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The Last Laugh
Killing Joke
USA 2020
produced by Matt Medisch, Jeremy Berg, Chris Joseph Taylor, Jason Dreyer, David Moscow, Todd Remis, John Portanova (executive) for The October People, Adventus Films, Cool Productions, Salem Street Entertainment, UnLTD Productions
directed by Jeremy Berg
starring Steve Vanderzee, Eric Stone, Lowell Deo, Angela DiMarco, Meranda Long, Marcus Leppard, Brad Jessernig, Nick Sage Palmieri, Tonya M. Skoog, Luke Schuck, Jeffrey Arrington, Scott C. Brown, Taylor Johnson-Heath, Mark Rahner
written by Jeremy Berg, practical effects and makeup by Lisa van Dam-Bates, visual effects by David Phillips
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Myles (Steve Vanderzee) has once been a very funny stand-up comedian -
but has lost his edge ever since he has lost his wife (Taylor
Johnson-Heath), something he has never come to terms with, which is why
he's on prescription drugs. However, his manager and friend Nelson (Eric
Stone) still believes in him, which is why he has booked him a big gig
opening for Reggie Ray (Lowell Deo), once a star comedian yearning for a
comeback, and Nelson has even invited top comedy promoter Isabella (Tonya
M. Skoog) just to see him. Now all Myles has to do is deliver the goods -
and it really seems everything's working in his favour, the show's venue
is not yet another small club with an unreceptive audience but a big
theatre with its own stage manager (Marcus Leppard), sound guy (Brad
Jessernig), costumer (Tonya M. Skoog) and other staff, who prove to be
very helpful, he has his own dressing room, and manages to strike a
friendship with the usually cold theatre director (Angela DiMarco). Thing
is, he has somehow misplaced his medication, and he starts seeing blood
dripping down the walls first, and dead bodies later - but every time he
tries to tell someone, the respective bodies are gone, and everybody just
blames it on Myles' nerves. Thing is, a masked killer is actually roaming
the backstage area of the theatre, killing staff pretty much left and
right, but keeping the dead bodies out of sight for anyone to notice until
it's too late. And this killer seems to be hell-bent on making Myles'
murder his crowning achievement ... In many a way, this film is
somewhat reminiscent of gialli of old, what with the masked killer,
gruesome killings, and psychological undercurrents, and due to the theatre
setting, Michele Soavi's Stage Fright
(1987) most readily springs to mind - but that's to say, The Last Laugh
is actually anything but a carbon copy of the giallo formula, as it's less
fixated on the murders (both visually and narratively) and is actually
much more of a character study of a man trying to not break up when
keeping it together means the most - and Steve Vanderzee does a wonderful
job bringing this to life. Thus the direction is very subtle throughout
and mostly relies on character work rather than setpieces to create
tension and suspense, and at the same time it does a wonderful job keeping
the audience guessing how much is actually happening, how much is in
Myles' head, up to the point where one can't be sure whether the killer
might actually be himself. And even if this might be a very unusual
thriller due to its focus on its lead's (unrelated) mental problems, it's
very cool genre entertainment all the same.
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