Mandy (Angela Bettis), a nurse with a drug problem, is doing her night shift at the hospital, and at first it seems like a very ordinary day, the patients get on her nerves, but not too much, she manages to swipe drugs from the sick without anybody noticing - essentially since she's responsible for administering the drugs -, and during a cigarette break, she brings a bag of illegally removed organs out to her cousin-in-law Regina (Chloe Farnworth), who's going to deliver them to organ mafia kingpin Nicholas (Mick Foley) ... which I probably should have mentioned earlier, you see, Mandy, the hospital's receptionist Karen (Nikea Gamby-Turner) and Regina, Mandy's cousin-by-marriage, are all part of an organ smuggling ring which involves Mandy killing terminal patients using bleach, someone else doing the removal, Mandy doing the handover to Regina, and Karen organizing that part of the operation, also in terms of paperwork. Highly immoral of course, but also very profitable and low risk - if it wasn't for Regina, who's basically not the brightest of the bright, and who this time around simply forgets to take the bag of organs with her - much to the dismay of Nicholas, who's in desparate need of a kidney for one of his clients, and who gives Regina an ultimatum, otherwise he'll just take one of Regina's kidneys. Back at the hospital though, the bag of organs which Regina left is nowhere to be found, so Regina begs Mandy to get her another kidney, and when Mandy refuses, dresses up in scrubs herself and kills a patient - onfortunately one with a kidney malfunction. When Mandy finds out she's furious of course, also because the patient's death brings an only vaguely competent police officer (Kit Williamson) to the scene. Mandy now does her best to get a new kidney for Regina, but when Regina sees Nicholas has sent an enforcer (Dusty Warren), she gets desparate and kills a guy in the parking lot to remove his kidney - but without the first idea about anatomy, she takes out his bladder instead. This only leads the hospital to be put on lockdown, with Regina in scrubs inside, and as an added attraction, a copkiller (David Arquette) has only recently been admitted - under guard of course, but as part of an aborted scheme, Mandy drugged the guard, the copkiller has freed himself, and now freely wonders the building - and he's not in a good mood ...

A film based on Murphy's law of "whatever can go wrong will go wrong" of course, 12 Hour Shift is just really good in finding things that can go wrong, and tieing them up in a very comprehensive and well-structured story that despite all the dark stuff happening (and there's a lot) keeps a comic edge, but without resorting to gross-out humour or the like, but rather keeping stuff, unlikely as it might seem, grounded in reality. But what really makes this one work is that the film shows great empathy for its lead characters, makes their flaws, and there are many, relatable at least, and both Angela Bettis and Chloe Farnworth do a great job playing their roles in a believable way, supported by a very solid ensemble.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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