Open 24 Hours review: A traumatised young woman gets more than she bargained for when signing up for the night shift in Padraig Reynolds’ latest horror offering.
Open 24 Hours review by Kat Hughes.
Open 24 Hours review
Mary (Vanessa Grasse) is a very troubled young woman; she’s just got out of prison after setting her boyfriend on fire. It’s okay though as he was a serial killer. Suffering heavily with the after effects of being involved with him, she’s mentally fragile. In need of money, and a normal life, she takes on a job at an all night gas station where she’ll be working the night shift. Her first shift may turn out to be her last however, as her ex might just have found her.
Open 24 Hours is directed by Padraig Reynolds and is a rather mixed bag of hits and misses. We’ll start first with the hits – Vanessa Grasse is great as Mary. The character is incredibly complex, completely broken by her past, and determined to continue on. Grasse does a wonderful job of showing the different layers to Mary, particularly nailing the stressed and distraught reactions to visions. She is the epitome of traumatised, but also manages to maintain that inner strength that is needed for events to come later on.
Where the film falters is in its pacing. It’s a very slow film, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just in this instance it hampers the story. The single setting doesn’t help either, especially as all the rooms look the same and it’s hard to ever know where the characters are. Most of the time it just looks like Mary is roaming around the same room. The decision to keep Mary predominantly on her own also causes the film to drag. Granted it heightens her isolation, but it also becomes far too repetitive – Mary sees or hears something that scares her, she investigates, gets more scared, runs over, is fine.
It’s also never clear how much time has passed between scenes. Mary is working the night shift and it would be helpful if the viewer knew how much longer she had to go. Without any visual references, it just feels like the night is going on forever until suddenly it’s morning.
Open 24 Hours review
There are also too many illogical plot decisions for the viewer to contend with. Obviously this is work of fiction, and is set within a fictional world, but there are still many implausibilities. For one, I’m pretty sure that Mary would be given a new identity given the nature of her past. Secondly, she wouldn’t be left alone on her very first shift somewhere, especially when she has no prior experience. She’s clearly not cured of her anxieties and would likely be tied-up in therapy.
A great central performance is let down by an over-clogged and muddled plot full of holes and implausibilities. Open 24 Hours makes for so-so viewing should there be nothing else available, but otherwise isn’t really worth your time.
Open 24 Hours review by Kat Hughes, August 2018.
Open 24 Hours screened as part of Arrow Video Frightfest 2018.
