Most Likely to Die (2016)
Drew Tinnin
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Starring Heather Morris, Ryan Doom, Perez Hilton, Chad Addison, Tess Christiansen
Directed by Anthony DiBlasi
After gaining attention for adapting Clive Barker’s Dread as well as the Netflix Instant sleeper hit Last Shift, Anthony DiBlasi is back with the Eighties-style slasher Most Likely to Die. Taking some obvious cues from Wes Craven’s Scream (which might make you wonder why none of that franchise’s sequels ever featured a killer returning to Woodsboro for a high school reunion), Most Likely to Die also pays homage to films like Graduation Day and House on Sorority Row.
There’s enough on display here to make a watch worthwhile, but with a short running time and an unfortunate lack of inventiveness, DiBlasi’s latest doesn’t completely follow through with its engaging premise. Most likely due to budget constraints, the film feels rushed and a little half-baked at times, causing Most Likely to Die to not quite live up to its potential.
The night before their 10-year high school reunion, a group of old friends try to reconnect, but as the night goes on, they slowly discover that someone is killing them off one by one based on what they were voted most likely to do in their senior yearbook. This is a great setup for a slasher movie and immediately generates some excitement around just how each classmate’s moniker will translate into an ironic, untimely death scene. Witnessing the killer create a mask resembling a scratched out, defaced senior picture during the opening credits also establishes a promising new character that’s eventually seen chasing victims wearing a royal blue cap and gown.
What’s somewhat disappointing is the fact that some of the characters’ monikers just reflect their personality traits or they become clues foreshadowing the ending rather than the over-the-top death sequences we would all rather see. As examples, the main character, Gaby (Morris), is a professional poker player who was voted “Most Likely to Play the Hand She’s Dealt,” and Freddie (Hilton) is an ex-alcoholic whose claim to fame is his party persona that’s “Most Likely to Spike the Punch.”
Other high school predictions are also used to reveal how the story is going to end or how characters will regress back to their adolescent ways, which, although clever, subtracts from the number of murders and robs slasher fans of creative kills that would make the killer more memorable.
If we’re on the sidelines watching the big game, we’re not really sure whom to root for by the end of Most Likely To Die: the killer or the victims. That’s a problem that a lot of slasher films have had since the Eighties, specifically the stories that have come out in the post-Voorhees era. Sidney Prescott is the clear hero of the Scream franchise, and we’re on her side just as much as we want to see Jigsaw win out and outsmart everyone in gruesome style in the Saw series. Because of a lower budget and what I’m guessing was a fast and loose production schedule, Most Likely to Die was already an underdog; but it’s also stuck deciding whether to side with the film’s lead or set up a sequel to usher in its new B-movie slasher icon, The Graduate. I actually would like to see a sequel that delivers on such a great premise, but as it stands, Most Likely to Die is a fun send-up of the slasher genre that, although entertaining, fails to reach the top of the class.
Most Likely to Die is in select theaters and on digital HD/On-Demand today, May 13th. Give it a watch and decide for yourself!
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Film
Categorized:Reviews
