‘Departing Seniors’ Review: A Queer Teen Slasher Full Of Heart
Mary Beth McAndrews
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If there’s one thing you can expect from your typical slasher film, it’s an all-white (or mostly white) cast of straight characters. It’s a tried and true formula that, yes, has given us some of the genre’s most iconic heroines. But in 2024, it gets a bit tiresome, to say the least. Thankfully, we seem to be entering a new era of slasher, one that pushes back against the seemingly rigid borders of subgenre. One such film is director Clare Cooney’s feature film debut Departing Seniors. Written by Jose Nateras, this film subverts typical slasher expectations by delivering an incredibly queer, POC-led story that blends horror with comedy to create a mostly successful twist on a beloved subgenre.
Departing Seniors follows Javi (Ignacio Diaz-Silvero) during his final weeks of high school. He and his best friend Bianca (Ireon Roach) are just trying to survive until graduation, dodging homophobic football players and jealous white girls who will do anything to be valedictorian. Even in the face of constant mockery, Javi refuses to hide who he is. He’s out and proud and refuses to let anyone have the satisfaction of getting under his skin. On top of the bullying, there’s a series of mysterious suicides where all of the deceased have a connection to Javi in some way. But Javi doesn’t believe these students have died by suicide. He suspects something much more sinister is afoot.
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As Javi tries to make sense of the deaths, he’s pushed down the stairs by a bully, hits his head, and gains psychic powers. Essentially, he can see the future of whoever last touched an object. He decides to use this power to find out who is behind the apparent suicides and stop them before they can claim any more lives. What proceeds is a mix of horror tropes that come together to create a silly, scary, and heartfelt slasher about staying true to yourself and the destructive power of self-hatred.
At times, Nateras and Cooney feel like they’re taking on too much with a story so full of different subgenres. With a runtime on the shorter side, it feels like many of the relationships are a bit rushed in order to balance the more fantastical elements of the plot. Yet, you can’t help but admire the ambition of making a new kind of slasher that fits the modern age. The cast is diverse and queer, which speaks to the reality that schools are not safe spaces for marginalized communities. Within crafting that reality, Nateras doesn’t lean on typical depictions of bullying, but instead looks at a more sinister form of harassment, one that happens more quietly and more often. It’s whispered slurs and rude nicknames, casual comments and subtle homophobia that can chip away at any teenager’s psyche.
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Yet, Javi refuses to let anyone destroy his sense of self-worth. Here, Nateras and Cooney deliver an openly gay and proud teen who embraces his identity despite the way others treat him. Diaz-Silvero plays Javi with both a vulnerability and an abrasiveness that crafts just the kind of queer characters we need to see in horror: complicated characters that aren’t afraid to fight back.
Diaz-Silvero has incredible chemistry with Roach, making them feel like actual best friends rather than two actors having to pretend to be best friends. Their banter feels authentic, and while their abrasive wit feels like it belongs in a more heightened reality, the way they’re able to play off each other makes Departing Seniors all the more affecting. And thankfully, Roach is more than just the Black best friend who appears for just a few minutes and is then dispatched quickly. Again, Nateras works against genre expectations to create a bittersweet story about trying to survive in a world that seems to hate you.
2024 is going to be the year that slashers really make a change, and films like Departing Seniors are early indicators of such a shift. While the two most recent (and perhaps final) entries in the Scream franchise tried to set the stage for a new slasher, Departing Seniors is a film that actually delivers on such a promise. While the story is a bit over-stuffed, this new queer slasher is a shining new addition to the canon, one that loves the genre while also knowing what it needs to feel fresh.
Summary
While the story is a bit over-stuffed, ‘Departing Seniors’ is a shining new addition to the slasher canon, one that loves the genre while also knowing what it needs to feel fresh.
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