Last Straw

A night of terror awaits the manager of a small-town diner in Last Straw, the directorial debut from Alex Scott Neal. The unlucky employee is Nancy (Jessica Belkin). She’s a 20-something-year-old who’s unable to break free of the town she grew up in, now working in the roadside diner owned by her widower father. After lashing out at her colleagues following a shift from hell, Nancy ends up working the graveyard shift alone. However, this proves to be a terrible mistake. Soon after, she’s tormented by a group of youths who she kicked out earlier that day. Although this movie doesn’t hit all its marks, Neal nevertheless crafts a pulpy thriller that puts some interesting spins on the home invasion genre.

When viewers first meet Nancy, she’s smoking weed with her best friend (Tara Raani) and driving to work in a beat-up old car, radio blaring, in the middle of nowhere. The film has a grungy Americana feel, which extends through to the pent-up rage of both victim and assailants. Combine this with Nancy dancing along to the jukebox in a scene reminiscent of Tarantino’s Death Proof, and a delightfully pulpy synth score by Alan Palomo, and Last Straw is a gleefully stylish horror outing.

This feature’s greatest trick, though, is a surprise perspective shift halfway into the action that shows the day’s events from another character’s point of view. Although the latter half doesn’t feature any major revelations that completely subvert what came before, the switch does effectively build upon the script’s themes of rage, taking the concept of toxicity in the workplace to new extremes.

It’s a solid premise made even better with a unique setting and style. Unfortunately, Last Straw is held back by a script that’s stuffed with plot points that only weigh down the action. A potential romance between Nancy and one of her coworkers, for example, serves to artificially inflate the emotional stakes during the climax. The ending likewise doesn’t land as intended, leaving this lean horror on a flat note.

Last Straw isn’t a typical invasion horror: it’s a grungy tale of small-town residents reaching their breaking points, with the result being a thoughtful take on the genre that’s dripping in style.

Andrew Murray

Last Straw does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Glasgow Film Festival 2024 coverage here.

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