The Last Matinee (2020)

The plot doesn't reinvent the wheel and wears its influences in every frame: Uruguay slasher in a theater in 1993, where a maniac in a raincoat and hood, using a tiny knife (still sharp), takes advantage of attention-occupied patrons as a Frankenstein gory monster movie (that reminds me of some Paul Naschy / Klimovsky collab) plays on the big screen. I LOVE this theater, with its blood red (and fading) seats and multilevels of space. The killer really does have plenty of room, and those in the theater aren't thinking about some wacko trudging around a bag looking to pickle their plucked/collected eyeballs once he sticks the knife in deep and savage.

The characters are more or less an assemblange of regulars, unfortunately choosing this particular theater to spend a rainy evening. Ana, studying for a test, takes over for her coughing, ill father, running the projector room. Mauricio is the flashlight-carrying employee tasked with quieting the unruly, halting cigarette smoking, shooing out hangers-on who happen to lounge around longer than allowed, and flirting with an Ana who just doesn't want to talk to him about their horoscope. What Ana couldn't prepare for between trading out film canisters is a nut with a knife and a fixation for stabbing and eye removal.

There is a kid who stayed behind (I wonder where the parent was), a young woman (nicknamed Brooke Shields by an infatuated movie-goer later making a move to sit by her) stood up by some guy (lucky guy, even if he was a louse), a trio of teenagers who are a bit noisy and chatty, an old man with bad eyesight (who doesn't last long),and this out-of-his-depth Horacio who took a chance to ask out Gabriela perhaps not expecting such a forward, aggressive, promiscuous date.

My favorite character is definitely Gabriela, if just because I think she's sexy, comfortable in her skin, willing to make a move if Horacio is just too awkward, shy, and ill-at-ease. Gabriela goes out of her way to get Horacio to try something. She just gives him a handjob after putting out a cigarette. She's just so chill and cool. When the killer buries the knife in her chest, I thought to myself, "What a waste."

Goni is the teenager who can't take his eyes off the pretty "Brooke Shields", working some charm, and even getting a kiss out of it. Too bad the killer impales them with a bar snapped from a hook that locks a gate down on the theater. It is a lengthy scene where the makeup effect lingers as the killer takes his time to press the bar through both heads. It is one of those effects where you see the kissing couple looking into each other's eyes as the bar goes through their mouths and out of their necks.

The kid, Tomas, eventually can't hide in his seat any longer. Those involved in the creative of the film aren't willing to kill a kid, though, so Tomas just has to keep running and staying ahead of the psycho. Eventually Ana discovers the dead bodies of the theater patrons, joining forces with Angela (of the three teenagers, Esteban tripping down stairs as his back is left for the killer to mutilate) to keep the killer at bay (good use of a fire extinguisher, kicks and knees also helping). 

The color scheme on the inside of the theater (there is even a poster of Opera hanging on a wall in the foyer) and its design is right out of the Italian giallo. And the ultra-violence is clearly inspired from the 70s and slashers of the 80s. Nothing in the film is out of the ordinary, unpredictable, or staggering content-wise. But I'm a sucker for a psycho-thriller in a theater with style to burn and blood to shed. Ana is perfectly adequate as the heroine...she's flung into the heroine role through no fault of her own but in order to survive must take it upon herself to outmaneuver the crazed killer. The poor kid is shellshocked and traumatized by the end. Lots of stabs and impalement, with the final act hanging on screen for quite a bit. And some of the kills are slow motion, with one highlight being Mauricio, his throat slit while smoking a cigarette...the smoke seethes from the wound while the killer slowly slices the gullet. 3/5