Will anybody make it out of this movie alive?
With a title like ‘You’re All Gonna Die,’ you know going into this movie that its main protagonists are unlikely to get through to the end credits unscathed.
This is a bleak, brutal horror flick that has much in common with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Wolf Creek, with its dark plot about a group of young people who drive out into the middle of nowhere where a blood-crazed maniac lies in wait.
At the start of the movie, we see a woman named Ana, stained with blood and standing on the edge of a lake. At this point, we don’t know who she is or why she is in such a bloody mess. But when the movie rewinds backwards to a few days earlier, we discover Ana is part of a group of social justice warriors who want to prove the innocence of a man they think has wrongly been convicted of a series of highway killings.
After expressing their theories on a TV talk show, the group drive out to the spot where one of the killer’s victims was found. Ana and her friends separate as they investigate the area, which is obviously a bad move on their part, as it’s not long before they discover their theory about the highway killer was right – he is still at large! In typical horror movie fashion, they get bumped off one by one, as the blood-crazed maniac violently makes his presence known.
You’re All Gonna Die is a low-budget movie but the director, Dominic Ross, is still able to pull off some effectively bloody murder scenes as the movie plays out. Knives, hammers, and the front end of a pickup truck are just some of the weapons the killer uses to wipe out his victims. One particularly gory kill sees one unlucky guy get part of his head ripped off, with special effects that are genuinely quite impressive.
Fans of bloody horror will enjoy the movie’s gruesome scenes, as morbid as they are. But those expecting a coherent story might be disappointed. Some of the plot points are a little illogical and there is a twist at the conclusion that is a tad ridiculous. The movie is still watchable, despite its moments of incredulity, but your patience might wear thin with how silly the story sometimes is.
The movie is primarily populated by a cast of unknowns who don’t have a lot of high-profile credits to their names. The performances they give aren’t bad but there are times when their lack of experience shows.
Those cast members who are more recognizable – Richard Tyson (Black Hawk Down), Lori Petty (Tank Girl), an uncredited Martin Donovan (Tenet) – don’t do their best work in this film either, as their performances can best be described as over the top. The fault might lie with the actors but with tighter direction from Ross and a few more takes to iron out performance problems, it’s possible all the movie’s actors would have been seen in a better light.
Despite these issues, You’re All Gonna Die isn’t a bad film. Some of the death scenes are creatively staged and there are good points to be made about the flaws in the justice system. So, while it suffers from a few plot contrivances and a lack of originality, it’s still worth a watch, provided you temper your expectations before paying for the rental.
Read More: You’re All Gonna Die – Ending Explained
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Verdict - 5.5/10
5.5/10