Watch before you read!
Written and directed by Colin James, Birthday Bash is a wild party of comedy, horror and 80s flair. But it seems someone doesn’t know it’s rude to turn up uninvited.
Natalie (Carla Duval) and her younger cousin, Kristin (Mallory Roach), are on their way to a birthday party. With their current social status of ‘geeks’, the pair hope to establish themselves somewhere higher up on the high school hierarchy of popularity. From the beginning, viewers are immersed in the same comfortable nostalgia achieved by Stranger Things. Even the abrasive ‘popular’ characters provide a somewhat comfortable familiarity. By generating this tone and lulling the audience into a false sense of security, James creates the perfect opportunity to subvert expectations, which he executes with conviction (no pun intended).
At first it feels like the primary antagonist is Jennifer a caricature of the queen bee who swans about, regarding all others with an air of distain. However, an intriguing power play is imminent between the queen bee and her long suffering sidekick, Courtney, who has her own plans of domination. The acidic retorts and ruthless slam downs are both comedic and shocking. As Jennifer, Shay Guthrie perfectly captures the slightly unhinged, power-hungry character. In a subtle but important contrast, Maya Tripathy as Courtney shows a more calculating kind of crazy. Kristin and Natalie are also well developed characters as each of the four female leads has their own individual personality, adding something different to the story. Duval and Roach are brilliant together, creating a relationship that extends beyond the frame of the narrative as we imagine them trying to fit in together.
The tension building is good and it feels like the story builds towards the climax at a good pace. The horror aspects of the film are carried well and enhanced by the excellent use of blue tones. Colin James doesn’t overly rely on jump scares but instead uses the eerie juxtaposition of horror and celebration to generate unease which is chillingly effective.
Birthday Bash is a strongly directed film with an excellent cast of characters that’ll leave you with nostalgia and nightmares!