RAVERS (2020): HORROR FILM REVIEW

​I'm not much of a partygoer. You're more likely to find me sitting on the sofa stuffing my face with pizza than at a nightclub. As such, my knowledge of the rave scene is limited to the warehouse bits in Go and that one episode of Spaced where the gang go clubbing to the A-team theme remix. I'm reliably informed that little fish, big fish and cardboard boxes figure into it somehow. That said, I'm pretty sure that a night on the dance-floor isn't meant to end with crazed zombie-mutants all over the place. Pretty sure.
 
Ravers is the second feature from director Bernhard Pucher and writer Luke Foster, and their first horror. They really knock it out of the park, giving us a film that's low-key but great fun to watch. The film follows Becky, a germaphobic investigative reporter played by Georgia Hirst (Vikings). Her horror of all things unclean is getting in the way of both her job and her love life, as her boss (Natasha Henstridge is a tiny but effective cameo) tells her she needs to get her hands dirty to truly become a reporter. When her ex-girlfriend complains about how boring Becky is, it's the final straw and she decides to go with her cousin to an illegal rave at an abandoned energy-drink factory. As you do. The party turns ugly, though, as a contaminated batch of drinks turn the dancers (or ravers, if you will) into violent zombie-mutants!
 
It's an entertainingly silly premise, one that perhaps sounds a little familiar. Tainted energy drinks cause a zombie outbreak in the series iZombie, and the mutants in the bonkers video game Sunset Overdrive were also caused by bad caffeinated beverages. Now we have a drink that turns people into zombie-mutants? Put the cans down, folks, it's not worth it. Stick to coffee.
 
Once the opening kill is out the way, the story is a little slow to get going, with a couple of scenes that are perhaps overly long and initially seem pointless (but have important payoffs later), but that's ok as it rarely feels like it drags. A lot of that is down to Hirst's excellent performance; there's something very endearing about her character, and a trait that could easily have become annoying was well-handled and treated as both a challenge and just a part of who she is. The sight of her on the dancefloor in a facemask and a parka with the hood up, surrounded by dancers, is hugely funny. We also meet the supporting players: Becky's stoner cousin Ozzy (Danny Kirrane), fellow raver Jen (Maria Volk), scumbag drug dealer Vince (Kamal Angelo Bolden) and flirty love interest Hannah (Manpreet Bambra).
 
Bambra's is another standout performance, as she shines in the scenes she shares with Becky. The chemistry between them sizzles, and they make for a very cute couple. The way Hannah handles Becky's cleanliness issues is both sweet and surprisingly sexy. Once the shit hits the fan, it's largely these scenes that make us root for the characters and hope they can get out of this alive.

 
Speaking of which: the zombies themselves. They're not actually zombies, as the film takes pains to let us know. There's some kind of interaction between the drink and the drugs at the party that sends the ravers into mutant mode, with mottled skin and crazy twitching eyes that I found really unsettling. They all crave something, not flesh, but something. You're mostly ok if you can give them what they're after; they want beer, they want drugs, they want sex, but mostly they want thumping bass and pumping beats and god help you if they don't get them. The science behind the mutation is a bit wibbly (it made my wife cry into her Chemistry PhD), but if you expect accurate biochemistry from a film about energy-drink-fuelled mutant ravers then I don't know what to tell you, man.
 
The special effects are mostly brilliant. The CGI on the opening kill is a little clunky, but it's dealt with swiftly and followed by a very funny gag that immediately makes up for it. The rest of the effects all appear to be practical, with bugging out eyes and horrible burned flesh aplenty. It takes a while to get there, but towards the end things get nasty and gooey in the best way. Becky really gets put through the wringer as a germaphobe, given how much blood and muck gets thrown around, which really helps the story; too often a writer will set up a trait like this and then forget completely about it, but this is consistent and satisfying to the end. The soundtrack is also decent, with lots of unts-unts-unts to nod your head to as you watch and a couple of great gags (the drop-the-bass moment in particular was very clever).

Ravers was very much my jam,  a fun film from beginning to end, with brilliant effects and a great lead performance. As I said, there are a couple of minor pacing issues, but nothing that spoils the fun. There's a sense that this is the beginning of a beautiful career, not just for Pucher & Foster but for Hirst, who inexplicably only seems to have two credits to her name so far. I hope they'll go far! I'll almost certainly be watching this again, with pizza and a few beers.
 
No energy drinks though, ta, think I'll pass on those for a while.
 
 
5 ginger nuts out of 5

SAM KURD ​