Two weeks ago, Netflix surprise-released new Blumhouse film Mercy Black, an ok Slenderman-inspired story that benefitted from its curious drop at midnight. The latest is Thriller, a new slasher that feels more apropos of the April Fool’s slot Mercy Black received considering the premise. Though it’s easy to see why Blumhouse chose not to lead its direct-to-Netflix surprise releases with Thriller; this slasher forgets to be a horror movie for most of its runtime.
Set in a South Central Los Angeles neighborhood, a group of 13-year-olds lure a soft-spoken, stuttering outcast to a house under construction for one mean prank. We know it’ll be mean even before the prank happens, as our introduction to the outcast, Chauncey, is of him buying a hot dog at a convenience store only to turn around and give it to the homeless person outside. As for the group of prankers, there’s not much that sets them apart from each other save for one “good girl”, Lisa, that voices her reluctance to participate out of morality-based concerns. Granted, she baits Chauncey anyway, and the moment he steps into the house the kids put on masks and proceed to scare him senseless. Naturally, it results in death and the teens band together to throw poor Chauncey under the bus to the cops. He spends the next four years locked up in a juvenile detention center while the teens get on with their lives. As they prepare for their senior year Homecoming dance, Chauncey is finally freed, which kick off a string of murders.
In other words, the premise is a modern, urban set take on Prom Night. Including the very slow pacing. Even though the film skips to four years later after the opening, the teens have all been recast with older versions making it a little difficult to discern who’s who at first. Director Dallas Jackson, making his feature debut here, spends a lot of time getting the viewer acquainted with them all. Save for a seed of a red herring or two, Thriller soon forgets it’s a slasher as it hones in on what it means to come of age in this neighborhood. For some of the teens it means working hard to break free of Compton, for others it’s embracing the hard edges. It’s not until roughly 50 minutes in of the 90-minute run time that Thriller circles back to being a horror movie, but even then, it still takes its time. Many of the kills are off screen, too, making for a fairly bloodless slasher.
Getting to know the cast of potential victims usually makes for a better slasher, as we’re more invested and therefore more afraid for them. Though this group of kids do have interesting stories to tell, the acting isn’t strong enough to sell it. Kim (Pepi Sonuga) spends most of the movie chasing a popular music artist, but occasionally exhibits a personality disorder, channeling her sister who died in the opening sequence. But Sonuga doesn’t have the nuance or experience to pull it off, and these moments wind up playing for unintended laughs. Jessica Alain is the lead as clear final girl Lisa, but there’s no depth there either and Lisa comes across bland. Furthering the flatness of the narrative is the washed out lighting; much of what transpires takes place during the bright California sun but it’s shot in an oversaturated way.
Thriller attempts to bring a new perspective to a tried and true horror sub-genre, but it ultimately feels as generic as its title. Those who are familiar with Prom Night will pick out the killer’s identity nearly straight away, and the familiar plot beats will drag. The final act has no bite in its bark, and the payoff, or lack thereof, feels like an afterthought. So much time is spent with these teens in their daily lives and so little is spent fleshing out anything remotely to do with the slasher plot that it leaves an impression that this project wasn’t initially conceived as a horror movie at all. There’s a nugget of a good idea buried under weak writing, acting, and directing, and for horror fans this isn’t anything we haven’t seen before.
Thriller hits Netflix this Saturday at midnight.
