12 HOUR SHIFT - FILM REVIEW

Bettis is reason enough to check out the film and I do think Brea Grant shows promise as a writer/director and I look forward to seeing what she creates next.

Writer/Director: Brea Grant
Starring: Angela Bettis, David Arquette, Chloe Farnworth, Mick Foley, Dusty Warren

It's 1999 and over the course of one 12 hour shift at an Arkansas hospital, a junkie nurse (Angela Bettis), her scheming cousin and a group of black market organ-trading criminals start a heist that could lead to their imminent demises.
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In order to give what we believe to be a more unbiased constructive criticism of the piece, the members of Bloodhound Pix are tackling each review as a panel of three. None of the members know the others’ thoughts on the content until after they submit their initial response.

Initial Reaction

K.  Right off the bat, 12 Hour Shift expertly evokes the world of 1999 Arkansas (with a nod to Kroger and Surge and Squirt brand sodas with a ‘Spurt’ soda machine) and the grueling life of shift nurse, Mandy (Angela Bettis).  Bettis oozes world weariness as the cynical Mandy.  We quickly find out she’s a chain-smoking, pill snorting misanthrope engaged with head nurse Karen (Nikea Gamby-Turner) in a scheme selling kidneys on the black market.  Her hot mess cousin by marriage, Regina (Chloe Farnworth), acts as courier, transporting the organs to a gangster named Nicholas (Mick Foley in a fun cameo).  The only thing is Regina forgot to bring the kidney and now she needs to come up with one in an hour or Nicholas will be all too happy to remove hers.  So Regina forces Mandy to help her come up with another kidney under the noses of the hospital staff, visitors and the cops.


There’s an odd assortment of other wacky characters bouncing around the hospital, most notably David Arquette as a cop-killing prisoner, who sadly gets little screen time.  The performances are solid across the board.  Bettis anchors the piece as the acerbic and tense Mandy.  When it lands the humor is black and appropriately weird but the writing feels unfocused at times with some of the characters being underused.  Despite the feeling that there’s some lost potential there, it’s still funny and a lot of fun and it’s great to see Bettis getting the kind of role she deserves.


C. I’m at a crossroads with 12 Hour Shift as it accomplishes something that makes me crave more but also leaves me with the feeling of unfulfilled frustration. I’ll return to this in a second.


I adore black comedy and eccentric characters, which this movie has in excess, so on paper and for the most part while watching it I am fully in, because this is my subgenre niche. Angela Bettis as Mandy is outstanding and makes you wonder why she doesn’t get more roles like this. She commands the screen, even as a worn down nurse that’s meant to be more on the deadpan-side of delivery. A large reason for her character is to play “straight” and counter all the over-the-top characters that pass through the story, which there’s a lot. Some of the frustration actually comes with this interesting supporting cast that makes you wish they were more expanded upon. You don’t want boring characters but by having more caricature-like performances we’re left daydreaming of a “what could be” scenario if the story followed this person or went this route. Overall the story feels like a nurse dealing with all these strange people over the course of her shift, which is the intention but it’s not fine-tuned enough for us to feel like this is the only correct version of this story. I avoid going into a movie thinking “this is how I would’ve done it” but that’s what this invokes, which is as much of a compliment as a criticism.


Technically it’s fine, there’s some clunkiness in the editing here and there that feels purposeful but doesn’t achieve the desired effect it was going for, which I guess is the general theme of my review. It’s fun, watchable, and fills that black-comedic itch I have, if only it had a little more editing throughout every level of production.

Response

C. Ultimately I liked the movie a lot and would watch the next thing that Brea Grant releases. I can’t deny you get the sense of “here’s another actor that’s trying to transition into directing because (insert reason here), so they’re making a low budget genre flick because those get attention.” But Grant comes from that spot in the indie horror community where they all wear many hats so it doesn’t feel completely out of the ordinary unlike many others that have come out within the last couple years.


K.  I agree with Craig completely.  There’s a lot of things to like about the film but there’s also a lot of things across the board that felt like they needed some elaboration and there were some hiccups in the editing and score.  But Bettis is reason enough to check out the film and I do think Brea Grant shows promise as a writer/director and I look forward to seeing what she creates next.


Bloodhound’s average score: 3 ½ out of 5

Bloodhound Pix is made up of: Craig Draheim, Josh Lee,
​and Kyle Hintz

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