And I like, I immediately noticed when after LB, who is the Aussie man horror who is, he's the slut. - Yeah, less. - Says he's less. Immediately after him, we just start killing people willy-nilly and I noticed, oh, okay, we're not doing sins anymore. Well, why did we bother? It feels like you're setting up something that you're not going to pay off. And as an audience member, that's disappointing. Because they're trying to copycat the original killer, which again, I'm like, well, you're not doing a very good job. If three of the six people you're killing aren't themed after the seven deadly sins. Even though at the end of the film, everybody says, oh, I guess the seven deadly sin killers back. And of course, that's our setup for the sequel is that the real killer calls Sarah and says, I know what you did. Which, okay. - Sure, whatever. - Yeah, it's, I don't, I don't think I'm getting a C. I don't care. But whatever, you know, if it comes out, we'll probably watch it. It's fine, whatever, like lesbian versus serial killer. Sure, why not? - Sure, yeah. - I will say, I was prepared to come in here to like make fun of JoJo Siwa, but I actually thought JoJo Siwa was, y'all, she doesn't really have a lot to do in this movie, I think. - She has nothing to do. - She maybe has five speaking lines, but we get a lot of like cutaways to her in this movie. But like, she's not speaking. - Yeah, it's very twin pixie with Laura Palmer, where we're just seeing footage of her from like video camera or people's memories. And I mean, it's fine. - It's, yeah. - It's clearly stunt casting. I think that's even, you know, when we got sent the screener for this, the original email was, watch this exclusive clip of JoJo Siwa in the film. And the film opens with that clip because that's the most collet has to do in the film. - When we get that though, it's also, it's very out of context. We have no context for who this girl is, why she's killing herself, whatever. Like it's a really weird setup. - It takes like three or four false starts to get into the actual film. And at the end of the day, it's not a huge deal because you kind of get there in the end. But it is, it's a perplexing way to begin your movie. - It's also because the opening titles and credits take place 20 minutes into the film. Like this is like a Friday the 13th remake situation. - Yes, I did notice that too. I couldn't tell if it was a bold choice or if it just felt kind of like, "Oh, right, maybe we should do the credits at some point." - It felt more like the latter for me. But I mean, either way, y'all. This is a decent enough time. I would not say run out and watch this. But like, you know what, if you see if it's cheap or if you see it, I'm streaming, give it a watch. I've seen far worse films. It's just like, I think there is a lot of promise in the first act of this film that does not get paid off by the time the credits roll. - Yeah, if you're a fan of slashers, then this could do it for you. As we said, some of the gore is pretty good. Some of it's not so good. Even the killer, you know, wears a fun, sort of responsive mask that we do projected images of Collette on. So it's a little squid game I'm not gonna lie, but at the end of the day, it's decent. You know, you can waste 90 minutes watching this and you'll be like, "All right, that was fine." - I kind of almost wish the mask was Collette's face the entire time. - It would have been more memorable. - Yeah, I think so as well. Because it's not Collette, 'cause at least Collette is dead. We don't like resurrect her in some weird way. - Right. I did wonder if that was going to be the secret reveal. - That's what I do. - She survived this attempt on her life and she's come back for vengeance. It would have been an easier twist. So I am glad we didn't go that route. - Yeah, well, like, so before we close out, what did you think about Sarah killing Officer Shaw, which I was kind of bummed by? - A little bit, yeah. It seemed like the kind of thing where we wanted to do twist on twist, not twist, as you said. So by the time we get to that, I wasn't too surprised, but yeah, considering that this movie is fairly liberal with its queer representation, no real stigma about who's hooking up with who and so on, I was a bit bummed that we had our murder lesbians turning on each other. - I thought so too, yeah. But yeah, check it out if you feel like it, guys. (laughing) - There we go, a very, very soft recommend. - A very soft recommend, but until next time, we can cross out all my friends are dead. - No, say it properly. - Oh, we can cross out #AMFAD colon all my friends are dead. - Thank you. - Yes, and cross out my queer queers. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
