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When driving drunk, Tyler (Bryan Brewer) hit and killed little Zach
(Jakob Ulrich) - but at least then he and his girlfriend Casey (Allie
Rivera) did the right thing and reported it ... and got away with it. It's
Zach's wake today, and for some reason, Zach's mom Nadine (Darla Delgado)
has invited Tyler, Casey, and their friends Ben (Michael Aaron Milligan),
Ginger (Kristen Dalton) and Ashley (Amanda Musso), and she seems to hold
no grudges ... and suddenly, Tyler, Casey and Ben find themselves tied up
in different rooms of Nadine's place, and while they can free themselves,
they have only little idea what's going on - and while they kind of start
to suspect it's the work of Nadine, their suspicions are crushed when they
find her in the same position they are. They soon also find out that
there's a masked madman in the house with them, and as a warning, he has
put the body of Ashley, whom he has slaughtered but good, into their way,
as a friendly warning that he's serious about things. He of course also
holds Ginger hostage. Problem is, our heroes are a bit low on options,
there's no cellphone reception, the power is cut by their adversary, while
they don't know where exactly he's hiding, inside the house or outside, he
seems to anticipate each and every of their moves ... and when they catch
him (and have no idea who he is after unmasking him, they have to find
there are others about in similar attire with similarly bad intentions.
And of course, when the situation seemingly can't get any worse, it
totally does ... Even though The Wake is basically a
slasher movie, it makes refreshingly little effort to stick to the way too
tried-and-true formula, instead keeps one guessing throughout, and relies
on atmosphere and suspense and well-placed sudden shocks rather than
in-your-face violence. Plus, the weird premise of course works totally in
the film's favour, and so does the film's rather unexpected finale that
includes a deliciously odd plottwist. And add to that a really nice
ensemble cast playing colourful characters one actually does care about,
and you've got a very entertaining genre flick.
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