ST. LOUIS — The last place on Earth that a germophobic journalist would want to be is a rave where the inhabitants have swallowed a contaminated energy drink, causing them to become a jacked-up monster/zombie hybrid. Imagine just wanting to dance and then finding out your partner on the floor is a freakish-looking Zach Efron. While the former teen idol doesn't show up here, everything else under the monster mash genre is indeed thrown at the wall here.
"Ravers" shouldn't be confused for high-end cinema, but it's a fun way to kill 90 minutes in a time where the pandemic wipes out daily boatloads of good times. Natasha Henstridge is the name that perked my interest initially with this film, but she isn't the main event here. The "Species" star only has a couple scenes. The talent that blossoms here is Georgia Hirst's Becky. You may know her face from "Vikings," the popular television show, but this is a role that brings her best attributes to life.
Hirst has the look of a Queen, but she's also able to switch from dark comedy to fighting savior and back to semi-scared writer who hates germs all in a matter of minutes. Her work helps pick up a bizarrely goofy flick with old school sinister intentions. This is the film you turn on because you have a need for a horror comedy that doesn't try to be too serious.
Credit "Ravers" with its delightfully cheesy ambitions right out of the gate, where heads are lobbed off and techno music takes the beat. So when the young party hounds, the germophobic journalist, and a few of her friends all collide in this hyperactive rave, the main idea being dispensed is fun and not a straight-up heavy nightmare? I liked the easy-going desire to not just lean into the genre's well-known pratfalls, but fall into that direction for 15 minutes at a time. Everything served here is extra gory, extra goofy, and completely funny in the properly messy way.
You should get a kick out of Danny Kirrane's Ozzy, someone named after the rock legend who happens to possess some potentially life-saving chemist skills. The whole cast, including Henstridge, are in on the joke here. The tongue-in-cheek tone keeps it all light and breezy. Lay a little more butter over the corn and throw the legs up at the theater, such as The Galleria 6 Cinemas this weekend.
"Ravers" is trashy fun, and I'd like to think that was the original intention. There are plenty of serious films and documentaries out there; let's try something different.
Thanks for the geeky screenplay, Luke Foster. Moviegoers could be like Becky this weekend, venturing off into a room with a big screen inside, masked up and ready to be entertained. But they will also get an unexpected but well-done romantic subplot that gives the end a little extra kick.
"Ravers" is entertainment of the B-movie variety, a symbol the cast and crew, all the way down to the special effects team, take pleasure in. I don't think anyone was asking for a film like this, but it's one where their money will be well-spent.
